60 
The Early Fattening of Cattle and Sheep. 
but here are some golden rules by the very successful breeder 
and feeder whose system I am endeavouring to describe : 
" I liaTe always tried to make every man who looks after my stock, of 
■whatever character, an enthusiast in his work. When that is accomplished, 
your feeding will be satisfactory, and not till then. No feeding can answer 
if you have a stupid clown throwing in just as much food to one animal as 
to another, putting fresh victuals on stale ones, and frightening the animal 
every time he approaches it. I have had such men, and soon parted with 
them ; hut when you have inoculated your man with your own enthusiasm, 
you have got at the root of all good feeding. "Watchfulness of appetite, of 
likes and dislikes, humouring the dainty, changing the unappreciated food, 
and withholding food when the animal appears surfeited — these are methods 
that bring success. The man has got to love and understand his animal, and 
you then do far better to trust him as to feeding than to lay down a diet 
scale to be strictly adhered to." 
In one year 170 young bullocks, all reared at home, were 
fattened and sold at ages varying from fourteen to eighteen 
months. Their average net price, sold under the hammer at 
Guildford, was 17?. 15.?., and as the price of beef was 5s. 6cl. per 
stone, their average weight must have been 65 stone each. The 
weight of beef made per week, at the average age of sixteen 
months, and including the weight of the calf, must have been 
nearly 8 lb. dead weight, and after deducting 11. 15s., the cost 
of the calves, the bullocks must have each brought home 
4s. 7^d. per week. Better results can be shown by persons who 
have bred their own calves or bought them at lower rates, or 
sold their bullocks at better prices, as Mr. Ellis has done in some 
seasons. He says of the system : 
" One great advantage appears to be that whether the bullocks are 
twelve months old or sixteen months, they are always ' beef.' We can 
therefore suit ourselves as to when they go to market. If trade is bad, we 
slacken, and sometimes hold over for two months, and then, with markets 
better, out they go. The greater number go out between May and October ; 
then we generally wait till Christmas, and in January especially find a 
demand for a small ripe bullock. But as a rule they pay better in the 
summer months." 
On a farm of 300 acres with only 1 5 acres of permanent 
pasture in small paddocks, six deep-milking Shorthorn cows are 
kept, and are put to a pure-bred, heavy-fleshed bull. Each cow 
rears from two to three calves besides her own, and these are 
all sent to the butcher before they are eighteen months old, the 
home-bred bullocks beating the bought-in ones in weight and 
profit. Between March and May there are usually on the farm 
more than a score of recently-born calves, and the same number 
of last year's calves, a year old. The bullocks that would have 
been two years old have usually been converted into beef by 
Christmas. The calves are weaned tit birth, and fed during four 
weeks on new milk, taking about six quarts each daily ; skim- 
