64 The Early Fattening of Cattle and Sheep. 
highest percentage of carcass to gross live weight was obtained 
by Messrs. Uttings' third prize Shorthorn ox not exceeding 
four years old. It reached 76 52. A careful study of the Tables 
on the opposite page will prove exceedingly instructive and will 
enable the reader to compare the average daily gain of live 
weight in sheep and cattle of various ages. 
I have given these Tables as a comparison of ages, not of 
breeds, and in order to make them more complete, it is ne- 
cessary to add particulars of breeds not included therein. Mr. 
A. P. Turner's Hereford steer, 578 days old, weighed 1,8151b. 
live weight, and gained daily from birth 2*27 lb. ; the Earl of 
Northbrook's Shorthorn steer, 591 days old, weighed 1,5181b., 
and had gained daily 2 - 57 lb. live weight. The Earl of 
Winter ton's Sussex steer, 517 days old, weighed 1,2901b., and 
had gained 2-49 lb. daily. Mr. li. J. Turner's crossbred steer, 
615 days old, weighed 1,5581b., and had gained 2*53 lb. 
daily. The prize-winners are not always at the top in daily 
gain. Nor have either sheep or cattle, in all cases, maintained 
the gain of former years. The Hampshires, for example, won 
world-wide renown by beating, during several years, the larger 
long-woolled sheep in daily gain ; but that was undoubtedly 
owing to the clever training of a former exhibitor. Last year 
the long-woolled lambs shot ahead of the Hampshires, and even 
beat the crossbreds. Mr. J. B. Green's Leicester lambs, 243 
days old, weighed 1701b., giving a daily gain of *70 lb. ; Mr. 
H. J. Elwes' Cotswolds, 273 days old, weighed 205 lb., a daily 
gain of -771b.; Mr. G. T. Melbourn's Lincolns, 257 days old, 
weighed 171 lb., a daily gain of "68 lb. ; Mr. H. Page's Kentish 
lambs had gained "70 lb. daily during their 257 days; Mr. H. 
Penfold's Southdowns, at 273 days old, had gained "60 lb. ; and 
Mr. Chappell's Oxfordshire lambs, at 294 days old, had gained 
•67 lb. per day. 
Mr. G. T. Turner remarks of the champion ox under four years 
old, that the lean meat could not have increased since last year, 
and he adds that the lesson taught by the " block test " is that 
the over-aged and over-fed animals are wasteful as compared 
with the younger ones, and that three years should be the out- 
side age for steers at our fat-stock shows. When Sir Brandreth 
Gibbs wrote the history of the Smithlield Club, he remarked 
that one of the primary objects for which (he society was esta- 
blished was to determine what breeds of animals and methods 
of feeding yielded most food for man from given quantities of 
cattle food. We are not always logical in our methods. The 
system of feeding for the fat-stock shows has yielded tallow 
mostly, and not food for man, the organisers of the shows 
