The Early Fattening of Cattle and Sheep. 
67 
worked out in their own way. Our fat-stock shows have given 
them no assistance. Their weigh-bridges give us the live 
weight, and we can calculate the carcass weight by assuming 
the percentage of the latter to the former. I prefer, however, 
the " block test," and we learn from the Tables at p. 65 that 
a steer under two years old will gain from birth about 2 lb. daily. 
If Go per cent, of this be carcass, his net gain is about 9 T Vr lb. per 
week. Steers under three years gain from birth a trifle over 
1-8 lb. daily ; and if 65 - 6 per cent, of this be carcass, the net gain 
is about 8jlb. per week. Steers under four years old gain from 
birth a trifle under TG lb. daily ; and if 69 - 6 per cent, of this be 
carcass, their net gain is about 7'7 lb. per week. We may ascer- 
tain further from the statistics that small breeds like Devons 
may almost equal the larger ones in their increase up to the age 
of about two years ; and we may further conclude that ordi- 
nary bullocks — the cattle of commerce, so to speak — would fall 
behind at three to four years old faster than a big show bullock, 
which is selected in some measure for his size and capacity of 
growth. All this affords " food for reflection," but we are still 
left in the dark, in spite of the shows, in regard to the quality 
of the increase at the respective ages and the cost of producing 
it. In the present crude state of affairs, we must go to the 
slaughter-houses and butchers' shops for information as to the 
quality of the meat, and we must go to America to learn its cost. 
On this latter point we may take a lesson from the Chicago exhi- 
bitions, which have certainly done more than our own to educate 
the breeders and feeders of stock. After examining the informa- 
tion given under the head of " Cost of Production," an American 
professor stated, in the Albany Cultivator, that the carcass increase 
of steers between two and three years old is obtained at a cost 
of 50 per cent, more than that in the carcasses of animals under 
two years old. The National Live Stock Journal, of Chicago, 
published some figures after one of the shows to illustrate the 
extra cost as animals grow older. Nine fatting bullocks weighed 
at the end of their first year 906 lb. average, the cost having been 
lfd per pound ; in the second year five of them gained an 
average of 566 lb. each, at a cost of 4cZ. per pound ; and in the 
third year two gained 650 lb. each, at a cost of G^d. per pound. 
The object of all fat-stock shows must be, in the words of the 
founders of the Smithfield Club, to encourage the supply of the 
" cheapest and best meat." There can be no doubt that the 
cheapest meat is the youngest ; and in regard to the best, that 
is a matter for consumers to decide. 
It is quite in accoi'dance with practice, as well as science, 
that the quality of " young meat " should vary with the feeding. 
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