Best Means of Increasing the Home-Production of Beef. 851 
estiug and profitable branch of his calling than that of building up 
a herd of milking-cows, let the breed be what it may. Through- 
out the dairy-districts of the Midlands we pin our faith to what 
is generally known as the home-bred, or Yorkshire Shorthorn, 
which for the general purpose of the locality cannot be excelled. 
Commencing with well -selected cows or heifers of unrecorded 
pedigree, on which is used a pedigree bull, it is surprising what 
improvement can be made in a few generations. The ordinary 
dairy-farmer, as a rule, has a horror of pedigree ; and yet, at the 
deplenishing farm sales, hair, colour, and quality invariably 
induce competition ; this spring I have known unpedigreed year- 
ling heifers make up to 161. each. A dairy-farmer should keep a 
separate milk record of every cow in his herd ; yet many neglect 
this important point on the plea of extra trouble. It is not 
trouble, but method, which results in profit, not only because it 
enables the owner to draft out inferior milkers, which leave only 
a small margin of profit beyond the cost of food, but because a 
good milk record enhances the market-value of the animal. 
In the altered conditions under which we are placed, the 
chief aim of the British farmer must be the production of milk and 
of meat. The extension of breeding is a work of time. We 
must first increase the number of our breeding-animals, and in 
order to do this a great number of calves must be raised. The 
difficulties of rearing are less than those of securing the most 
desirable class of young animals, and, before a sufficient supply 
of breeding-animals can be obtained to meet the pressing wants 
of an improved system, several years must necessarily elapse. 
Under the assumption that, with the exception of the best 
grazing-] ands, every farm becomes a breeding and feeding farm 
to the extent of its capabilities, then, when fairly stocked, a fixed 
proportion of its produce will pass to the butcher every year. 
The stock of an ordinary mixed occupation of 300 acres should 
have forty breeding-cows in milk or in calf, forty calves, forty 
yearlings, and forty two-year-olds fit for the butcher. It is idle 
to suppose that the whole of the calves, the produce of any one 
year, can, under the most skilful management, be brought to the 
block, though I purpose subsequently to show that the present 
rate of mortality may be considerably lowered. Any deficiency 
in numbers should be made up by purchases, in order to maintain 
a uniform output. 
By strictly carrying out this system, the stock-bearing capa- 
bilities of the farm are susceptible of considerable development. A 
practical illustration of this was afforded, during the autumn of 
1 888, in the award of Lord Burton's prizes, through the Stafford- 
fchire Agricultural Society, within a radius of twenty miles of 
