156 
Early Fattening of Cattle, 
twice a day, and a good feeder, having taught the calves to suck, 
will feed twenty in a convenient building. The stomachs of 
calves are particularly delicate, and the food should be care- 
fully prepared. It must not be burnt or sour. The hay must be 
sweet. The calves must lie dry and warm, in a cool well-venti- 
lated shed in summer, and in lots of not more than half a score, 
so as to avoid the disease occasioned by their habit of lying in 
a heap and inhaling each other's breath. Moreover, if the 
animals are to attain the earliest possible maturity, they must 
remain at all times in their sheds, placid and undisturbed. 
They must not be turned out for exercise either in summer or 
in winter. The experiment was tried of keeping one lot in and 
turning another on the best grass during the most favourable 
period of the summer ; and there could be no doubt as to the 
result. Whenever the two lots of animals were compared 
together, those were found to be doing best which were shut up 
in a shed. And, at the end of the summer, they were worth 
about tSOs. each more than the out-door cattle ; the feeding having 
been the same, except the difference in the fodder. 
Mr. Joseph Rlundell, of Southampton, set an early example 
in the production of " baby beef" in South Hants in 1857, and 
read a Paper on the subject before the Royal Agricultural 
Society, Jun.e 18, 1^62. The following is his treatment : — 
" My calves are weaned at a few days old, fed with new milk at first, gradu- 
ally introducing with the skim-milk, linseed-cake, meal, and barley-meal, with 
a little sweet meadow hay for a time in the rack allowed them until they can 
safely take to green fodder, which they get in succession — first rye, second tri- 
folium, tliird clover, with a portion of old mangold, then early turnips. To com- 
mence the winter they get hybrid turnips, carrots, or swedes ; and lastly 
mangold, until the green fodder comes in again, being supplied with clean 
fresh oat or barley straw always in the rack whilst feeding either on green 
fodder or roots, the portion not eaten being removed for littering the boxes 
daily. As soon as they begin to take green fodder they are allowed a small 
portion, say 2 lbs. of cake-meal per day, mixed with the old mangolds, which 
are cut with Gardner's turnip-cutter. As soon as root-feeding commences they 
get 4 lbs. of cake per day, and continue to receive this quantity vmtil they are 
sold at 18 to 20 months old ; having, however, during the last three months 
1 lb. of bean or barley meal extra ; but at no time after they once take'to their 
green food are they allowed hay, as this would be found to absorb the profit and 
injure the health of the animals also, for since I adopted the metliod of straw- 
feeding 1 have never ha<l an animal hoven or unhealthj'. The quantity of 
roots given the first w inter is 5G lbs. per day ; the sicond autumn not more 
than 64 lbs. per day, the meal being always mixed with the cut-roots : in this 
way each kind of food is more beneficial to the animals, and when only fed 
twice a day they have plenty of time to lie down and digest their food, and will 
return to the troughs with a good appetite, and will eat a good portion of clean 
straw." 
Mr. Rlundell has frequently obtained prizes for young stock at 
the Easter Cattle Show of the Botley and South Hants Farmers' 
