74 
On Fatteniny Cattle. 
The best mode of mixing the acid and bones is that suggested 
by a gentleman livmg at Caistor in Lincolnshire, who recommends 
that a conical heap of dry mould or ashes should be formed with 
a hollow space at the top, in which the bones are placed, and the 
acid afterwards poured upon them. After a short time the whole 
may be mixed together, and used as a compost to be drilled with 
the turnip-seed, which seems far better than the attempt to dis- 
tribute the solution with any liquid manure-cart. I have tried 
this method of mixing, and it answered perfectly. — Ph. Pusey. 
VI. — On Fattening Cattle. By George Dobito. 
Prize Essay. 
Presuming that the object of the Council of the Royal Agricul- 
tural Society of England, in offering prizes for Essays on various 
subjects, is that the farmers themselves may be induced to commit 
their practice and experience to paper, I trust that my humble 
attempt to describe what I have found to be the best method of 
fattening bullocks, if considered unworthy of a prize, may at least 
be criticised with lenity, as it is the bona fide production of a prac- 
tical farmer. 
The first point I wish to impress upon my readers is to have a 
good sort of bullock to begin upon; not that I wish to recommend 
one particular breed, to the depreciation of all others, for I am 
sufe that different localities require different descriptions of ani- 
mals; but to caution them that it is right to select the charac- 
teristic marks of the breed they intend purchasing — to warn them 
particularly never to buy a coarse, ill-made, bad-bred animal, 
because they may fancy it cheap. A man has never got so bad a 
bargain as when he has, as the saying is, " got too much for 
money." 
The first criterion for judging of the disposition of the beast to 
fatten quickly, in my opinion, is that peculiar soft, supple feel of 
the skin which is commonly called handling well ; this is gene- 
rally accompanied by hair of a soft, fine quality, in great plejity ; 
the eye should be full and clear, and the head well-formed, the 
shoulders not upright, but lying well back, the chest full, the 
ribs deep and well arched out, the flanks well down, the hips 
nearly level with the backbone, and in proportion to the rest of the 
carcase as to width, the rumps wide, and not too low down, ap- 
pearing as if when fat the tail and rumps' ends would be level (but 
this the butchers in my neighbourhood are in the habit of calling 
the fool's point), the purse should be of a full size, and soft to 
the touch (this I consider a material point), the twist good, and 
the legs short and small in proportion to the carcase, as the offal 
will be light in proportion to the log-bone. 
