46 
Irish Agriculture. 
periods of fulness and scarcity, until they are transferred to a 
higher class of pastures, where they are fattened, or to the feeding 
stalls of English and Scotch faimers. 
It has been alleged that this is a cheap mode of rearing cattle. 
As to the actual expense, the following estimate will show how 
much it costs to bring a three-year-old bullock to Ballinasloe fair 
on the 1st of October ; and I may state that the estimate has been 
submitted to several persons interested in the question, who agree 
as to its correctness : — 
£. s. d. 
Value of calf" on 1st Xovember o 0 0 
Keep till next ]\ray 100 
Summer keep till 1st of November 1 10 0 
Second winter's keep 1 10 0 
Second summer's keep 2 10 0 
Third winter's keep 2 0 0 
Keep from 1st of May to 1st of October .. ..300 
£16 10 0 
This is altogether irrespective of interest on capital, expense 
of marketing, &c. A comparison of the cost of rearing a three- 
year-old store bullock, with the average prices of such cattle at 
Ballinasloe fair, given in Table VIII., p. 25, will show that the 
ordinarv mode of rearing cattle in the grazing districts of Ireland 
through the medium of unassisted nature is by no means a cheap 
or very profitable system. 
Another test of the " cheapness " or profitableness of a system 
of management based upon unassisted nature may be obtained 
from the following calculation : By the last Agricultural 
Returns we learn that there are in Ireland 842,183 calves or 
yearlings ; 745,803 two-year-old cattle ; and 2,385,056 three- 
year-olds and upwards. Assume that one-third of the number 
in each class are not allowed to retrograde in condition, and that 
each head of the remaining two-thirds lose flesh during the 
winter and spring months in the Ibllowing proportions : year- 
lings, 2 stones of 14 lbs. : two-year-olds, 4 stones ; three-year-olds 
and upwards, fi stones : then we find a total loss of flesh 
amounting to 12,G52,()7{) stones, or 1,581,509^ cwts., which, at 
60s. per cwt., represents a money yalue of 4,744,528/. : say nearly 
five millions sterling lost annually owing to the flesh being 
literally wasted off the bones of the animals. This loss of flesh 
is ef|uivalent to an allowance of nearly 2\ stones of meat to each 
man, woman, and child in Ireland. 
But there are other considerations which affect the question of 
production. It is admitted that a breed of cattle has been widely 
disseminated throughout Ireland, one prominent characteristic of 
which is aj)titude to fatten, or, as it is usually designated, early 
ma'.untv . Hut this characteristic, although inherent in the breed, 
