72 
Irish Agriculture. 
artificial food to the beasts intended to come into market as early 
g:rass beef, their fattening would be hastened ; and the same may 
be said of cattle which are late in being finished for market. 
In order to show that such feeding is profitable in the case of 
out-lying cattle, 1 give the following statement, as supplied by Mr. 
Cannon, Moy glare, County Meath, of the cost of feeding a lot of 
heifers by him in that way. The cost is given as for one heifer : — 
lbs. 
Middle of July to Middle of Oct., 90 days, 3 lbs. cake per day 270 
Middle of Oct. to middle of Nov., 2 lbs. per day 60 
Middle of Nov. to middle of Dec, 3 lbs. per day 90 
420 
lbs. 
Middle of Oct. to middle of Nov., 2 lbs. of oats per day .. .. GO 
Middle of Nov. to middle of Dec, 3 lbs. of oats per day . . . . 90 
150 
£ «. d. 
420 lbs. of oil-cake=3 cwt. 3 qrs., at 10s. M. per cwt. 1 19 4J 
150 lbs. of oats, at Qd. per stone 072 
Or 5 months at 9s 2 6 6^ 
Value of heifer, 17th July 21 0 0 
Cost of artificial food 2 66 
£23 6 6 
The heifers so treated were sold at Liverpool on the 19th of 
December, in the year in which they were fed, for 38/. to 40/. 
each, so that even if 11. is charged for the grass, the balance in 
favour of artificial feeding is very satisfactory, deducting, of 
course, cost of freight and market expenses.* 
I have mentioned the propriety of attending to the watering- 
places where the cattle drink, as being an improvement which 
is usually much required. The fields are sometimes not well 
watered, and when the watering-place is a pond, and^ not a 
running stream, the cattle soon render the water offensively foul. 
It is scarcely necessary to say that water of that kind is apt to 
engender disease of a fatal kind, splenic apoplexy among other 
maladies ;t consequently, common prudence dictates carefulness 
in so important a matter as this. Where the water is got in a 
pond it is almost impossible to keep it clean, and in a case of 
that kind 1 am inclined to think that it would be better to put a 
fence round the pond, and sink one or two Abyssinian pumps in 
• ' Irish Farmer's Gazette,' December 17 and 31, 1864. 
fitc ' Journal of tlic Royal Agricultiwal Society,' vol. vii. part 2, p. 143. 
