the Royal Agricultural Society. 
49 
for as much money as if they were prime fat ; but his usual 
course was to let the calves run with their dams all the summer. 
When taken up in October they were so fat and their points so well 
developed that they looked like prize beasts in miniature ; and 
by keeping- them well through the winter and spring they were 
eagerly bought by the butchers in June, when the winter-fed 
cattle had been nearly all slaughtered and the grass-fed had not 
yet come in. The heifers were disposed of as follows : a few 
that promised to be first-rate milkers were taken into the dairy ; 
the greater part were sold for winter-feeding, and from their age 
and growth were worth about 21. more than when bought in a 
year and a half before. The value of two summers' grass for 
a young heifer on pasture of this quality was rated at 41. ; lin- 
seed-cake for twenty weeks, at Is. Qd. = 11. 10s ; so that the 
heifer when sold had cost about 5/. 10s., from which, if her in- 
creased value be deducted, 3/. 10s. would be left as the -cost of 
the calf. These calves received as much cake as they would eat, 
which did not exceed 1 lb. per day at first, and 3 lbs. at the 
latter end of the time, averaging 2 lbs. per day, at a cost of Is. Qd. 
per week, or for the thirty-four weeks 21. lis. per head. Taking 
an average consumption of 2 stone of roots per day, for thirty- 
four weeks, each calf would consume 3 tons of roots, which, at 7s. 
per ton = 11. Is. These items, added to the keep of the heifer, 
made a total cost of 71. 2s. each. The straw and attendance were 
considered to be well paid for by the manure. 
The price at which these yearlings sold varied of course with 
the markets : but in consequence of their first-rate quality, and 
their light weights, which exactly suited the butchers during the 
hot weather, they were always worth Is. per stone more than the 
average price of fat beef; and they generally fetched 1/. per 
month of their age, varying from 12/. to 16/. per head : one 
year the whole lot averaged 16/. each, their age being fourteen 
months. In, all cases they left a handsome profit. The peculiar 
advantages of this system were thus described by the tenant. He 
said that when he took his half-fat cattle to market, he had to run 
alter his customers ; now they ran after him. Besides, it suited 
him better to feed cattle that ate 2 lbs. of cake per day than 
those that ate six : he always fancied that the big beasts ate not 
only their share of the cake, but his too. As to the meadow-land, the 
present occupier made a point of mowing as small a number of 
acres as possible ; but in order to keep the acreage down, he said 
it was necessary to keep the condition up ; and as the field of 
clover which had formerly been mown for winter fodder for the 
horses was now given up to the sheep, it was necessary either to 
mow more of the grass, or to put up with a smaller stack of hay, 
unless the land could be made to produce more per acre. This 
VOI,. XXV. K 
