The Management of a Shorthorn Herd. 
401 
keeping tends to reduce greatly tlic risk I'roin this disease. 
Quarter-ill is little kn.own : in the course of his farming 
Mr. Caddy has only lost three from it. 
A drive of a few miles northward from Rougholm brings us 
to Hall Santon, where Messrs. Gaitskell farm their hereditary 
property, and keep upon it a herd of Shorthorns, the bulk of 
which is in the ordinary condition of dairy stock, plus the flesh 
that well-bred Shorthorns will grow while common-bred cattle 
would remain in a lean state. Occasionally an animal is 
exhibited, and prizes have been won at the national, the county, 
and the local shows ; young bulls are reared, hardily and 
healthily, and go among the farmers, to become the sires of 
useful milking and grazing stock, and some calves are made 
steers. The cows during summer have little if anything more 
than grass ; during winter, when they lie in old-fashioned, 
under-housed byres, with stalls divided by freestone flags, they 
have pulped turnips, cut " orts" (hay or straw), with Indian meal, 
crushed oats, oilcake, and cotton-cake, the decorticated being 
always used. The bulls are kept indoors, chained in separate 
boxes. In one bull-house there is, for the contingency of a bull 
becoming unruly, an arrangement for feeding him without 
going into the box — but this does not work well. It will be 
readily understood by those much among cattle and acquainted 
with their dispositions, that if a bull has any shyness or other 
infirmity of temper, the only chance of keeping him under 
control is to be frequently with him, exercising firmly, but 
kindly, a master's power. The " awkward " bull must be 
accustomed to have the man about him, or the scene will be a 
stormy one when the man eventually has occasion to approach 
him. The solitary cell system does not do in such a case. 
The cows are hand-milked and the calves pail-fed, except 
when some particular favourite is brought on for show, or is for 
any other purpose encouraged to do its best as regards outward 
appearance. The dam, in that case, is sometimes allowed to 
suckle her calf ; but the suckling system is avoided as much as 
possible, for the reason that the dam, especially if she is a 
heifer with her first calf, does not take the bull readily while 
rearing the calf. The milk given to the pail-fed calves is one, 
two, or three quarts of new in the day, according to age, as at 
Rougholm ; but the Hall Santon calves do not get milk so long 
as those at Rougholm, for their new milk, when they are a few 
weeks old, is mixed with skim-milk and a little linseed added, 
until about six months old, when the milk is stopped altogether. 
The young bulls are kept in wooden sheds, open to the weather at 
all sides and ends, except that sometimes in the depth of winter 
sacking is tacked on to the north side of the sheds, which are 
VOL. XVI. — s. s. 2d 
