G14 Typical Farms in Cheshire and North Wales. 
— while 138 fat two-year-old off-bullocks and heifers, from 8 to 10 scores per 
quarter, were disposed of at Mr. Roberts’s annual fat stock sale, w r kick took 
place a day or two before the inspection, and several of tlie lots were uncleared 
when the farm was visited — 
247 stock ewes. 
69 yearling ewes. 
126 yearling wethers. 
243 lambs. 
1 sow and 6 pigs. 
A large assortment of poultry, in- 
cluding turkeys, ducks, &c. 
The horses are clean-legged and useful, and 3 mares had good foals, two 
by Wellington Boy, and one by Magog, the Duke of Westminster’s Shire 
stallion. The two-year-olds were good-looking, with nice hair, as also were 
the yearlings. Eight cows are kept for butter-making purposes. A few 
cows purchased prove in-calf, and their offspring after being left on their 
mothers 8 or 9 weeks are reared by hand and well done. Other calves are 
bought which they assist to rear, two calves being frequently allotted to one 
cow. Most of the cattle fed are purchased either as yearlings off or as 
calves. Some are well-bred Irish Shorthorns obtained at Bristol, and the 
remainder are picked up as opportunity offers. The calves when weaned at 
8 or 9 weeks old are given 2 or 3 lb. of linseed-cake and meal, with hay and 
a few swedes. They are then fed on clover and grass, and still caked. 
They are wintered in yards with an augmented supply of cake and corn, 
some roots and hay, and then go to grass the following spring, and are tied 
up in October, commencing with G lb. of cake and meal with roots, and 
finishing with 10 lb. per beast. The yearlings-off, mostly steers and maiden 
heifers, if purchased before the grass is ready, are fed with hay, a few roots, 
and some cake. When first turned out in spring they still receive a little 
hay, with some cake and corn, and, when brought up to feed in October, are 
pushed on by heavy allowances of home-grown roots, Indian corn, cotton- 
and linseed-cake, and home-grown bean and oatmeal, in the stalls and 
yards, through the following winter, and sold fat at the annual sale the first 
week in June, at weights from 8 to 10 scores per quarter. The normal 
number of cattle on the holding is some 210 head. These are partly reared 
from calves, but the far greater proportion are bought at some 15 to 18 
months old in April and May, and in the autumn for winter feeding. The 
large majority, being young steers and prime maiden heifers, make the 
highest market price. They do not suffer to the same extent from 
the competition of the foreign meat trade as in the case of older-fed beasts. 
The breeding ewes were formerly Hampshire Downs, but they have been 
crossed for some years with Shropshires, and have acquired in a great 
degree the Shropshire characteristics. They are put to ram at the end of 
September, and lamb down in February and March, run out the winter on 
grass, receiving chopped hay and bran, and some few roots, and, after lambing, 
they get hay, and the ewes with double lambs a little mixed linseed-cake 
and oats until May, when the grass is abundant. The ram lamb3 are all 
castrated early, and the best are sold fat as they are ready from the beginning 
of March up to June 1. The remainder run on the grass through the 
summer and succeeding winter, being fed on roots, cake, and corn. Some 
are disposed of to the butcher the following February or March in the wool, 
and the rest off’ the grass after being shorn, with the exception of about 70, 
which are drawn into the flock annually, replacing a corresponding number 
of old ewes fed off. 
The returns from the sale of fat stock are very considerable. For the 
year 1892 they amounted to, for cattle, 3,302 1. 0s., for sheep GG8 1. 11s. — a 
total of 3,971/. The particulars for this year had not been ascertained. 
The outlay in foods purchased is large, usually between G00/. and 700/. 
