J'he  Cost  of  Winter  Grazing  in  East  JSorfolk.  83 
bullock.  To  show  how  little  energy  is  spent  in  this  root 
slicing,  a skilful  man  can  cut  up  a root  on  the  palm  of  his 
hand  without  hurting  his  skin. 
The  four  course  shift  being  the  usual  method  of  cultivation 
in  the  district,  about  one  quarter  of  each  farm  is  usually 
occupied  in  growing  roots,  and  as  the  land  is  generally  un- 
favourable for  sheep,  bullock  grazing  is  a staple  industry,  and 
up  to  a few  years  ago  was  looked  upon  as  highly  remunerative, 
especially  by  those  farmers  who  kept  no  regular  accounts  or 
made  no  yearly  valuation  of  their  business. 
With  a view  to  discovering  the  average  actual  profit  that 
was  made  from  bullock  grazing  locally,  during  the  season  of 
1906  I distributed  about  100  forms  of  some  fourteen  questions, 
asking  graziers  of  my  acquaintance  to  answer  them.  The  idea 
of  such  an  investigation  was  suggested  to  me  by  two  statements 
which  I had  heard  made  about  the  same  time. 
The  first  was' as  follows  : “The  best  season  I ever  had  was 
when  1 had  bullocks  put  in  by  a dealer  to  eat  my  roots.”  This 
was  said  by  a man  of  means  and  practical  experience,  who,  in 
order  to  save  himself  trouble  and  risk  had  recourse  to  the 
dealer.  Having  been  previously  imbued  with  the  prevalent 
idea  that  a farmer  who  thus  grazed  other  peoples’  cattle  was 
not  making  the  profit  he  might  otherwise  have  done,  I was 
naturally  somewhat  surprised  at  my  friend’s  statement.  Later 
on  I heard  a well  known  grazier  and  dealer  say  to  a third  party 
that  fifty  bullocks  which  he  had  put  in  for  a client  left  lOZ. 
apiece  after  fattening,  implying  that  this  500Z.  was  clear  profit. 
I then  set  myself  the  task  of  ascertaining,  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible, what  was  the  actual  average  profit  of  winter  grazing 
per  beast,  and  the  present  paper  contains  the  result  of  my 
inquiries. 
Method  of  Carrying  out  the  Investigation. 
In  order  that  my  investigation  should  give  results  as  repre- 
sentative as  possible,  I asked  for  information  from  both  small 
and  large  farmers,  and  sent  inquiry  forms  to  men  whose 
reputation  for  producing  good  beef  stood  low  as  well  as  to 
those  whose  name  stood  high  among  the  butchers. 
The  most  important  questions  asked  were  as  follows  : — 
How  many  bushels  of  roots  do  you  give  per  bullock  per  day  ? 
How  many  pounds  of  cake  or  meal  and  of  what  kind  ? 
How  many  pounds  of  hay,  chaff,  or  straw  chaff  ? 
What  was  your  acreage  of  roots  in  1906,  and  average  weight 
of  roots  grown  per  acre  ? 
What  number  of  beasts  did  you  graze  per  acre  ? 
How  long  on  an  average  did  each  of  your  bullocks  take  in 
fattening  ? 
