86  The  Tost  of  Winter  Grazing  in  East  Norfolk. 
The  more  bullock  yards  I go  into  the  more  am  I impressed 
by  the  fact  that  graziers  generally  hold  their  beasts  too  long, 
and  the  same  lesson  is  taught  by  the  returns  made  to  me. 
Graziers  seem  usually  to  overlook  the  fact  that  every  day  a 
bullock  lives  he  is  consuming  a certain  amount  of  food  merely 
to  keep  himself  alive,  and  this  daily  ration  is,  except  for  the 
manure  left  behind,  entirely  "wasted  once  the  animal  is  fit  for 
the  butcher. 
After  sixteen  weeks’  keep  a stone  of  beef  will  cost  more, 
as  a general  rule,  to  lay  on  than  it  will  realize.  I had  not  a 
single  return  out  of  the  eighty  odd  that  were  sent  in  to  me 
where  some  profit  was  not  made,  provided  the  beasts  were  sold 
before  having  been  shut  up  for  seventeen  weeks,  irrespective 
of  the  price  they  cost  as  stores,  and  so  long  as  the  daily  rations 
did  not  exceed  Is.  0;^(i.  in  cost.  Again,  I have  no  return  where 
the  daily  cost  did  not  exceed  , and  the  bullock  was  kept 
not  more  than  twenty-nine  weeks,  which  does  not  show  some 
profit,  a profit  which,  as  I read  the  returns,  would  probably 
have  been  much  greater  than  it  was  had  the  beast  been  sold 
earlier.  It  is  certainly  true  that  butchers  prefer  a bullock  that 
shows  his  fat  externally  and  handles  well.  Their  preference 
is  easily  accounted  for,  because,  as  a general  rule,  the  better  a 
beast  handles  the  better  he  will  die,  which  is  another  way  of 
saying  the  more  internal  fat  he  will  carry.  The  consumers, 
the  general  public,  do  not  require  extra  fat  joints,  so  that  we 
would  emphasise  that  it  is  the  butcher  alone  who  gains  ; for 
much  internal  fat  is  not  credited  to  the  farmer  when  carcase 
weight  is  taken. 
“Time  and  Turnips.” 
An  ancient  local  adage  states  that  “ time  and  turnips,”  that 
is,  plenty  of  both,  are  required  for  the  production  of  prime 
beef,  and  it  is  said  to  be  impossible  by  rapid  artificial  feeding, 
or  without  a prolonged  diet  of  turnips,  to  secure  a bullock 
which  not  only  will  handle  and  die  well,  but  whose  flesh  will 
show  a succulent  marbling  of  fat  granules  surrounding  the 
meat  tissues  of  the  cut  up  joints.  This  theory,  however, 
when  tested  in  practice  by  my  investigations,  has  proved 
fallacious. 
Some  Comparisons. 
Let  us  compare  the  results  of  keeping  bullocks  for  the 
longest  and  the  shortest  times  mentioned  in  the  returns, 
namely,  thirty  weeks  and  twelve  weeks  i*espectively. 
One  lot  of  cattle  fed  for  the  longer  period  cost  121.  a head 
as  stores,  and  were  fed  as  follows  : 156  lb.  of  roots,  with  hay 
and  straw  chaff  only  for  the  first  fifteen  weeks,  then  4 lb. 
of  linseed  cake,  3 lb.  of  cotton  cake,  and  3 lb.  of  bean  meal 
