108 
HOUSING AND FEEDING OF CATTLE. 
time the cattle are supposed to be ready for market. To each 
two, at suppering time or eight o’clock, I give half a stone of 
good rye-grass and clover hay, adding one lb. more to each 
of the two baits of oil-cake — of course, taking care that the 
turnip roots, which are generally supplied whole or uncut, are 
all stored and given to the cattle free, from frost and exposure 
to rain. As to the varieties of turnips best suited to the 
different stages of feeding, I give for the first three months 
the yellow, and the last three Swedish. Cleanliness is of the 
greatest consequence, and I am most particular in causing 
the feeder to have the byres well swept out every time the 
dung is removed — the troughs especially I have cleaned out 
twice a day. In six months the cattle with such treatment 
should be plump, fat, and of excellent quality, ready for the 
market. If a second lot of cattle is put up, similar treatment 
should be observed as explained when the cattle were housed 
in October. Continue the roots as long as they last. Winter 
tares or grasses should then be ready to supply their place. 
With the same attention bestowed on the different lots of 
byres, yards, and loose-boxes, and with regular feeding at the 
same hour, upon the same food during the six months, and 
supposing the stock of the same class and equal value when 
first housed, as well as equally good growers, my experience 
has shown that universally the byre cattle brought the highest 
price when sold. I have had many opportunities of testing 
to my own satisfaction, with such byres and straw-yards as 
I have described, the merits of these two methods of feeding. 
I am, however, not so much acquainted with the loose-box 
system, for although I have had them recently erected, I have 
not yet had sufficient experience to test their merits with the 
other two systems. When the winter months were compara- 
tively mild and warm, like our last season for example, I have 
found that yard-cattle come pretty close to the byre ones in 
value when sold, but certainly not equal. 
“ I may here mention, as a corroboration of my views on 
this subject, that my friend Mr. William Young, jun., of 
Grange Distillery, told me the other day that he was taking- 
down most complete cattle straw-yards, constructed to hold 
four large cattle each, and converting them into byres. These 
yards had a southern exposure, well sheltered, and in every 
way protected from stormy weather ; but Mr. Young said he 
was perfectly satisfied that straw-yard cattle were, with equal 
attention, at least two months behind those of the byre in 
being as fat. 
“ 1 am in favour of having about the same extent of housing 
in byres as in straw-yards and loose-boxes on a farm ; because 
