ENGLISH METHOD OF FATTENING CATTLE. 
107 
heads of men known as fruit-porters, and by them 
Carried to the warehouse, where they are examin¬ 
ed and assorted, and then sent out in the same 
manner to the places of consumption. The same 
precautions are used in taking the oranges from 
the garden to the shore, from the shore to the 
lighter, and from the lighter to the vessel. 
The Boston fruit-dealers, when shipping cran¬ 
berries to New Orleans or Europe, assort them by 
letting them run over a platform slightly inclined. 
Only the perfect fruit runs over the whole length 
of the platform, the rotten and bruised fruit lodge 
going down, and are thrown away. The choice 
fruit is then put in tight barrels, and, when head¬ 
ed up, filled with water. The fruit will arrive at 
its destination in perfect order, and has frequently 
been sold in England and France at $20 per barrel. 
B. G. Boswell. 
Philadelphia, February , 1844. 
(a) This last is unquestionably the best method 
of shipping apples. The barrels should have a 
few holes bored in each head with an inch and a 
half-augur, and ought always to be shipped on 
deck. See Yol. II., page 193, In addition to sand 
and bran, we have heard of apples being shipped 
in charcoal, sawdust, cider, and a variety of other 
substances; but so far as our experience and in¬ 
formation extend, they never arrive in so good or¬ 
der as when packed entirely by themselves. 
ENGLISH METHOD OF FATTENING CATTLE. 
I have been greatly interested in reading your 
et Tour in England,” as contained in the first two 
volumes of the American Agriculturist. Did your 
remarks and general detail of English farming op¬ 
erations require confirmation, I, as a practical Eng¬ 
lish farmer, should be exceedingly willing to sub¬ 
scribe to their general correctness. But such, I 
feel, your readers can not deem necessary, inas¬ 
much as the clear and lucid style in which your 
interesting Tour is written, as also the absence of 
any of those tales, surpassing credit, with which 
modem travellers love to interlard their works, 
bears sufficiently evident upon itself the impress 
of reality. 
You cleverly remark in one portion of your 
Tour, that ‘‘you are not particularly ambitious of 
becoming the Trollope of English manners,” and 
I congratulate you most heartily in withstanding 
the temptation of passing severe, or even just 
strictures upon peculiarities, which a traveller 
will more or less find to belong to every people. 
However, such indulgence among travel-writers 
is of course a matter of taste, and allow me to add, 
I think yours to be good in refraining from such 
indulgence. 
In reading your Tour, it struck me that there 
was one subject which might with benefit to farm¬ 
ers in this country, be more fully enlarged upon. 
I allude to the English method of fattening cattle. 
I do not wish to be understood as believing that 
the entire system would be applicable to American 
grazing; but I do believe, after close observation, 
that some hints may be gathered from our method, 
which graziers in this country might turn to ac¬ 
count ; and before making any remarks upon the 
matter, I will give in as concise a form as possible, 
the plan I have pursued in England upon my own 
farm. 
My stock is of the Durham breed. It has been 
my object, when possible, to have my cows calve 
some time in January or February, and I would 
never rear any produce for fattening that fell later 
than the last of February; my reason is, that they 
would not be ready to make a start with the grass 
in May, and consequently be a year behind the 
earlier ones in coming to perfection. 
I wean my calves when a fortnight old, (I allude 
to those intended for grazing,) feeding them on 
milk, oats, bran, carrots, and, in fact, something 
of everything that the farm produces, and which 
they can be made to eat. At this period I con¬ 
sider the calves require the greatest care and most 
constant attention; and keeping them clean and 
warm are not the least important requisites. I 
give them a little food at a time, but feed them 
six or seven times a day. Almost the only ail¬ 
ment I have found my calves subject to at this 
age, is scouring; this, if not checked by times, 
will weaken the animal greatly, and not unlikely 
cause death. The remedy which I apply is at 
once simple and efficacious, viz., boiled rice with 
a small quantity of powdered ginger ; administer¬ 
ed, if the calves will not drink it, from a bottle. 
As soon as there is grass and the weather is warm, 
which is generally with us about the 1st of May, 
my calves are turned out in the morning and ta¬ 
ken up again at night—well littered, with wheat- 
straw, (barley-straw engenders lice,) and fed with 
a little corn, &c. # As the weather gets warmer, I 
allow them to remain out all night, always feeding 
them night and morning with oil-cake or oats. 
This treatment continues through the summer. 
In the October following, they are taken up and 
yarded for the winter ; running in an open yard, 
with a shed which they use at pleasure, behind 
the bullocks which are tied up and fattening. In 
this yard they have the odds and ends of vegeta¬ 
bles, which the bullocks will not eat, some rough 
hay, and 3 lbs. of oil-cake each per day ; or some¬ 
times, in its place, a bait of bean-meal. 
On or about the 1st of May in the following 
year, they are turned out to grass for the summer ; 
except in the hottest weather, when I have them 
driven into the yard during the heat of the day to 
protect them from the flies, and supplied with a 
few green tares or a little clover; but they seldom 
eat much of either during the excessive heat. 
In October they are again taken into the yard, 
but this time to be tied up to fatten, as we now 
call them bullocks, and that year’s calves take 
their places in the open yard. I commence feed¬ 
ing them with turneps, hay, and 3 lbs. of oil-cake 
each per day—generally Dutch cake, which is in¬ 
ferior to our English cake. When the turneps are 
all gone, I go on upon beet root, and increase the 
quantity of cake to two quarts per day. I next 
change the cake from Dutch to English; and I 
* Note. —When the terra “ corn” is used, I mean beans, 
peas, oats, or barley. 
