B50 ABSURD METHOD OF FEEDING CATTLE IN WINTER. 
In like manner we may naturally account for the phenomena 
of catarrhs, inflammatory fevers, See. occurring in the spring, par¬ 
ticularly when the weather is mild and open, or the commence¬ 
ment of the spring weather sudden; vegetation is then rapid in 
its growth, and the application of the stimulus (although natural) 
thus suddenly applied, in combination with increased tempera¬ 
ture, will be productive of disorder and frequent death; and 
which might, in a great measure, be avoided by a little attention 
and more liberality on the part of the farmer or grazier. 
It is in these fell districts, where this method of winter-feeding 
is practised, that the superiority of the native long horn over 
other breeds is most conspicuous. They, from their native 
hardiness of constitution and thickness of hide and hair, being 
better able to bear the extremes of heat and cold, hunger, Sec. 
It is a well-known fact, that, in general, where cattle are al¬ 
lowed to run in a wild state,—in the state nature placed them, 
to wit, the uninclosed fells, commons. Sec .—disease is very rare ; 
simply because instinct teaches them to avoid all extremes, and 
they receive their food, though it may barely support life, un¬ 
obstructed by art, and as it comes from the hands of a bountiful 
Creator. He formed the mountain and the valley, the flat and 
uneven land, without, I think, ever designing that the cattle 
should be confined to one particular place ; and to each of these 
situations he has appropriated a variety in soil and herbage. 
Although, owing to the talents and ingenuity of many eminent 
men, the soils, as well as their produce, have been improved by 
the various agricultural processes; yet difference in situation, 
soil, and produce, must and will exist to the very end of time ; 
for not all the tact or ingenuity of man can render all soils capa¬ 
ble of producing grasses of an uniform quality, or possessing the 
same nutritive properties, or that can be acted upon in the same 
degree by the digestive powers. 
Reasoning thus, we may with perfect ease account, why cattle 
removed from their native situation, whether it be from the 
mountain to the valley, or, vice versa, to the produce of which 
their corporeal wants have not become habituated, will be predis¬ 
posed to disordered digestion by such removal; and which pre¬ 
disposition will be excited into action by the food containing a 
greater or less quantity of stimulus than that to which they had 
for a length of time been accustomed. 
Having thus briefly yet comprehensively premised, neither the 
farmer nor veterinarian need be surprised at any disease, whether 
it be epidemic or not, appearing amongst cattle which have been 
thus cruelly and ungratefully treated during a long and severe 
winter; for I feel assured that, if a contrary system were adopted. 
