REARING OP CATTLE. 
519 
other things under cover. It prevents the heavy rains from 
injuring the dung, and the hot scorching suns from drying 
and withering the surface of the strawy materials. 
A very important question has long agitated the agri¬ 
cultural world, and is yet very far from being settled, whe¬ 
ther cattle are best fattened in open yards provided with 
shelter-sheds, or by being tied in stalls in a roofed house ? 
In the case of store, or keeping, cattle the question is very 
easily solved. A freedom of moving about in the yards is 
necessary to promote the growth and healthy state of the 
animal, and the unlimited contact of fresh air very much 
advances the fruitful progress of animal life. In the case of 
fattening animals it is asserted that cattle fatten more 
quickly when they are confined in a 'warm temperature, and 
that the secretion of fat is encouraged by the animal being 
deprived of the power of any movement by reason of being 
tied to a stake. But the flesh of animals that live and are 
fattened in a warm temperature is always found to be loose 
and flabby, and wanting in the firmness and consistency 
that are imparted by a moderately frigorific quality of the 
atmosphere. A number of animals tied in confinement are 
always breathing the contaminated gasses, and the advantages 
to health are known to be very great of respiration being 
performed in a large volume of air. The feet of cattle tied 
in stalls become soft, and the animals get lame and unable 
to perform any travel. The feet of cattle fed in yards keep 
sound, and the flesh is much firmer, and is very easily dis¬ 
tinguished by the eye and the touch of experience. The 
animal is fattened as quickly as when tied in a house, when 
the proper care is used in erecting the yards and sheds, and 
when the necessary attention is employed in keeping the 
yards dry and the animals comfortable. Less labour is also 
created than in removing the dung from the feeding-houses. 
But on farms of any considerable size both methods may be 
very usefully employed; the animals of the more unruly 
nature may be tied in the house, and the quieter may be put in 
yards, and not more than two together. The objection to 
feeding in yards generally arises from putting too many 
animals together, and then one is disturbed by another 
goring and pushing it about. When cattle having a thick 
coat of hair are tied in a house to be fattened, an advantage 
may be obtained by clipping the coats, in order to promote a 
freer perspiration, and to remove from the skin the itching and 
uneasiness engendered by the close covering of the hairy 
in tegument.— Farmer's Magazine. 
