get older, live-weight-increase grows less. Smithfield
weights[8] show that a good bullock up to a year old will increase 2 lb.
daily, a two-year-old 1-3/4 lb., and a three-year-old a little over
1-1/2 lb.

Cattle feeding on a farm consume crude produce that is inconvenient to
market, and make farmyard manure; but there is frequently no profit
left. To secure the balance on the right side the inlaid price per live
cwt. requires to be 5s. less than the sale price--say 32s. per cwt. for
lean cattle, and 37s. per cwt. for the animal when sold fat and capable
of producing 60% of dressed beef. The ordinary animal yields only about
57%. A well-bred fattening bullock begins with 2 lb. of cake and meal
per day, increasing to 8 lb. at the end of five months (6 lb. on an
average), and receives 3/4 cwt. of roots and 12 lb. of straw; at an
average cost of about 4s. 3d. per imperial stone or 50s. per cwt. of
dressed carcase. Heifers feed faster than bullocks, and age tells on the
rate at which an animal will mature: a three-year-old will develop into
prime beef more quickly and easily than a two-year-old. It is difficult
to produce "baby beef" at a profit, and it can only be done with picked
animals of the best flesh-producing breeds, which cannot be bought at a
price per cwt. below the finished sale price, for animals producing baby
beef must from start to finish (under two years old) be at all times fit
to go to the fat market. It is true that a very young animal can give a
better account of food than an older one, but this advantage is
counterbalanced by the tendency to grow rather than to fatten. (See also
AGRICULTURE.)

In cold and stormy districts cattle thrive best in covered courts, but
in a mild climate they do equally well in open yards with shelter-sheds.
The more air they get the less liable they are to tuberculosis--example
Lincolnshire and the drier south-eastern counties. The ideal method of
house-feeding cattle is singly in boxes 10 ft. square, where they are
undisturbed, and where the best manure is made because it is not washed
by rain.

On the finest British grazing lands two lots of cattle are fed in one
season. The first is finished early in July, having, without artificial
feeding, laid on eight to nine stones of beef. The second lot requires
three or four pounds of undecorticated cotton cake each towards the end
of September and in October when grass begins to fail. (R. W.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Rev.