e freight on cattle by the
Steamboat Company and the Railway. The matter is in their own hands;
but I think conciliation, owing to the present state of feeling, might
have been their wisest policy; however, we will allow them to be the
best judges. It will now be our study, for our own protection, to exert
our influence in the proper quarter to have our grievances removed. The
method of transit is an important subject to the owners of the cattle,
to the landowners, and to the consumers. I have no doubt whatsoever
that a legislative enactment will make all right by-and-by. I cannot
leave this subject without noticing Scott, the cattle-traffic manager
of the Caledonian Company at Aberdeen, and John Henry, the
cattle-traffic manager of the Aberdeen and London Steam Navigation
Company--men who deserve to wear a better coat, and who have done
everything in their power for the interest of the senders of cattle. I
believe there is difficulty in avoiding causes of complaint at all
times where there are so many servants, and the senders of cattle are
sometimes themselves to blame. I have never myself lost a beast by
rail; I prepare my cattle for their journey before they start from
home. My heavy cattle are turned out three different times at least
before they are sent to rail. I walk them in a lea field: the first day
they are put out four hours; I then give them a day to rest; turn them
out again on the second day and increase the distance, and they come
quite fresh out of the trucks at London. What can an owner of cattle
expect but that some will go down if he take his cattle six, eight, or
ten miles without their ever having left the stall for five or eight
months before, and put them on to rail? Many hundreds of good oxen have
been lost in this way, or crushed and bruised. Cattle when tied up are
kept in an unnatural state; they often take founder when at the stall
as a consequence, and sometimes paralysis; but such moderate exercise
as I have described tends to bring them back to their natural state. I
have often been asked the question by those who had seen my Christmas
market cattle--"How is it that your beasts are so good upon their legs
compared with others?" The first day after the cattle are put out for
four hours they will not look so well, and will return to the stalls
very much fatigued; but on the second and third days of their exercise
they will recover their wonted appearance. They will walk eight or ten
miles i