o this day, as they
started the nine score of cattle for their destinations, one lot after
another, through the astonished dealers, whose cattle at that hour, I
believe, were never priced. There were few sold on the first day. I
could not sell my twenty remaining cattle, and could not even get a bid
for them. Of all the good turns my friends did for me, this was the
best. I came out with a small profit, while the losses sustained by
other parties at the market were heavy. A great many cattle were sent
farther south, and returned back to the north. One respectable dealer
told me that no one had ever asked the price of his cattle, and coolly
added, "I have taken turnips from ----, and sent the cattle home." I
never lost a shilling in East Lothian, or by a bad debt, as a
lean-cattle dealer.

To be a good judge of store cattle is exceedingly difficult. We have
many judges of fat cattle among our farmers and butchers, and a few
good judges of breeding stock; but our really good judges of store
cattle are exceedingly few. A judge of store cattle ought to be able to
say at a glance how much the animal will improve, how much additional
value you can put upon him on good, bad, or indifferent land, and on
turnips, in three, six, or twelve months. Unless a grazier is able to
do this, he is working in the dark, and can never obtain eminence in
his profession. Since my first speculation, already referred to--the
half of the L12 field--I have bought and grazed store cattle for nearly
fifty years. No one has been able to put upon paper a clear definition,
such as can be understood by the reader, of the characteristics of a
good store beast. It is only practice and a natural gift that can
enable any one to master the subject. There are a few rules, however,
that the buyer of store cattle should be acquainted with. He ought to
know how they have been kept for the previous six months, otherwise
their keep may be entirely thrown away. I make it an almost universal
rule (and I have never departed from the rule except with a loss), that
I will graze no cattle except those that have been kept in the open
strawyard, and have been fed exclusively on turnips and straw. If you
can get them off yellow turnips it will be decidedly to your advantage.
I have seen this proved by dividing twenty beasts, and keeping one half
on yellow turnips, and one half on swedes, both lots getting full
turnips. Those on the swedes shot far ahead in the strawyard of