the food I have specified for months and months, they are perfectly
unfit for grazing. I regard cake as the safest substitute for turnips;
and corn, potatoes, brewers' wash, and grain, as the worst. But my
ambition is to graze a bullock that has never been forced, and has
never tasted cake, corn, or potatoes. The store cattle I winter for
grazing are all kept in open strawyards, with a sufficient covering for
bad weather, and as dry a bed as the quantity of straw will permit.
This is indispensable for the thriving of the cattle. They receive as
many turnips as they can eat. Beasts must always be kept progressing;
if they are not, they will never pay. My store cattle never see cake,
corn, or potatoes. I would rather throw potatoes to the dunghill than
give them to a store bullock, though I would give them to my fatting
bullocks.[1] If I can get the bullocks for grazing that I want, I will
not lose one mouthful of grass upon them. They will not go on, however,
without proper care and superintendence. It requires a practised eye.
If a grazier has a number of fields and many cattle, to carry out the
treatment of his cattle properly, shifting and fresh grass once in ten
or fourteen days should, if possible, be adopted. This has always been
my practice. In one day I have observed a marked difference in the
improvement of animals after the shift.

[1] As to giving potatoes to store cattle, since writing the
above, I wish to modify the opinion I have expressed to a certain
extent. I had a conversation with Mr Hope on the subject, and he
states that his belief is, that potatoes are not prejudicial to
the growth of store cattle when put to grass, and that his
practice is to give them potatoes. I will admit that a few
potatoes may not do a store beast much harm; but in my experience
in Aberdeenshire I have found that in cattle which have been fed
with potatoes the black colour changes to a dusty brown; they are
also bad thrivers. A beast that sports that colour is never doing
well. I shall, however, prosecute the inquiry.

The grazier must always consider the quality of his grass-land, and buy
cattle adapted for it. It would be very bad policy to buy fine cattle
for poor or middling lands. You must always keep in view how the cattle
have been kept. If they have been kept improperly for your purpose,
their size, whether large or small, will not save you from loss. I