r three months, it will, in my opinion,
pay no one. To give unlimited quantities for years, and to say it will
pay, is preposterous. To give fat cattle the finishing dip, cake and
corn, given in moderation and with skill for six weeks before the
cattle are sent to the fat market, will pay the feeder; but to continue
this for more than two months will never pay in Aberdeenshire. This is
no doubt a bold assertion, but I believe it to be correct. The cake and
corn given to cattle day by day loses its effect, till at last you
bring the beast almost to a standstill, and week after week you can
perceive little improvement. Cake, and still more corn, appear to
injure their constitution; grass, turnips, and straw or hay are their
only healthy food. For commercial cattle, and for commercial purposes,
two months is the utmost limit that cake and corn will pay the
Aberdeenshire feeder. There can be no substitute for grass, straw, and
turnips, except for a very limited period; though in times of scarcity,
and to give the last dip to fat cattle, the other feeding materials are
valuable auxiliaries.

I have kept on a favourite show bullock for a year, thinking I would
improve him, and given him everything he would take; and when that day
twelvemonth came round, he was worse than a twelvemonth before. You can
only torture nature so far; and if you force a yearling bullock, he
will never come to the size that he will attain if kept on common fare.
If you wish to bring a bullock to size for exhibition, give him as much
grass and turnips as he can eat. Begin to force only when he is two and
a half to three years old, and by the time he is four years he will not
only be a neater but a larger animal than if he had been forced
earlier: forcing in youth deteriorates the symmetry of the animal as
well as diminishes his size. I am speaking only of Aberdeen and Angus
cattle, but I believe the breeders of Highlanders are also well aware
of this fact. I am not speaking of pounds, shillings, and pence, or of
the profit to the farmer; for who would think of keeping beasts bred to
himself older than rising three years old? Calves dropped early should
go to the fat market at the age of two years.

A word as to show bullocks. I believe they are the most unprofitable
speculation an agriculturist can interfere with. To keep a show bullock
as he ought to be kept will cost from 12s. to 15s. a-week, which
amounts to about L40 a-year.

The method I adopt