FEEDING BEEF. (Live Stock Journal.)

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1485, 10 January 1882, Page 3

FEEDING BEEF. (Live Stock Journal. )

Half the battle in grazing is the buying in. " Cattle well bought will sell themselves," as the saying is, which means that there is no trouble in selling them out again. A good buyer — a good judge of stock is meant — is indispensable to a grazing farm. He knows what a barren cow is worth almost the moment his eye drops on her ; when he touches her, he is certain. His judgment is quick and sure, and then his tact comes in. " But see his touch !" It is done in the twinkling of an eye, so to say. His left hand on the hip-bone, his right on the last rib, he grasps a handful of skin, to see how loose, and thick and mellow it is. It should feel like a thick soft railway rug, and be almost as loose from the ribs ; he should be able to get a good warm handful of it, clear away from the bones. The thick handful of it denotes quality, the looseness, health. The lib should be nearly as broad as the back of his hand ; a beast with a narrow rib, like a man's, is no good. The hips should be wide apart, level, well skinned, and far enough away from the tail. The thighs should be deep and wide, with plenty of bone in the legs. The back should be wide, and level, and long. The shoiilder - points should not meet like the edge of one's hand, but be broad like the back of it. The chest should be wide and deep, and the dew-lap well forward and down. Lastly, theie should be plenty of hair, a pleasing countenance, a free and easy gait, and youth. Tins is the sort of stock the grazier loves to buy, when he can get it. " Yon had better be over-rented than over-stocked," applies with even greater force to grazing than dairying. Cattle will not fatten if they are crowded on the pasture. There must be more thsin just enough glass for them. '1 hey like to eat quickly and rest. They fatten most when resting. If they are growing well they rest more than two thirds of the time. They want a good mouthful at a grab, and to take three or four bites for it. A sheep -pasture is no use to feeding oattle. iShoep like to bite close, cattle long ; sheep nip of the grass, cattle roll their tongues round a handful of it. But there is a great difference in pasture ; the best grass will bear stocking the closest, because it is growing live chives all the wlrle. But if the grass is inferior, if there are m.oss and weeds in it, the cattle want plenty to, choose from. We know that land will carry a cow and a sheep to the acre, and fatten two crops of them in the season ; such land is scarce. On other land a beast needs two or threeacres, a.nd fatten^ indifferently then. It Is a question of strength of soil and quality of grass. The more grass a field will grow the better its quality, generally speaking. When the land throws up plenty of good grass the weeds are scarce, and so is the ln.O'-s., Weeds and moss denote v^ant of uomlition in the Hoil, On land that is at all inferior we have found no piactice equal to top-dressing with nitrate of soda, superphosphate, and kainit, followed up by feeding plenty of linseed and cotton-cake to the oattle. We have tgp-dressed to give the land a start ; the cake we lay down in clean spots here and there. After one season's treatment of this sort, the land shows an extraordinary improvement next spring. It is a fortnight earlier to begin with, and it will carry more stock. And not only the land benefits this wax 5 the cattle are fat earlier, and are sold before be,ef jjets cheap. We like to sell beef in July ; most men have plenty in Aiigust and September. The early bird catohes the worm, and worms havo of late years been scarce, e&pecially in autumn. Cattle want time or pushing. It pays you better to push them. If you push them yo\i liberate your land before the grass begins to wane, and there is a better chance for the later ones. It is a fine thing to l)e able to thin them out early. This, indeed, is one of the best features in grazing ; you cannot do it m dairying. Land that is inoUnecl to get sour from an accumulation of vegetable humus is better eaten off bare once a year ; but you cannot eat it off bare with fattening cattle, or the cattle won't fatten ; it is best done with sheep in the late autumn and early wintei*. On land that is not disposed to gour, a. coat qi old grass through the winter insures an early spring, and cattle may be laid out all the sooner ; the young grass grows the old, and there is a good bite in April.

A Parliamentary return has been issued as to cost of the several colonios of the Empire to the British Exchequer between 1869-70 and 1879-SO. The next expenditure during that period for civil and other services was £2,285,310; and for military services, £26,406,189. In 1879-80, the net total for army purposes was £6,413, 245, exolusive of £30,646, the amount by whioh the reoeipts from Ceylon exceeded the expenditure. The sums allowed for military services during the year mentioned were : — Gibraltar, £387,196; Malta, £391,666; Cyprus, £74,020 ; Mauritius, £47,001 ; Bermuda, I £182,327; St. Helena, £23,501; Hong Kong, £80,856 ; jSouth Africa, '£4, 842, 291; Jamaica, f £72, 760; Bahamas, , £7,624 j Honduras^ £10,312, jV, Indies,, £104,922 j NovaSoQtia,^447l49Q; l West* Cgast of f Africa, £42,, 54.6. ;■ Straits Settle-,, mohts, •£18^606 v j aA<l Westeruiaustratfa," «W7*. * "v- 1 1\ at ¥?'i' : :[ -