A Fatted Calf.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2063, 26 September 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

A Fatted Calf.

We are still without many oarcfully ascertained statistics from which to infer whether oar prei«nt breeds of stock are in advance of their progenitors of 15 years Ago. Here is a test by which any reader of this paper may measure his own veal-calf. In 1834, Mr. H. Bolton of Campden (which apparently is in Gloucestershire) bied a ball-calf by a Shorthorn sira, from a dam half Devon and half Shorthorn. It was calved on the 25th of Jannary, and weighed at birth 100 lbs. Five weeks and three days afterwards — i.c , March 4th— it was slaughtered, having alive-weight of 218 lbs, and a cuciae- weight of 1.)5 Iba. ; haying thus increased about 3lbs, of liveweight for every day of its existence. It narer took all the milk its dam gave, and it waa fold for £4, and its proportion of caroase to live weight is 62 5 per cent. Here is a bundle of faots by which any one can institnte a useful comparison, who is aa exact an observer, and as resolute in probing a problem to the bottom, as was Mr. C. H. Bolton of Carnpden, the breeder, and his assistant Mr. John Booker, the slaughterer of the calf of 1834. The statistics of that year seem to keep as well as the vintage. — T/^LiV Slock Journal.