500 NEAT CATTLE.

affinity with reason and common sense. It has been contended, that oxen ought to be kept in the at- mosphere of a hot-house, in a constant state of the most profuse perspiration, until their hides crack and peel; and with this view, even the crannies and key-holes have been stopped with straw, in hot- weather; e contra, others insist, that the ox will not thrive kindly within doors, in a mild winter; sweat- ing out all his keep! Again, who has not seen fatten- ing beasts above the mid-leg in cold clay, or mire, their almost only bed; their backs and loins soaked with wet, cold at heart, and their bodies exposed to al] the rigour and changes of the season? In spite of all this they thrive; but no man in his wits, sure- ly, can doubt, that their thrift and his profit would be greater, under circumstances of comfort, shelter, and nourishing warmth. Every attentive and expe- rienced feeder, must have observed the check given to fattening stock, by extreme cold, or foul wea- ther. Another strange notion has been broached, from what quarter has escaped my memory, that fattening stock may, with safety, nay, even advan- tage, be reduced from good to inferior keep; this experiment I have sometimes made, not in- deed voluntarily, or much to the benefit of my pocket.

Fat cattle, kept abroad in winter, upon long, watery grass, which has necessarily lost much of i its nutritive power, should always have an allowance of gogd hay; as should those fed in the yard, upon dry meat, have a portion of| something moist and succulent, to counteract a too astrin-

gent effect. 1G