THE MEAT MANUFACTURE.

Colonist, Volume V, Issue 468, 18 April 1862, Page 3

THE MEAT MANUFACTURE.

'Live stock are a necessary evil; we need their manure, but otherwise they are a loss to the farmer.' So say ou party to the discussion. 'It is in the" meat manufacture tliat we must more and more look for the profits of agriculture. Our climate could not be better for growing the food needed for it: and our breeds of cattle, sheep, nnd.pigs, possess more aptitude to fatten, aro more economical feeders, than any other iv the world.' That is the other side of the question. They scum wide enough apart. Perhaps we may bring them newer on examination, by discovering that the former experience lias been generally realised under ill-judged or extravagant management; and that, after all, the latter opinion is to some extent founded on tho fact that one great advantage of the meat manufacture is owing to the manufacture of manure and thereby of grain produce, which is subsequent upon it. The management by which the most meat can be made from a given quantify of food, and by which the manure made at the same time may be most carefully economised, is the key to profitable agriculture. That management has greatly improved. The average weight of oxen in 1710 was about 370 lbs. each. In 1705 cattle had increased in weight one-fourth. This would make the average at the end of the century 4GO lbs., or thereabouts. In 1830 tho average of the Smithfield beasts had increased to GoOlbs.—an increase in 25 years of 40 per cent.; and no doubt if we had definite records of the sheep sold at successive periods, we should find an improvement equally great in them also. But now take into account that these animals, by the superior quality and precocity which they have acquired, attain their greater weight at a much earlier age than formerly, and you arrive at an astonishing contrast indeed as regarda the meat-producing power of the country. Between 18G1 and 17G1, when Robert Bakewell, of Dishley, had begun to direct his attentionto the improvement of Leicester sheep, cattle which used to be sold at five years old are now sold fat at two and three; sheep which were kept till they had yielded their third and fourth fleece are now clipped once. Sixteen months' feeding will make 1 cwt. of mutton, when formerly 48 to GO months were need to make as many pounds. Sixtymonths wero needed to produce 3ijr cwt. of beef, where now, in many cases, 7 or 8 cwts. of beef are made in two years, or little more. It has been ascertained by Mr. Lawes that oxen fed liberally, consume 12 or ]31bs ofthe dry substance of their food per week for every lOOfts of live weight; increasing about lib in live weight during that consumption. Sheep, on the other hand, consume lofts of tho dry substance of their food per week for every lOOfts of live weight; aud tiiey increase rather more than l^lbs in live weight during that consumption. Pigs again, well fed, consume 2G to 301 is of the dry substance of their food per week for every lOOibs of live weight; and they increase in live weight about sfts or oilhs during that consumption.

In order to understand these figures it is necessary to bear in mind that G-7ths of cake, corn and meal, l-12th of turnips, and 1-Oth of mangel wurzel, is ldry' substance. From these general truths it might be judged that pork and bacon may be most cheaply and economically grown ; mutton next, and beef the least. And probably, as a general truth, this may be admitted, but it is plain that the circumstances of the farm must rule the decision. And not only must these circumstances decide as to the stock to be reared and fattened, but as to the breed of each selected for the purpose.

Having selected the breed, even then a profit or a loss may follow, according to the judgment with which their feeding is conducted in accordance with the natural tendeucies of the sort and of the individual. It is here that the source of so much of the variety of experience in the fattening process exists. Mr. Alderman Mechi, feeding highly a lot of oxen, not naturally kindly feeders, may condemn the fattening process as a losing matter ; while Mr. M'Combie, of Aberdeenshire, reports that he fattens annually 300 to 400 beasts for London, making £3-1 a head of them—giving 4ft>s of oil-cake, and 2lt>s of bruised oats daily as a maximum food, and turnips ad libitum, and realising £12 an acre (probably the Scotch acre=: 1^ English) as an average profit on the yellow turnip and tlie swede. Some of this extraordinary return is no doubt owing to the superior nutritiveness ofthe Scotch-grown turnip, but it is no doubt mainly owing to the judgment by which kindly feeders in the first instance are selected, and by wliich their management, in tho next place, is fitted to the actual condition ofthe animal, and to its ability to turn food of a given richness to account. — Oxford Journal.