Various - Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 401, March 1849

And the money profit which this attention to regularity will give, in addition to the satisfaction which attends it, is thus plainly set down: —

"Let us reduce the results of bad management to figures. Suppose you have three sets of beasts, of different ages, each containing 20 beasts – that is, 60 in all – and they get as many turnips as they can eat. Suppose that each of these beasts acquires only half a pound less live weight every day than they would under the most proper management, and this would incur a loss of 30 lbs. a-day of live weight, which, over 180 days of the fattening season, will make the loss amount to 5400 lbs. of live weight; or, according to the common rules of computation, 3240 lbs., or 231 stones, of dead weight at 6s. the stone, £69, 6s. – a sum equal to more than five times the wages received by the cattle-man. The question, then, resolves itself into this – whether it is not for your interest to save this sum annually, by making your cattle-man attend your cattle according to a regular plan, the form of which is in your own power to adopt and pursue?"

We must pass over the entire doctrine of prepared food, which has lately occupied so much attention, and has been so ably advocated by Mr Warner, Mr Marshall, Mr Thompson, and which, among others, has been so successfully practised by our friend Mr Hutton of Sowber Hill in Yorkshire. We only quote, by the way, a curious observation of Mr Robert Stephenson of Whitelaw in East-Lothian:

"'We shall conclude,' he says, 'by relating a singular fact' – and a remarkable one it is, and worth remembering – 'that sheep on turnips will consume nearly in proportion to cattle , weight for weight; that is, 10 sheep of 14 lbs. a-quarter, or 40 stones in all, will eat nearly the same quantity of turnips as an ox of 40 stones; but turn the ox to grass, and 6 sheep will be found to consume an equal quantity. This great difference may perhaps,' says Mr Stephenson, and I think truly, 'be accounted for by the practice of sheep cropping the grass much closer and oftener than cattle, and which, of course, prevents its growing so rapidly with them as with cattle.'"

The treatment of farm horses in winter is under the direction of the ploughman, whose duties are first described, after which the system of management and feeding of farm and saddle horses is discussed at a length of thirty pages.

Among other pieces of curious information which our author gives us is the nomenclature of the animals he treats of, at their various ages. This forms a much larger vocabulary than most people imagine, and comprises many words of which four-fifths of our population would be unable to tell the meaning.

Thus, of the sheep he informs us —

"A new-born sheep is called a lamb , and retains the name until weaned from its mother and able to support itself. The generic name is altered according to the sex and state of the animal; when a female it is a ewe-lamb , when a male tup-lamb , and this last is changed to hogg-lamb when it undergoes emasculation.

"After a lamb has been weaned, until the first fleece is shorn from its back, it receives the name of hogg , which is also modified according to the sex and state of the animal, a female being a ewe-hogg , a male a tup-hogg , and a castrated male a wether-hogg . After the first fleece has been shorn, another change is made in the nomenclature; the ewe-hogg then becomes a gimmer , the tup-hogg a shearling-tup , and the wether-hog a dinmont , and these names are retained until the fleece is shorn a second time.

"After the second shearing another change is effected in all these names; the gimmer is then a ewe if she is in lamb , but if not, a barren gimmer and if never put to the ram a eild gimmer . The shearling tup is then a 2-shear tup , and the dinmont is a wether , but more correctly a 2-shear wether .

"A ewe three times shorn is a twinter ewe , ( two-winter ewe ;) a tup is a 3-shear tup ; and a wether still a wether , or more correctly a 3-shear wether – which is an uncommon name among Leicester sheep, as the castrated sheep of that breed are rarely kept to that age.

"A ewe four times shorn is a three winter ewe , or aged ewe ; a tup, an aged tup , a name he retains ever after, whatever his age, but they are seldom kept beyond this age; and the wether is now a wether properly so called.

"A tup and ram are synonymous terms.

"A ewe that has borne a lamb, when it fails to be with lamb again is a tup-eill or barren ewe . After a ewe has ceased to give milk she is a yeld-ewe .

"A ewe when removed from the breeding flock is a draft ewe , whatever her age may be; gimmers put aside as unfit for breeding are draft gimmers , and the lambs, dinmonts or wethers, drafted out of the fat or young stock are sheddings , tails , or drafts .

"In England a somewhat different nomenclature prevails. Sheep bear the name of lamb until eight months old, after which they are ewe and wether teggs until once clipped. Gimmers are theares until they bear the first lamb, when they are ewes of 4-teeth , next year ewes of 6-teeth , and the year after full-mouthed ewes . Dinmonts are called shear hoggs until shorn of the fleece, when they are 2-shear wethers , and ever after are wethers ."

The names of cattle are a little less complicated.

"The names given to cattle at their various ages are these: – A new-born animal of the ox-tribe is called a calf , a male being a bull-calf , a female a quey-calf , heifer-calf , or cow-calf ; and a castrated male calf is a stot-calf , or simply a calf . Calf is applied to all young cattle until they attain one year old, when they are year-olds or yearlings — year-old bull , year-old quey or heifer, year-old stot . Stot , in some places, is a bull of any age.

"In another year they are 2-year old bull , 2-year-old quey or heifer , 2-year-old-stot or steer . In England females are stirks from calves to 2-year-old, and males steers ; in Scotland both young male and females are stirks . The next year they are 3-year-old bull , in England 3-year-old female a heifer , in Scotland a 3-year-old quey , and a male is a 3-year-old stot or steer .

"When a quey bears a calf, it is a cow , both in Scotland and England. Next year the bulls are aged ; the cows retain the name ever after, and the stots or steers are oxen , which they continue to be to any age. A cow or quey that has received the bull is served or bulled , and is then in calf , and in that state these are in England in-calvers . A cow that suffers abortion slips its calf. A cow that has either missed being in calf, or has slipped calf, is eill ; and one that has gone dry of milk is a yeld-cow . A cow giving milk is a milk or milch-cow . When two calves are born at one birth, they are twins ; if three, trins . A quey calf of twins of bull and quey calves, is a free martin , and never produces young, but exhibits no marks of a hybrid or mule.

" Cattle , black cattle , horned cattle , and neat cattle , are all generic names for the ox tribe, and the term beast is a synonyme.