On all
arable farms there is a certain amount of food, hay, straw, chaff,
roots, etc., which must be consumed on the premises for the sake of
keeping up the fertility of the land, but I believe that only under
very exceptional circumstances can a shilling's-worth of food and
attendance be converted into a shilling's-worth of meat, so that if in
the future the price of corn is to fall back into anything approaching
pre-war values, the corn crops, as well as the intermediate green
crops, which are only a means for producing corn, must be
discontinued, and the land will again become inferior pasture.
Old-fashioned farmers recognized the absence of direct profit in the
winter of fattening cattle especially on the produce of arable land,
and the saying is well known that, "the man who fattens many bullocks
never wants much paper on which to make his will."
There are few pleasanter sights about farm premises than to see, as
the short winter day is drawing to an end, and the twilight is
stealing around the ricks and buildings, a nicely sheltered yard full
of contented cattle deeply bedded down in clean bright wheat straw,
and settling themselves comfortably for the night; and, when one pulls
the bed-clothes up to one's ears, one can go to sleep thinking happily
that they too are enjoying a refreshing sleep.
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