1906.] FEEDING FARM ANIMALS. 245 



in the Mississippi basin, where, oftentimes, much fodder is 

 wasted, will bring greatest profits at three years, but in the 

 eastern and New England States, greater profits will certainly 

 come from selling steers finished at an age not exceeding tw'O 

 years, w^here food is relatively dear. 



The truth must be self-evident, that if at any time before 

 development is complete, growth ceases in whole or in part, the 

 cost of the food of maintenance is proportionately increased. 

 If cessation in growth is complete, there is no return for the 

 food of maintenance during its continuance, unless it be under 

 conditions where animals are thus carried on until they can be 

 maintained on cheaper foods. For instance, it may pay a 

 ranchman to carry an animal through the w'inter without gain 

 in order to bring it to that season when it will graze on pas- 

 tures that cost but little or are entirely free. But it will not 

 pay the eastern farmer thus to carry a young animal through 

 the winter, since pastures on eastern farms are valuable as well 

 as coarse foods. 



The farmer who puts a young animal in winter quarters 

 at the advent of winter, and who turns the same out to graze, 

 say, five months hence, without any advance in weight, has 

 virtualy lost the food fed during those five months. The only 

 return he has is a poor grade of fertilizer, the value of which 

 •will be largely offset by the labor expended in caring for the 

 animal and the cost of providing suitable shelter. In growing 

 meat-making animals, therefore, on eastern farms, the wisdom 

 of keeping the animals growing all the while and with prudent 

 haste, and of selling them at a relatively early age will be 

 abundantly apparent. 



Should development be arrested in whole or in part at any 

 time before it is completed, the capacity for future development 

 is weakened in proportion to the degree to which development 

 was hindered. 



When the hindrance to development is slight and covers but 

 a short period, the injury resulting may be so slight as to be 

 imperceptible. Notwithstanding, time is lost in completing de- 

 velopment and there is also a proportionate loss in the food 

 of maintenance. If the arrested development has been pro- 

 longed and severe, in addition to a proportionate delay in com- 

 pleted development and a proportionate loss in the food of 

 maintenance, there will also be a proportionate loss in the 



