254 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



say, raise some beef, raise enough to kill for the family meat. 

 I maintain that any dairyman can do that. 



I understand that many of you are sending your milk away 

 to the cities, and therefore you have not much left, but I do 

 not suppose there is any dairyman but what has enough left for 

 one animal. Of course, it depends on how much you get for 

 your milk, and it depends also on the way you are shipping 

 your milk away, whether you are making butter, whether you 

 are separating your milk- at home, etc. I would say that if 

 you are separating your milk at home, you had better raise 

 every one of your dairy steers, the Jerseys and Guernseys 

 probably up to the age of eight to twelve months, and the Hol- 

 steins probably to the age of eighteen months. It would proba- 

 bly not be wise to keep them longer than the time men- 

 tioned. Of course, you will have to raise them principally on 

 skim milk. They would not get whole milk more than one or 

 two weeks at the best. If you are separating your milk, it 

 seems to me, it can be utilized in this way so as to bring in a 

 nice little sum of money if the stock is properly grown. Of 

 course, after a certain time the farmer can feed bran, oats, and 

 especially those roots that I have been talking about. They 

 are all good. 



Mr. J. HoYT. I understand that the western people when 

 they bring the steers in in the fall dehorn them so that they 

 can be shipped closer together. Do you think it is a good 

 practice ? 



Prof. Shaw. Of course they must be dehorned. It is a 

 necessity, because they would hurt each other, and probably, 

 in some instances, it would amount to a loss of a steer or so. 

 They are apt to get hooked. It is not a matter of choice which 

 a man who is fattening cattle has. He must do it. I am 

 strongly in favor, especially in the west, of fattening cattle in 

 an open shed rather than in a stable. In that respect I have com- 

 pletely changed my mind, and especially so since I have had 

 experience with keeping steers in the west. 



