258 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



herd has been very successful in that way. He is not only 

 particular to keep the temperature at about a certain point, but 

 he is also particular to have good ventilation and good air. 



Prof. Shaw. I can imagine that a stable for dairy cows 

 ought to be kept a little warmer than a stable for animals 

 that are being fattened, and especially when they are being 

 fed corn, owing to the peculiar nature of that food. It is very 

 heating. If animals are being fattened it would be too wami. 



Question. How much would you feed to fatten an animal 

 per hundred pounds live weight? 



Prof. Shaw. If I got that question correctly, it is this : how 

 much should be fed to an animal that is being fattened per hun- 

 dred pounds live weight? I think I can tell some things of a 

 little interest in regard to that. If you were to ask that ques- 

 tion of a man living in the heart of Illinois, or in southern 

 Minnesota, he would tell you that the steer should have about 

 thirty pounds per day of corn. I tried some experiments 

 on that once. The steers that were fed in that experiment 

 averaged about nine hundred pounds when the experiment 

 commenced. They were fed about six months, and they aver- 

 aged about twelve hundred pounds when the experiment 

 closed. I fed three of those steers at the beginning with six 

 pounds of meal a day. They had about twenty pounds of en- 

 silage right along together with the six pounds of meal. The 

 balance of their ration consisted of mixed hay. A pound of 

 each was added per month during the six months. We began 

 another lot at eight pounds per day and added a pound every 

 month. Another lot began at ten pounds a day, and a pound 

 was added to that ration every month. When the experiment 

 was completed the steers that I began to feed six pounds a day 

 had made practically as much gain as the steers that I began to 

 feed ten poimds a day. There was not much difiference in the 

 amount of hay consumed by the three lots. Now the philos- 

 ophy of the thing is evidently this : if you give a steer all he 



