150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cheaper. We cannot compete with western farmers in growing 

 stock and making beef; but we can raise our own oxen, cows and 

 horses, and we can raise better than we have done in the past, 

 and so many as we do raise must be better or we must expect to 

 raise them at a loss. It will not do to sell them at one or two years 

 old, unless they go at the price of Shorthorns. 



We must breed only from pure blood males, and raise only the 

 best calves at that. A nice bang-up cow will bring $100, while a 

 common one will bring only $25, and there is not that difference 

 in the cost of raising. And the same rule applies to oxen and 

 sometimes to two and three years old steers ; the best ones' fetch a 

 great deal the most.' Now in order to get good ones we must 

 have a good, pure blood bull, and the best cows we can get, then 

 select the best calves, as many as we propose to raise, give them 

 all the milk until three or four months old, then provender enough 

 to keep them growing, and always keep them growing until disposed 

 of, never allow them stand still a day. When they cease to grow 

 unless they are at work or giving milk, they are kept at a loss. 

 We cannot afford in the State of Maine to raise ordinary horses ; 

 they are never worth enough and will never bring enough to half 

 pay the cost of raising. Reference must be had to either size or 

 speed in rearing horses if adequate compensation is expected for 

 the trouble and expense. 



Farmers of Maine have been and are still in the habit of over- 

 stocking their pastures, (especially when pasturing stock for other 

 people,) so that, so much labor has had to be done by stock to get 

 a living, that no growth has been had where there might and 

 would have been good growth with a plenty of feed. The result 

 has been poor cattle, and when put into the market, (like the 

 negro's preaching,) poor price, and all for the want of better feed 

 and more of it. When not designed for the market their cattle 

 from overstocked pastures come to the barn in the fall poor, or 

 poorish, and are then put through the winter upon straw, meadow 

 and swale hay, corn stalks, &c, late cut, with no provender, and 

 often in barns as cold as an orchard. I have heard such fanners 

 complain, that from some mysterious cause, their cattle were thin, 

 they had not done well. Now is it really anything mysterious 

 that cattle don't grow under such treatment? If they should 

 grow and look sleek and fat, would not there be great mystery 

 about it ; would any good feeder of Shorthorns be able to account 

 for the fact in any possible way ? 



