366 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



You cannot, as Mr. Coburn said, produce something from nothing. 

 You cannot grow a first-class calf, or' sheep, or horse, or man or 

 woman from nothing. Exercise judgment. Use common sense, 

 the best sense in the world. Keep an animal thrifty and growing, 

 but not too rapidly for future usefulness. I want to sell young 

 animals to men who will feed as well as I do, and when they come 

 to be two, three and four years old they come up all right. My 

 calves at a year old are from five and one- half feet to six feet. It 

 is only the natural growth. Some of ymi at the State Fair saw 

 Prince Alfred, raised precisely in that way, and so is every calf 

 on my premises. Any other man can raise them just as well, if 

 he will, but if you never begin to raise good stock you will never 

 have it. You must know how, and } T ou must have the appliances. 

 The idea of raising a nine foot ox upon bog hay, or by turning 

 him out on barren hillsides is absurd. When you get an animal 

 that girts six feet, he may be good, what there is of him, but there 

 is not enough for this fast age. Keep your animal from the time 

 it comes into the world in a healthy condition, but not forced, 

 because if you force growth there will be a reaction. What 

 matures early, decays early. 



I cannot endorse the ideas which have be°n presented in regard 

 to producing good dairy stock. To illustrate : I get a well-bred 

 cow, a remarkably fine milker, and she has one or two calves. 

 The sire of her calves is from a superior dairy stock. Now when 

 you know these facts will you milk that cow up to the last day to 

 make her calves dairy stock? No, but when you know, beyond 

 all question, that it is dairy stock, give the old cow a chance to 

 do herself justice. I say dry off the cow ; not use her all up and 

 then expect to raise a great round ox from her. Leave the cow to 

 recruit her strength, so that when the calf comes, if it should be a 

 steer, you can make a nine feet ox of it. 



Mr. Gilbert. When I see a man inquiring for information in 

 agricultural matters, I think he should receive all the light possi- 

 ble; and when one who has received the training which this young 

 man has, gets correct ideas, I feel perfectly satisfied that they will 

 develop into the best practice. There should be a clear and defi- 

 nite idea at the outset of what you wish to obtain. He referred 

 to a pair of steers which had been fed until they were spoiled. 

 That does not often occur in the State of Maine, as all are aware. 

 Uowever, such a tiling- is possible, but only from lack of 

 knowledge. Now then, your object is to grow an animal as fast 



