368 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



him ?" " What was the lesson ?" " He learned to keep his stock 

 on a very small amount of feed." That is the very lesson he 

 should not learn. The fa^t is, you need to learn to give your 

 animal the greatest amount of food that he can consume to advan- 

 tage. Your profit comes, as was clearly stated in the paper of 

 Mr. Goodale, from the excess of food over that required for sup- 

 port. If you feed only what sustains life, you get nothing but 

 life, but if wish for growth that growth must come from the excess 

 of food over" what is required to support life, so that the utmost 

 possible amount of food you can got them to assi*nilate, returns 

 the greatest profit. 



Mr. Lucas. I have seen some experiments tried recently, and 

 the best success attended those who have fed hay and nothing else, 

 for the express purpose of making beef. Now, as to wintering 

 stock last winter. One class of farmers kept the papers full of 

 statements of how cheaply they got along with their cattle. 

 Another came out with an article and said that was not his policy ; 

 his object was to see how much he could make his cattle eat. He 

 contended that it was no object to keep them as cheap as you 

 could, but it was an object to have them eat and assimilate all they 

 possibly could. 



A gentleman in Fairfield told me that he had some steers last 

 fall that he could sell for $55, and no more. They lacked about 

 one inch of being six feet in girth. He wintered them, giving 

 twelve and one-half pounds of hay and six quarts of meal apiece 

 daily, four and one-half of oats and one and one-half of corn ; and 

 it cost him $110 to winter that pair of steers. In spring, instead 

 of being 5 feet 11 inches, they measured strong 7 feet. In seven 

 months they grew 13 inches to a steer, and then were worth 11 \ 

 cents a pound and weighed 1,900. pounds. They weighed 1,100 

 poundawhenhe began to feed them. To winter them without 

 gain in weight would have cost $70, according to his estimate, so 

 that the gain in size and weight cost $40. The value in the fall 

 — $55 — added to $110, the cost of wintering them as he did, 

 makes $165 ; and they would sell for £218, leaving him a profit of 

 $53 on the operation : whereas, if he had wintered them so that 

 they would just hold their own, that would cost $70, which, 

 added to $55, the value in the fall, would make their cost in spring 

 $125, and they would only bring $90 ; the increase in value being 

 only in consequence of the season of the year. Now with a cost 

 of $125 and a value of $90, he would suffer $35 loss ; but by more 



