136 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



maximum difference due to this fact would be involved in the re- 

 sults of comparison of calves and three-year-olds, say. That is to 

 say, the younger animals require a longer time to finish in, not 

 because they make slower gains, but because they use a larger 

 proportion of their food for the production of growth, and have 

 left, therefore, a smaller proportion for the production of fat. The 

 finish of an an-imal depends upon the amount of fat carried, and 

 not upon the amount of growth it has made or upon its size. From 

 the butcher's point of view, an animal is finished whenever it is 

 fat. 



The older and the nearer matured or grown the animal is, the 

 shorter time will be required to make it fat, because of the smaller 

 proportion of its feed that goes into the production of growth, and 

 the larger the proportion that goes into the production of fat. In 

 the case of animals that are fully grown, which are never met with 

 in feeding practice nowadays, the entire digestible portion of the 

 ration, except that required for maintenance, goes to the production 

 of fat, and such animals, as is well known, fatten with great rapid- 

 ity. 



It has already been pointed out that growth is a cheap prod- 

 uct, easy to manufacture, and commands a low price on the market, 

 as witness the ease with which animals may be made to gain at 

 pasture, likewise what a low price grazing or thin cattle bring on 

 the market as compared with those which have been fed grain and 

 have been fattened. 



A glance at the results of all the experiments seeking to com- 

 pare the cost of gain in old and young cattle will clearly reveal the 

 fact that the older animals were made uniformaly fatter. This 

 is self-evident when we realize that they were all fed the same length 

 of time. It is further evidenced by the fact that the old cattle 

 sold uniformly higher on the market. That is to say, taking the 

 experiments at Ottawa, Kansas, and of Missouri Stations, there 

 has been a direct and uniform relation between the age of the 

 animal and the price that it has sold for on the market at the close 

 of the experiment. 



Note the following summary of prices brought by all cattle fed 

 in these experiments at the different stations : 



Selling prices of cattle at different ages in various experi- 

 ments. 



