Nu. 6. L>ErvNRTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 353 



To the man who goes into the work thoroughly, and right, there 

 is money in cattle breeding. I would not advise the theorist to try 

 it. Theory does not achieve the same results as hard, practical work 

 and knowledge. If you are in the work for success, and are willing 

 to work for it, success will come to you, if you like the work. I don't 

 believe that any man succeeds, as a rule, in a business he has no 

 liking for. There should be a natural liking for the business, and a 

 determination to succeed. Then he will set out and experiment and 

 improve, and he will keep a record of his methods, and when he has 

 found one that succeeds with him, he will keep it. Now, there are 

 many small farmers in Pennsylvania, as in Ohio, where it seems 

 strange to me that a man does not keep a few beef cattle round his 

 farm. There is always a good deal of feed around the farm that is 

 of no particular value, and which these cattle would thrive on. Out 

 in Ohio this year, for instance, we have a good deal of soft corn, for 

 which there is no market, but beef cattle will eat it, and put on 

 flesh on it. Now you may not get quite as good a gain on it, as on 

 the other kind, but it would be a waste to you, and they put on 

 flesh, and thrive on it. Now, you will have something like that 

 every year, that will practically go to waste on the farm, that he 

 could turn into a few- beef cattle, raising four, or five, or six of them, 

 that would bring in a nice return. And in connection with these 

 beef cattle, it is well to keep a few hogs, which can be fed on the 

 shocked and broken corn that would otherwise go to waste, and in 

 figuring the profit on your steers, it is also necessary to include the 

 profit on your hogs. 



Now, tiie question is often asked, "Can you give us facts and fig- 

 ures to show this?" and I will say to you very frankly that I am not 

 prepared to do so, but I can refer you to a lot of men who are mak- 

 ing money by these operations, and I can refer you to a lot of farms 

 that are getting rich by this process, not simply holding their own, 

 but getting rich. I said to you earlier in the evening, that w^e have 

 skimmed the surface of our farms, and gone west, and gone west, 

 and gone west. Now, we have got to come back, and put back into 

 our ground some of the richness we have skimmed off. Now, we 

 have to put the fertility back to our land, and if you are going to 

 grow grain there, there is no better way "than by putting on that 

 land some live stock. Nothing better has been found. Now, if you 

 are a dairyman, well and good, but if you have no dairy market, and 

 need to fertilize your land, I know of no better method than to start 

 in beef growing fit is one of the best methods of fertilizing and im- 

 proving farms that can be found. 



Now, I want to say only one other thing. If you start in the cat- 

 tle growing business, you will naturally want high class stock, and 

 the man that is a success at growing beef cattle, or cattle for any 

 other purpose, will usually be a high class man. If you see a high 

 class animal, you will see a high class man round somewhere; he will 

 be a success, and he will breed the best animals that can be put on 

 the market, and he will know his business. 



23—0—1907. 



