104 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE. 



tie. My custom lias been to buy cattle (steers generally) from two to ihtee 

 years old, during the summer and fall, or whenever I could strike a bargain 

 that seemed desirable. And right here comes in the necessity of exercising 

 good Judgment. There are animals that are dear at almost any price at which 

 they might be purchased, for feeding purposes. Among these may be mentioned 

 old oxen, stags, and animals which have been half starved during the early 

 stages of their growth, and a farmer can scarcely put good hay and grain to a 

 worse use than feeding them to such animals. I never purchased but one pan' 

 of old oxen to fatten, and although they were purchased at a low price, as I 

 thought, they were the poorest investment in cattle that I ever made. I lay it 

 down as a rule, with slight variations, that the feeder should buy none but 

 young and thrifty cattle. When pasture gets short in autumn, or grass is frost- 

 bitten, commence fodder or liay, and a little meal should be given to keep the 

 animal in a growing and thrifty condition. After the middle of October in this 

 latitude, cattle may profitably be stabled every night. The man who attempts 

 to fatten cattle, with the cold, frosty ground for a bed and a rail fence for a 

 shelter, will find himself making progress in the wrong direction. "Wlien cold 

 weather sets in, I deem it best that the cattle to be fattened should be confined 

 to the stall during most of the day, and I am by no means certain that they are 

 benefited by being allowed to run out at all. liowever, it is a convenience to 

 turn them out to water, Avhicli should always l)e near at hand, and in sufficient 

 quantities. Running the gauntlet of half a mile or more, harrassed by men and 

 dogs, and at last drinking out of a muddy pond through a hole cut in the ice, 

 is not a strong incentive to growth or laying on of flesh ; and yet it is a fact that 

 thousands of cattle in the State of Michigan have only the alternative of total 

 abstinence from drink, or obtaining it in the manner suggested. Dig a well 

 near your barn, and put a windmill over it to pump your water (unless you have 

 abetter source of supply), and if you are '^\4ntering a dozen head of cattle annu- 

 ally the mill will pay its cost long before you die of old age. As to the amount 

 of feed to bo given to each animal, no specific directions can be given. Nature 

 is so capricious in her moods that while of too animals of equal size and appear- 

 ance one may eat and digest properly twelve quarts of meal per day, the other 

 may fail to eat half that amount. I am feeding, for beef, ten head of cattle, 

 two and three years old. Each animal is fed of oats and corn meal, ground 

 together in the proportion of two bushels of corn to one of oats, three quarts in 

 the morning, then all the timothy hay they will eat until two or three o' clock in 

 the afternoon. They are then turned out to water, the stables cleaned and bed- 

 ded with straw, mangers cleaned out, and the cattle again put in and fed three 

 quarts of meal each. After this each animal is fed one and a half bushels of 

 chopped corn-stalks, which makes the allowance for twenty -four hours. I would 

 prefer a greater variety of feed, such as carrots, ruta-bagas, or mangel-wurzels, 

 but have heretofore not been successful in my efforts to raise any of these crops. 

 I shall increase the amount of meal fed as the season advances, and do not 

 expect to put my cattle in the market until April, or perhaps later. 



I have here outlined, not very briefly, my views on the subject of fattening 

 cattle. I do not profess to have achieved eminent success in the business. On 

 the contrary, I am fully aware that I have yet much to learn as a feeder of 

 cattle. What I have written has been not so much with the expectation of 

 imparting instruction, as with the hope of drawing out and profiting by the 

 experience of others. If in what I have written there shall be found a sugges- 

 tion that sh&ll prove profitable to any individual, or shall incite others to give 



