280 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



four times the first, and a total value of $18,078,000. Besides having better 

 stock we shall have better butter and get better prices, making the profit still 

 greater. These comparative figures are fair, and the last amount not beyond 

 our reach. 



Our wheat crop is the most valuable crop we now have, but we can keep 

 cows enough to have their product equal to our wheat and still raise as much 

 wheat as we now do. It has been demonstrated that where the most wheat is 

 raised the most stock is kept. You have all seen the very fine wheat map of 

 Michigan giving the bushels raised and the average in each county. When 

 the first one of the kind was issued in 1878, I think, Dr. Miles, formerly of 

 the Agricultural College, showed from statistics that with hardly an exception 

 the counties having the greatest average of wheat per acre had also the most 

 stock for the acres of improved land. 



Our State has no statistics of milk and butter product, and the United States 

 census is not complete for 1880 ; but in 1870 the cows in this State averaged 

 only 100 pounds per cow, accounting with this, cheese made and milk sold. 



A poor show for profits, is it not? And while we are adding by improvement 

 to the value of our product we are also increasing the value of our stock very 

 fast. A cow that makes a profit of 120 is worth just four times one whose 

 profit is $5. 



We have seen the value of improvement in milk production. How^is it with 

 beef? If our cattle are sold on an average four years old, and at an average 

 weight of 1,000 pounds, the age can be easily reduced to three years for the 

 same weight, thus saving a year in time and interest and risk, even if it takes 

 the same feed. If we can, by better feed and better breeding, increase the 

 weight to 1,200 to 1,500 pounds at 2| to 3 years, we shall not only save in 

 time, get greater weight for the same feed, but get much better price per 

 pound, increasing the profit very much. The present market value of a steer 

 well fattened, weighing 1,500 pounds, is $1.50 to $2 per hundred more than 

 for one of 1,000 pounds, which of itself is a fine profit. 



I have given enough to indicate the importance of an awakening in this 

 matter that shall rouse the average farmer to better methods. 



This matter of early maturity is a very important point in a country where 

 we have to feed our cattle in the barns for half or more of the year. The 

 sooner the desired weight can be secured with the same feed, the more 

 profitable will be the feeding. It will not pay to secure weight in calves by 

 feeding entirely new milk. Nor is it necessary. Skimmed milk with an 

 allowance of oil meal to take the place of the fat removed from the milk, 

 will give larger growth of bone and muscle, and the young animal can be 

 made at two years old quite the equal in weight of one fed from birth on new 

 milk. Of the feed given a fattening animal about three-fourths goes to sup- 

 ply the daily wastes of life without producing any gain, while it is the last 

 quarter from which the profit comes. Is it profitable then to refuse the latter 

 and thus throw away the former, receiving absolutely nothing from it? 



I have not mentioned all the means of improvement nor all the value there 

 is in it. I could give figures and statistics which might be more dry and tire- 

 some than what you have already heard. I think I have given enough to 

 indicate the importance of an awakening in this matter that shall arouse the 

 average farmer to better methods and practices in breeding and feeding his 

 cattle. I have made only such statements as can be demonstrated, or have 

 been approved, in practice. I speak for no impracticable methods, no fancy 

 farming theories that fine stock must be kept whether it pays or not. Tlie 



