148 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



forts of life for himself and family, and in the course of a life of toil adds 

 something to his estate, he has to be satisfied. 



I submit for the purpose of comparison an estimate of the selling value 

 of the live stock raised or fed on the farms of Michigan, and give you the 

 results of my own experience. A horse which at four years old, for a series 

 of years, will sell for one hundred dollars (taking the chances of these ani- 

 mals to unsoundness and accidents), is a full average. At this age, the horse 

 has been pastured in summer and fed in winter fourteen hundred and sixty 

 days (1,460) days, or at less than seven (7) cents a day. 



A steer at three years old, fed on grass and hay alone, is a good one if it 

 will sell for thirty-five (35) dollars. This sum is a trifle over three (3) cents 

 for each day, for the ten hundred and ninety-five (1095) days that it has been 

 fed and cared for. 



A cow can be made to produce in butter or cheese, including the valne of 

 her calf, at least ten cents a day, say forty (40) dollars a year. The cow will 

 consume more pasture, more hay, and small grain to give these results, than 

 will the steer. The labor required in milking the cow, and making the milk 

 into butter or cheese, is more, and the question of profit over colt, steer, pig, 

 or sheep is often determined by the size of the farmer's family. If in quest 

 of profitable- employment, there is no doubt in my mind that the cow is now, 

 and will be in the future, the most profitable animal on the farm. 



A pig which ought to weigh at nine months, or two hundred and seventy 

 (270) days old, that number of pounds, pays, on an average, about five cents 

 for each day's keep. However, as it feeds principally upon grain, which costs 

 much labor, it is doubtful whether it is more profitable than other animals 

 grown upon the farm. 



Last and least in the minds of some, comes the sheep, the animal whicb. it 

 is expected that I will treat upon in this paper. A sheep which will give wool 

 of the value of two (3) dollars, and increase in lambs of the value of one and 

 a half ($1.50) dollars each year, is usually looked upon as a good one, and is 

 a good one. This is less than one cent for each day for summer pasture, win- 

 ter food, washing, shearing, and care; a small, very small sum. Yet most 

 of the farmers of Michigan believe it profitable, and" keep some sheep on the 

 farm, and some who do expect to realize much for their own labor, believe 

 that sheep are the most profitable animals that can be kept on the farm. The 

 question as to the value of the manure made by animals kept on the farm, 

 is one of great importance. In this regard (not that any one knows certainly 

 perhaps), it is, I believe, conceded that sheep stand first. 



I know that many writers on agriculture, especially when they wish to figure 

 out a profit, give a large money value to manure. This is fallacious. No one 

 can increase the productiveness of our virgin soils by the aid of manure. If 

 he is a good farmer, he will not allow it to deteriorate. Hence that which he 

 returns to the soil in order to keep up its productiveness should not enter into 

 the account of profit. 



How much does it cost to keep a sheep each year? What money value will 

 it produce? I can answer the last question, and so can all of you gentlemen 

 before me who raise mutton and grow wool. As to the cost of keeping, I can- 

 not answer definitely. I have looked over many hundred pages since I 

 consented to write on this subject, and in the past I have read many thousand 

 columns in regard to sheep; I have asked the question at two annual meetings 

 of the "Michigan Sheep Breeders' Association," and have never found or 

 received a definite satisfactory answer. Can any one in the audience answer? 



