No. 7. DEPARTMEtNT OF AGRICULTURE. S27 



whether the protein is derived from the grain or the roughage. Corn 

 fed with a leguminous hay seems to give fully as good results as 

 corn and oil meal or cottonseed meal fed with timothy hay or corn 

 stover. The animal that has enough protein in its food and is young 

 enough to make a good growth will not get patchy when fattened 

 like the one that is older or is fed on a less nitrogenous ration. 



In producing beef animals from common cows, the bull is con- 

 siderably more than half the herd. The more the cows depart from 

 the beef type the stronger the bull should incline toward it. This 

 does not mean that a beef bull bred to high grade Jersey cows will 

 produce profitable beef steers; he will not. Such breeding will al- 

 ways result in a loss. But the cow that is a heavy milker with a 

 tendency to lay on flesh when dry, will produce a good steer when 

 crossed with a beef sire. Whatever else is done the dual purpose 

 sire should be avoi.ded. The dual purpose cow may be all right, but 

 the dual purpose steer has no place in the feed lot. When beef 

 animals are wanted, a beef sire should be used; when dairy animals 

 are wanted, a dairy sire should be used; if scrubs are wanted, a dual 

 purpose sire will answer the purpose. 



It is not safe to use any but a pure bred sire. He should be a 

 good individual, well bred but not necessarily fashionably bred. It 

 would not pay to put $500 into a bull for a herd of twenty-five grade 

 oows, but it probably would pay to put in |100 rather than $50. 

 The calves would haA^e to be worth only $2.00 more per head to have 

 the difference returned the first year. A high grade bull that is a 

 good individual and whose breeding is known to be good may be 

 better than a pure bred scrub, but such an animal is not often found; 

 his breeding is usually unknown. Entirely too many of the bulls 

 in this State are just bulls, without form and void. Like the prov- 

 erbial mule, they are without pride of ancestry, but they certainly 

 have hope of posterity so far as numbers are concerned. It is no 

 wonder steers do not pay. There is too much competition at present 

 to permit of spontaneous breeding being profitable. It takes no 

 more feed to raise a good animal than a poor one; it may not take 

 as much. It does take a little more intelligence. 



According to the twelfth census, the farmers of Pennsylvania spend 

 annually almost $5,000,000 for commercial fertilizers. This is more 

 than is spent in any other state except Georgia. A large amount 

 of this could be saved by feeding the crops out on the farm and 

 properly caring for the manure. Pennsylvanians are depending too 

 much upon the West to supply their animals. They ship in their 

 beef from Chicago, their pork from Buffalo, and their horses from 

 St. Louis. It is a well known fact that fattening animals return a 

 higher per cent, of the fertilizing constituents in their food than 

 any other class. In an experiment at the Pennsylvania Experiment 

 Station and published in Bulletin No. 63, 86.63 per cent, of the nitro- 

 gen, 82.98 per cent, of the phosphoric acid, and 93.95 per cent, of the 

 potash in the food and litter of fattening steers was recovered in the 

 manure. The actual amount recovered in any instance will depend 

 upon the method of feeding and of handling the manure. 



Tests made at the same station and published in the same bulletin, 

 show that there is much less loss in manure with steers kept in pens 

 or box stalls, where the manure is allowed to accumulate under 

 them and is trampled into a compact layer, than with those kept 



