THE ECONOMIC OUTLOOK. 35 



ordinary farmer spends in tending fifteen or twenty head of 

 fattening steers under the disadvantages existing upon ordinary 

 farms. In these mammoth establishments " a steam-engine 

 moves the hay from one large barn to another, as needed, by 

 means of an endless belt, and su]3plies it to a powerful machine, 

 where it is cut into lengths suitable for feeding, and afterward 

 carries the cut hay by other belts to the mixing-room, where by 

 means of another machine it is mixed with corn-meal ; the corn 

 having been previously shelled and then ground on the prem- 

 ises by power from the same engine. Again, the mixed feed 

 is carried automatically to the feed-boxes in the stalls. The 

 same engine pumps the water for drinking, which runs in a 

 long, shallow trough within reach of the steers ; and even the 

 stalls are cleaned by water discharged through a hose, the supply 

 being raised by the engine and stored for use. The steers are 

 not removed from the stalls in which they are placed from the 

 time the fattening process is begun until they are ready for 

 transportation to the big establishments above mentioned for 

 systematic slaughtering. The advantages of such establishments 

 are not, moreover, confined to labor-saving expedients merely. 

 The uniformity of temperature secured through all kinds of 

 weather is equivalent to a notable saving of feed; for where 

 fluctuations of temperature are extreme and rapid, and not 

 guarded against, " a great deal of the grain which the farmer 

 feeds is ' blown away ' after having been consumed by his stock," 

 in form of vital heat, strength, and growth, which are the prod- 

 ucts of the conversion of the grain on digestion.* 



* It has been found that the present usual method adopted on Western farms of feed- 

 ing grain, especially corn, without previous grinding, is most costly, as the grain in its 

 natural condition is imperfectly digested. Another serious objection to the imperfect 

 methods of the ordinary farm in grain-feeding is, that the grain is fed in a too con- 

 centrated form ; the fact being unlinown, or disregarded, that the thrift of the fattening 

 animal depends largely on the intimate admixture of ground grain With coarse forage ; 

 and that hay, also, must be chopped, and more thoroughly intermingled with it, for the 

 attainment of the best results. But the chopping of the hay and straw and the mixing 

 with meal and water is a laborious operation, and hence the economy of applying the 

 steam-engine, and thus saving labor in the business of feeding. Another saving is in 

 building materials ; the larger the structure in which the machinery, the hay and grain, 

 and the animals are kept, the less the proportionate quantity of lumber needed ; and then, 

 again, in such an establishment, temperature and ventilation, which in ordinary farming 

 are matters that receive little attention, are economically and effectively regulated. An 

 American practical farmer, the owner and manager of seven thousand acres (Mr. 11. 

 H , of Nebraska), to whom the writer is indebted for many items of information, com- 

 municates the following additional review of this subject from the American (Western) 

 stand-point : " The average Western farm is now recklessly managed, but capital will come 

 in greater volume and set up processes which will displace these wasteful methods. The 

 revolution is certain, even if the exact steps can not now be precisely indicated. At 

 present the hay, and much of the grain, and nearly all of the tools and implements, are 

 unsheltered ; and more than fifty per cent of the hay is ruined for a like reason, while 



