140 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and high priced steers, on being asked how he accomplished such results, 

 replied: With water, corn and blue grass. There is nothing in the feed- 

 ing operations suggested that cannot be applied by every practical and 

 intelligent farmer. In my opinion, the farmer who breeds the steer and 

 feeds him until weaning time should feed him until he is finished for 

 market. If one feeder can buy yearlings or two-year-old steers, buy 

 feed and make a profit in so doing, why should not the breeder do so? 

 He raises his own hay, furnishes his own pasture, grows his own grain, 

 and he should feed it on his own farm, where much of its value is re- 

 turned to the farm in the form of the most valuable fertilizer. Is there 

 any satisfactory reason why Illinois, Iowa and the farther West should 

 furnish practically nearly all prime beef animals. Michigan has good 

 soil, good water, intelligent farmers. Formerly her fields and barn- 

 yards were adorned with well bred and valuable beef animals. We have 

 in this State intelligent breeders of thoroughbred beef cattle who have 

 to seek a market in the West for their surplus bulls at anything of a fair 

 value, while every male of good quality and many times more are 

 needed to improve the breeds of cattle as now scattered over the State. 

 Is it true that the business intelligence of this country is west of Lake 

 Michigan? Shall it be longer said that the farms in Michigan, or too 

 many of them, shall longer be despoiled in fertility by too constant crop- 

 ping of cheap wheat and beans. The farms of the West are kept fertile 

 by the large amounts of stock grown and fed upon them. Chicago and 

 Buffalo markets are accessible to Michigan farmers. Let them raise 

 more general purpose cows, good for dairy and beef purposes, more corn, 

 more hay, more roots, more of any coarse grains to be fed on the farm 

 and sold in the form of beef, wool, mutton, pork, poultry, butter and 

 cheese, and less wheat and rye. 



Let the special dairyman breed his valuable Jerseys or Guernseys or 

 Holsteins, especially adapted to the ends he seeks; let him build and 

 fill his silos with corn and stalks and feed it as he thinks best, and I 

 have no doubt about its value for his purposes, but the ordinary farmer, 

 engaged in diversified farming, needs to study the capabilities of his 

 farm, its needs and requirements, and how best to determine what num- 

 ber of sheep, swine, horses and cattle he can keep wall, all of which he is 

 obliged to have. I have said repeatedly, and I will add it here, that it 

 takes a certain amount of food and care to keep an animal in growing 

 condition. If any profit accrues from what has been fed, it must come 

 from the small amount of extra feed given to aid in the fuller develop- 

 ment of the animal. The good results which follow from the small 

 extra amount fed cannot be overlooked if success is attained. The 

 profits in stock raising do not come from the numbers kept, but from 

 the kinds and manner in which they are kept. No farmer should excuse 

 himself for not bringing out the best results obtainable from the animals 

 he breeds because in his method in diversified farming he is obliged 

 to have horses, cattle, sheep, swine and poultry. There is no question 

 regarding the necessity of improving a very large percentage of the 

 farms in this State. I know of no w^ay that this improvement can be 

 made so well as by feeding the products of the farm to well bred varie- 

 ties of domestic animals needed in farm operations. I am well aware 

 that I have used considerable latitude in treating upon the subject given 

 me, but its importance, aside from the mere idea of feeding the steer, 



