142 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the conclusion of the fattening period I have to feed them much more than when I 

 am feeding the steers unhusked corn. 



L. I). Watkins: I cannot tell exactly what it costs to prodvice a pound of beef. 

 Our method is briefly as follows: We cut our corn with a binder, stand the bundles ujj 

 in good sized shocks and bind tight about the top. The corn then keeps in better 

 condition for feeding than when cribbed and dried. This method saves cribbing and 

 husking. The shocks have from 25 to 30 bundles as they come from the binder. They 

 keep perfectly. I feed in the lots Avhere I want the manure. I believe in this open 

 air feeding. A steer should never be tied, but should be fed in the open air. My 

 neighbor, F. Hart Smith, is in my estimation the best steer feeder in Michigan. He 

 has large barns that would hold a carload in each, yet he now feeds entirely in the open 

 air, and this in all kinds of weather. Is it not possible that a lower temperature 

 causes better assimilation? Experiments with lambs have demonstrated that they make 

 better gains in cold weather than in warm on the same feed. Our methods economize 

 human labor, do not waste feed, and secure the most rapid and economical gains on the 

 steers. 



Wm. Ball: I do not think the methods of Mr. Watkins would work on a small 

 farm. 



L. D. Watkins: We must turn about in our method. We must raise less wheat 

 and raise stock instead. We must feed the entire year. With us each cow raises dur- 

 ing the vear three calves. 



FRIDAY AFTERNOON. 



XEWBERKY HALL. 



TOPIC— LIVE STOCK CONTINUED. 

 Wm. Campbell in the Chair. 



THE POSSIBILITIES AND ESSENTIALS OF HORSE-BREEDING 



IN MICHIGAN. 



ROBERT GIBBONS, EDITOR MICHIGAN FARMER, DETROIT. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen: 



In what I shall say on this subject I shall confine myself largely to the 

 commercial end of the business— the results attained by the breeder, not 

 the details with which he must be familiar before he can expect to suc- 

 ceed. The essentials for the business of breeding horses in Michigan 

 are, I take it, the same as in every other state. The first is a suitable 

 location, the main point being the character of the soil. The horse is 

 an animal that requires a dry soil, lying high, and more or less rolling, 

 producing short, sweet grasses, and having pure, clear water always 

 accessible. Low, level land, producing a heavy growth of grass, and 

 with a soft or mucky soil, can never produce horses of good bone and 

 sound, hard feet. If we look back at the history of the horse, either in 

 foreign countries or our own, in every instance we will find that the 

 land upon which horses have been bred and raised has determined 

 their characteristics and controlled their conformation. Those coun- 



