672 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



them in the way they should go for a few days, after they are a week 

 old, and then keep them In that way. And lambs learn very quickly 

 even when only a week old. The whole world is going on this basis 

 now, and although we may see very amazing improvements in the past 

 few years, these will be nothing to what is to come before many more 

 years. Then let us now be in the front, and ready to march with the 

 foremost, and those who are ready in the best manner will take the lead 

 with all its advantages. There have been amazing impiovements in 

 horses, cattle and all other possessions and works of mankind, and why 

 should not the shepherd come in at the head, as he may if he will? So 

 let us begin now. Feed the spring lambs in such a way as will mature 

 them for breeding, and let them run with a rather light-weight ram for 

 the present. Then notice the result, and let us know what it has been 

 for tTie encouragement of those who doubt. 



VALUES OF FOODS. 



Many farmers in the middle and eastern states find good profit, iin 

 a very convenient way, by feeding lambs purchased in the markets 

 as unfinished material, so to speak, and by feeding them finish them ready 

 for sale; thus making a good profit not only on the original value of the 

 lambs, but as well on the cost of the food consumed which of course is 

 mostly home grown; and in addition they get a very satisfactory return 

 in the manure, and the home market made for the disposal of inferior and 

 unsalable stuff. It is no new business, at least on the other side of the 

 ocean, but it is on this side, for it is really the result of useful lessons 

 learned from English farmers who have carried on this business for 

 many years back as one of the most profitable ways of adding to the 

 fertility of their land, gained by the use of foods consumed, and turned 

 into manure, as well as one of the most salable products of their enter- 

 prise and surplus capital. This word surplus of course used in a com- 

 parative sense, meaning outside of the ordinary business of the farm, 

 and a side line — as said by mercantile people — but a very profitable and 

 easy addition to the ordinary routine of the farm work. It has long 

 been one of the maxims of the science of agriculture, that the feeding of 

 cattle is the most profitable part of the work of a farm, and we are only 

 now taking up this part of the farm business as one of the "time-honored" 

 parts of the English farm work. Then if our English competitors can 

 import our surplus stock and our feed (corn, oil-meals and even hay) 

 and so make very good profit, why cannot the same thing be done by our 

 own farmers in the East; and the Western lambs be bought in the mar- 

 kets and fed on the surplus produce of Eastern farms, and the roughness 

 which otherwise would be wasted for want of a use for it — and the fin- 

 ished lambs then sold in the local markets to the butchers; and in this 

 way good profits oe made? 



This question needs no answer; it answers itself. And this being so 

 it should be taken up by farmers in the middle and eastern states, and 

 made a common practice, to the very great profit of all who will heed 



