FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 347 



pective buyer. I wish to call attention to a few necessary and im])ortar.i; 

 points to be observed before attempting to secure the cattle. 



In this age of change and if you will progress, when the tendency of 

 every industrial department is toward combination and centralization, 

 in this land where labor rules and where unions are more powerful than 

 law, religion or right, where the successful man in every business de- 

 partment devotes his whole energy and thinking being to the perfection 

 of some one idea and to prove to the world its value, the farmer, feeder 

 and stock man is expected to take his place. 



In order then to buy well a drove of cattle for the feed lot he must 

 know something more than cattle. There must be long, hard hours of 

 study over the industrial problems of the day. The reason why he feeds 

 being his desire to sell beef at a profit, it becomes necessary for him to 

 study the future prospect of the market. He must be well posted on the 

 number of cattle relative to other like periods that ate going "on feed" 

 at the time he expects to start his. He must know to a certainty the 

 power or feeding value of the feed he is to use and its cost per hundred 

 weight when ready for the cattle. He must also be reasonably sure of 

 the pounds of gain to be made during the feeding period by the use of 

 this feed. He will then know just exactly what he can take per hundred 

 weight for his cattle and not lose on the investment. He also has the 

 advantage of knowing at all stages of the feeding period the actual cost 

 of the cattle up to date, and can take advantage of a profit should the 

 proper inducement present itself. To all of these questions and many 

 others should the feeder give his best thought and study before deciding 

 to feed. 



It would be impossible in one article to speak of all the different 

 methods or combination of circumstances that must inevitably arise and 

 can only be settled by one person, and he the originator of the plan. I 

 will therefore confine myself to a few general principles that I have 

 found useful in buying all kinds of cattle but more particularly those to 

 be used for the "dry lot" or placed immediately on full feed. 



The first and most important point to be decided by the buyer is the 

 class of cattle to buy. This question should be settled at home before 

 any attempt is made to find or purchase any cattle whatever. Only 

 those of the same class, age, weight, and breeding should be fed in the 

 same yard. A mixed drove of big and little, rough and smooth, well-bre 1 

 and scrubs, do not feed so well nor sell as well as though they were all 

 of the same kind. Having fully determined this point, do not allow your 

 judgment to be overruled by what the other man is doing. A good axiom 

 to follow is to "Buy when the other man wants to sell." You can then 

 get your money's worth. The kind or Qlass you buy will depend largely 

 upon your surroundings and the time of year, but you will certainly take 

 those which in your judgment will make you the most money. In order 

 to determine this we find four factors, three of which are known: the 

 cost price, the feed bill, and the average gain per day or ratio between 

 feed and gain. The fourth member of the equation is more uncertain 

 and at times very difficult to control, namely, the selling price. If this 



