FOURTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 349 



secure cattle of the same class. I would say, then, buy the kind of cattle 

 you need as cheaply as possible, and never buy water. Throw out all 

 undesirable steers such as weak legs, backs, lungs, lump jaws. Buy only 

 those with good back, head, legs, and digestion, and it will be your fault 

 if they do not fatten. 



FEEDING CATTLE, AS A PART OF GENERAL FARM OPERATIONS. 



■John Fox, Dallas Center. Iowa. 



Except in a few locations, near to cities, and localities where the 

 demand is such as to make it morp profitable to devote the land to fruit 

 and vegetable gardening, and such can hardly be classed as general 

 farming — the question of keeping cattle on the farm admits of but one 

 answer. If the fertility of land is to be kept up the keeping of stock is 

 a necessity; this, of course, admits the whole range of domestic animals, 

 each having its especial adaptation to local environment. 



In the great corn and grass belt of Iowa, where the writer lives, 

 cattle and hogs seem to be peculiarly adapted, and in the thirty-five years 

 of practical experience I have found the rearing of cattle and hogs, the 

 milking of cows, and the special business of feeding steers, together with 

 hogs, reasonably profitable. 



My experience has been that the milking of cows and the raising of 

 calves and hogs has proven most profitable on the smaller farms, there 

 being less of the speculative element in it than in the purchase of steers 

 and hogs and fattening them; but earlier success leads to larger holdings 

 and the detail required for dairy farming is harder to follow out on a 

 large scale, and an entirely different proposition is met if one makes the 

 change to feeding for beef and pork. Many things come in for consider- 

 ation, on which may depend success or failure. 



To begin I would say, go slowly until you learn what you can reason- 

 ably expect to do with a given amount of feed and fair animals, depend- 

 ing largely upon the feed produced on the farm until you know what you 

 can reasonably expecr to produce under given conditions, then with 

 a knowledge of cost of production you are prepared to make a fair esti- 

 mate of what you can pay for feeders and feed. But, be sure you do not 

 discount the future buying your feeders, expecting a raise in the price 

 of the finished article, for in a series of years there is sure to be as many 

 declines as advances, and if others seem to see great things ahead, and 

 put up prices on stockers where an advance on finished beeves must be 

 realized to make a profit, .do not abandon the business altogether, but 

 put in fewer cattle and more hogs, as a few cattle with a number of hogs 

 to follow will rarely ever cause a loss. 



I have known of a number of failures made by parties who seeing 

 the apparent success of some large operator, think that all that is neces- 

 sary is' for them to get an advance from the bank, buy the cattle and 

 the corn, and lose in a single year the savings of several, where if they 



