FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 361 



bulls of real excellence then we shall hear from them no longer the wail that 

 there is no profit in cattle and it does not pay to buy pedigreed bulls. Three 

 of us once bought a three-year old Airdrie bull that we knew to be quiet and 

 a good stock getter. We paid $100 for him and sold him for $80 after two 

 years. We were well satisfied with the investment. Two other neighbors 

 preferred a Polled-Durham and bought a yearling, kept him two years and 

 he died, yet he is said to have paid for himself by the improvement noted in 

 his calves and the fees received for his service. 



A little more enterprise is needed along with the desire for better stock. 

 With these there would be more good bulls used by farmers combining and 

 purchasing pure-bred bulls of decided merit. Two or three neighbors can 

 own a good bull at less cost to each than for each to own one of inferior 

 quality. The cost of keeping one pure-bred is only one-third as much as the 

 keeping of three mongrels and the pure-bred is likely to have better care and 

 give less trouble. Combination is the solution of and co-operation the key 

 to both the imaginary and real troubles with the bull on the small farm. 

 The breaking up of the large ranches and the abandoning or lessening of 

 the operations of the great cattle companies of the plains make it safer for 

 the small farmers to venture on combining to buy pure-bred bulls and 

 increasing and improving their holdings of cattle. 



THE PRODUCTION OF BABY BEEF. 



H. R. Smith, of the University of Nebraska, in Breeders^ Gazette. 



In feeding cattle -for beef the system to be practiced will depend very 

 largely upon locality, and to some extent upon the season. In some sections 

 the soil and climate are especially favorable for the production of grass and 

 hay, but less so for corn. The operation of flour mills, glucose factories 

 and linseed oil works makes it possible to secure in some localities the 

 by-products from such institutions at reasonable prices. 



In some states feeding for pork is carried on so extensively as to make 

 grain in demand at strong prices and roughness a drug on the market. 

 Farms in other states are adapted for dairying or sheep raising, as well as 

 for sheep production, which makes it possible to utilize a part of the cheap 

 roughness in other ways, permitting the use of a proportionately larger 

 amount of grain for beef production. 



The season is a factor in any locality in so far as it affects prices on food- 

 stuffs from year to year, necessitating the exercise of business sagacity in 

 the use of those foodstuffs which go the farthest for the money. 



Feeding for beef resolves itself into two general methods: the produc- 

 tion of early fattened beef, called "baby beef" when carried to the extreme, 

 and the production of older beef by a larger use of roughness and a more 

 gradual process of grain feeding. On those farms where roughness can be 

 profitably used in other ways the production of early beef has two distinct 

 advantages. Young stock requires less food for a given gain than older 

 stock. Records show that for each succeeding year up to the age of three 

 or four years approximately 50 per cent more food is required for a given 



