EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III. 109 



5 per cent. That is, if I get a 1200 pound steer, J get 36 pounds. 

 I find that steer has shrunk about 24 pounds on an average. Oc- 

 casionallj'' you will find a load of cattle that will weigh out, and 

 again you will find a load of cattle, you think the conditions are 

 just as favorable, and you have a condition you cannot account 

 for. This matter of shrinkage we have no control over, so much 

 depends on the conditions of the cattle weighed at home and the 

 conditions at the market. 



Question : I notice these cattle you reported on made an aver- 

 age gain of three pounds a day. 



Mr. Emboden: No, sir; they made nearly 3 1-8 pounds. My 

 cattle generally make an average of 2 I/4 a day if they are fed not 

 to exceed 5 months; if they are fed longer, they Connol: maintain 

 that gain. These Texas cattle generally go about 11 months on 

 feed. They make an average, one year with another of about 700 

 pounds. 



Question : Will you state your method of starting those calves ? 



Mr. Emboden : I received some calves yesterday, before I left 

 home from Chicago ; they were shown at the International. They 

 were first prize, from the Southern District of Texas, Tick country. 

 I put out in the rack some clover hay and a little sorghum; I had 

 cut and put about a bushel of corn in the trough; about a half 

 bushel of oats and about a half bushel of ground corn, with a 

 little oil cake — a bushel to 22 calves. Probably by this evening 

 that feed will be eaten. There may be a few calves that will prob- 

 ably not touch it at all, and the majority of them will get around 

 the box and take a little feed, and during the day this bushel of 

 feed will be gone. Tomorrow they will probably take a bushel and 

 a half, and in the course of a week — I never had a bunch of 

 calves from the range it would take over a week for all of them 

 to go on feed, and putting out a little feed at a time, you will 

 find the calves take readily to it, while others will be a few days 

 or a week getting to the feed. They will all soon take to it, and 

 I will increase the feed then, and these calves will be fed ground 

 com with a little oats and about a half pound of oil cake until 

 spring, and then will be put on full feed. 



Question: How much do they weigh? 



Mr. Emboden: About 400 pounds now. 



Question: In your experience what is the most profitable high 

 priced feed and low priced feeders, or high priced feeders and low 

 priced feed? 



