638 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



If you do not feel entirely competent to buy for yourself go to some 

 reliable commission firm to help you select the cattle, to pay for them 

 and see they are properly loaded on cars. Nine times out of ten it will 

 be money well spent. If you are buying in the country the same points 

 are to be observed but it will be necessary to use more care in order to 

 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 un- 

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

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

 if he does not fatten. 



WHAT THE SCOTT COUNTY LIVE STOCK IS ENTITLED TO. 



A. P. Arp, before Scott County Farmers'" Institute. 



It would have been better if this subject had been cattle instead of 

 live stock, as I am going to confine my remarks entirely to cattle. Some 

 are entitled to more to eat and a different ration but that is not the class 

 that I am going to deal with. I am going to deal with that class that con- 

 stitutes the majority of Scott county's cattle. They eat more than they 

 are entitled to because they don't pay for what they eat. But they are not 

 to blame. They are doing the best they can. They are putting on beef 

 with the same speed and putting it on in the same places that their an- 

 cestors did. And that is all any man has any right to expect. These cattle 

 are all right to raise yoke oxen or material for Spanish bull fights which 

 is just what the Spaniards raised them for and they are the breeders of 

 the foundation of practically all the scrub cattle in the country The only 

 difference between the scrub cattle of today and one hundred years ago 

 is that those of today have been mixed and crossed back and forth with 

 grades and an occasional pure bred of all the different breeds of cattle on 

 the face of the earth. Now it is an undisputable fact that we have more 

 of these cattle than we should have. In fact we should not have any. 



Now before trying to prescribe a cure for these conditions let us first 

 look for some of the causes. The foundation of these causes is that the 

 owners of these cattle do not take enough interest in their stock to study 

 the different breeds and their characteristics. But simply feed them and 

 take care of them and when they get too many sell for what they can get. 

 Then when they want a new herd header buy the one that is closest by and 

 easiest got. Some will go a long way to get a cheap one regardless of the 

 breed, shape, size, color or anything else. Now the great question is why 

 do some farmers handle and mate their cattle in such a careless way. 

 There are only a few sources through which the average farmer gets his 

 education. The principal one is through what he reads. And right here 

 is where a big part of his carelessness comes. Now just stop and think, 

 what does the average farmer read? You will say that he lives on a mail 

 route and gets his daily paper every day. Now I do not want to be under- 

 stood as being opposed to mail routes and daily papers but I do want to 



