CATTLE-FEEDING IN NEW YORK. 301 



in an active state, and capable of assimilating large quantities of food. 

 Such animals may be made to gain rapidly in weight and quality. 

 They prefer to buy even very thrifty two-year-olds in preference to older 

 and heavier animals that have been grown by the slow method. Some 

 years since, when almost every farmer grew a few steers for sale, those 

 who had skill in feeding made a practice of buying a lot for fattening 

 each year. 



The now venerable John Johnston, near Geneva, IST. Y., was a con- 

 spicuous instance of this mode of feeding. Being a Scotchman and con- 

 versant with good farming in his native land, he placed a much higher 

 value upon the manure made from fattening cattle to enable him to 

 raise large crops than his neighbors. He was willing, therefore, to take 

 the chances of success in this mode of feeding. Mr. Johnston began 

 this system of feeding more than forty years ago, and he has stated 

 lately that he often fed out 45 tons of oil-cake in a year. He had seen 

 the good effects of this food in starting thrift in lean animals, and to 

 his free use of oil-cake is to be attributed the greater success that 

 attended his feeding of both cattle and sheep. Wheat was his principal 

 crop, although he was successful in the yield of Indian corn on his rather 

 heavy soil, sometimes reaching 75 to 80 bushels per acre. He regarded 

 his land too valuable for grass, except in the rotation ; consequently his 

 fodder was principally straw and corn-stalks. In the. hands of most 

 feeders this refuse fodder would have led to failure in cattle-feeding, but 

 the intelligent farmer will now see that a small quantity of oil-cake 

 would supply all the missing constituents (muscle-forming and fat-pro- 

 ducing elements) in straw and corn-fodder, and render this as well-bal- 

 anced food as good meadow hay. 



Corn has too much starch and too little nitrogenous matter to feed 

 alone with straw. When Mr. Johnston put up a lot of three-year-old 

 steers to feed he began with two pounds of oil-cake and three to five 

 pounds of corn-meal, and this was increased gradually to four pounds 

 of cake and eight to ten pounds of corn-meal. He also avoided the too 

 common practice of feeding a single food, however good it may be in itself. 

 He gave hay once a day, and sometimes bran and pea-meal as a change. 

 He found, practically, that his steers did better to have a few hours each 

 day in the yard and sunshine than when kept constantly in stable. 



From numerous experiments, however, it is found to depend more 

 upon the habits of the animals than upon the simple fact of confine- 

 ment. Those steers that have been reared in a wild state, or never 

 stabled, feel the confinement irksome, and must be broken to the stable 

 gradually. This is why feeding western steers in Xew York is often 

 nnsuccessful when they are kept in stable several months. A sudden 

 change of habit is nearly always hurtful. But steers that have been 

 stabled from calfhood during cold weather will do better if kept wholly 

 in stable for a period of several months while finishing them for the 

 butcher. 



Mr. Johnston found that he could put on from IJ to 3 pounds per head 

 per day, depending upon breed and thrift when put up to feed. Good 

 grade short-horns would, occasionally, make something more than 3 

 pounds per day for 150 days; but this rate of gain was exceptional. 

 His average might be considered as reaching 2^ pounds per day. He 

 usually made a gain in price of about 2 cents per pound between the 

 purchase-price in the fall and sale-price in spring. From this came his 

 profit. He purchased some time in October and sold in March, if the 

 price was favorable. If the steers weighed 1,000 pounds at the time of 

 purchase, and the price was $4 per hundred, they cost $40 per head ; and 



