CATTLE-FEEDING IN NEW YOEK. 309' 



calf was dropped March 1, 187G. At four weeks old this calf weighed 

 160 pounds, and was purchased by C. H. Farnum, of Concord, K H., for 

 a mate to another one that weighed, at the same age, 205 pounds. His 

 purpose was to raise these for oxen if they should grow alike in form 

 and size. Their feed was exclusively skim-milk, but it soon became 

 apparent that the 160-pound calf was outweighing the other, and he 

 abandoned the project of rearing them for oxen. At 8i months old the 

 one originally the largest, but now the smallest, was slaughtered. His 

 girth was 5 feet 2 inches, and his dressed weight 522 pounds. This was 

 a remarkable dressed weight, as its live weight must have been 800 

 pounds; but the other calf was so much better that it was determined 

 to feed it, on experiment, till one year old. The last three months its 

 feed was principally skim-milk and shorts, and his girth, at the end of 

 the year, was 6 feet and 5 inches, and he so fat that his hips were hardly 

 discernible. He was purchased by a butcher at 10 cents per pound for 

 his dressed weight, and slaughtered on the 1st day of March, 1877, at 

 just one year old. His live weight was 1,200 pounds and dressed weight 

 902 pounds. Meat, 748 pounds; hide and tallow, 154 pounds. Price 

 paid, $90.20. 



These cases clearly show that new milk is not indispensable in grow- 

 ing the best calves, and, further, that the system of giving up the whole 

 milk of the dam to suckle the calf is wasteful and unnecessary. 



THE PROFIT OF EARLY MATURITY. 



Many more cases might be cited to show the practical effect of high 

 feeding at an early age. It may be stated as an established fact that 

 calves, according to breed, may, as an average, be grown to the weight 

 of 800 to 1,000 pounds at one year, and from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds the 

 second year. And it may be further added that the animal shall also 

 have arrived at the same stage of maturity as is usual at three and a 

 half to four years of age under the old system. 



M. Eenault, at a cattle fair in France, in 1846, found a bull, only two 

 years old, that had all his permanent teeth, and all the j)oints of devel- 

 opment and maturity in perfection, and, on investigation, came to the 

 conclusion that high breeding and feeding had produced this result as a 

 natural consequence ; that, the growth being accelerated by the improved 

 alimentation, the ripening and maturing of all parts of the system had 

 made equal progress. It is therefore an error to suppose that the animal 

 is as immature as its age would indicate, judged by the old system. 



It may be a mystery to some that an increased amount of food should 

 be required the second year to produce a given gain in weight. But the 

 reason may be regarded as twofold : first, that while the young animal 

 .is in its most active stage of growth the waste of its system is much less, 

 in proportion to weight, than when mature ; and, second, its accumulated 

 weight the second year, on which waste accrues, is more than double 

 that of the first year. Take the case of the steer Uncle Abe. Its 

 weight at birth was 134 pounds, and at the end of the first year 1,036 

 pounds; it gained, therefore, 902 pounds ; half of this gain is 451 pounds, 

 which, added to its birth- weight, gives 585 pounds as his average weight 

 the first year. He gained 580 pounds the second year ; half of this, 290 

 pounds, added to 1,036 pounds, his weight at the beginning of the sec- 

 ond year, makes his average weight for that year 1,326 pounds ; and in 

 the same way his average weight for the third year, is 1,843 pounds. 



Kow, it is evident that it must take more than double the food the 

 second year to supply the waste of the system that was required the 



