CURRENT FACTS IN AGRICULTURE. 443 
rate of about 224 tons per acre. The use of sea-weed has been relin- 
quished generally, and guano is employed with great advantage as an 
auxiliary to the stable manure. Planting 1s done in January and Feb- 
ruary. in drill-rows. As soon as the plants appear above ground, the 
soil between the rows is well loosened, and if frost does not interfere 
the crop grows quickly ; so that about the last of April the first install- 
ment is forwarded to the London Market, the business rapidly increas- 
ing through the following month. <A day is frequently of great import- 
ance to the pecuniary value of the consignment, and the producers are 
regularly informed by telegraph as to the state of the London market. 
The practice is to follow this crop of potatoes with one of roots, the 
heavy manuring of the former supplying an excellent nourishment for 
the latter crop. 
LIVE STOCK. 
Fat steers —Mr. George Ayrault, of Poughkeepsie, New York, reports to 
the Department on four steers, seven-eighths Short-horn, raised by him, 
and sold near the close of 1869 to William Lalor, of Center Market, New 
York City, for $3,200, the age of one of the animals being seven years, 
and of the others six years. The largest stood about six feet high, with 
a girth ef ten feet, and the weight of the animals was 3,300 pounds, 
3,320 pounds, 3,406 pounds, and 3,440 pounds, respectively; their pro- 
portions being good, notwithstanding their enormous size. The agegre- 
gate gain in weight during the season of 1869 was 1,460 pounds. The 
net beef weight of the larger pair after slaughter was 4,537 pounds. 
Their average weight at the age of three years was 1,850 pounds. After 
attaining this age, each received daily a peck of corn-meal and wheat 
shorts, or oatmeal, combined, divided into two feeds, and, as dessert, a 
peck of sugar-beets twice a day. In the summer, until lately, their only 
feed was grass, supplemented with a little sweet hay. The second win- 
ter the daily feed of meal was increased to ten quarts each, given in two 
feeds. In the summer of 1869 each received one peck of meal per day, 
given at morning and at night; and in the winter following, twelve 
quarts of meal daily, in three feeds, besides roots. In the course of 
feeding they have had, in winter, the best of early-cut hay from old 
meadows, and have usually had access to it in summer. They were not 
closely confined in winter, usually having the run of a small yard, with 
access to water, and with sheds under which they could lie protected 
from storms, and were tied at feeding time. 
It is Mr. Ayrault’s opinion that when cattle are fattening, and it is 
desired to give them all the grain they will eat without being clogged, 
it is important to feed three times a day; and he considers beets, or 
their equivalent, essential in winter in promoting the growth of grain- 
fed cattle. He does not advise heavy feeding for beef until.animals are 
well grown, his practice being to maintain his stock in merely thrifty 
condition until they reach the age of three years. 
A committee of the Farmer’s Club, American Institute, reporting on 
these cattle, state that they find that the only profit arising from the 
last year’s growth of the animals was in the increased or “ fancy” rates 
obtaimed on account of magnitude, and that, in Mr. Ayrault’s judgment, 
five years is the age at which fattened cattle will give the greatest profit 
to the feeder. 
English prize steers.—The following table gives the weight, respect- 
ively, of eight first-prize steers recently exhibited at Islington, England, 
the weight at birth being deducted, thus showing the increase from the 
