CHAPTER XXV. 



FATTENING STEERS, FEEDING SWINE, METHOD OF FEEDING, 

 WARM WATER FOR STOCK, ETC. 



IN the fall of 1879 I had three yearling- steers come 

 down from New Hampshire, where they had been at 

 pasture, " spring poor," as the saying is. One was 

 a Jersey ; the second, half Ayreshire, the first calf of a 

 Jersey heifer less than two years old ; and the third one, a 

 native. They were very thin, so reduced in flesh that I 

 thought it very doubtful about their living through the 

 winter. From their return, Oct. 15 until Dec. 3, I 

 tried, with the best of hay, roots, and grain, to make 

 them gain, but with no perceptible success. On the 3d 

 of December I opened my Silo of Ensilaged corn-fodder, 

 and commenced to feed them with Ensilage and a small 

 quantity of wheat- shorts and oil-meal. I gradually in- 

 creased the ration, feeding no more than they would eat 

 up clean. They soon began to gain ; their hair looked 

 better ; they handled better. The improvement, at first 

 slow, rapidly increased until, on the ninth day of March, 

 I sold them for beef. Upon being slaughtered the next 

 day, they dressed 1,486 pounds (meat, hides, and tal- 

 low). 



On the 1 2th of October, 1880, I opened my Silo, 

 which was filled the preceding month. The Ensilage 

 was found to be perfectly preserved, in color a much 

 darker green than my Ensilage of the previous year, 

 owing to the corn being cut and packed in the Silo in a 

 younger and more succulent stage. I am more than ever 



satisfied that the proper time to cut the corn-fodder is 

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