374 Feeds and Feeding. 



six Natives; in the Missouri trial there were six Short-homa, three 

 Herefords, four Angus and four Natives. The student should not 

 take averages of the trials in drawing conclusions, since the con- 

 ditions at the different Stations varied greatly, but they should 

 be studied separately. The tests cover periods ranging from 92 

 days to 18 months. The least amount of grain (477 pounds) for 

 100 pounds of gain was with Devon steers, and the largest amount 

 (977 pounds) was with Galloways. 



Eeviewing the data of the table it will be seen that while we can 

 single out cases where the beef- bred steer has produced 100 pounds 

 of gain with less feed than the dairy-bred or native steer, yet the 

 largest amount of feed consumed by any animal for a given gain 

 also stands charged to one of the beef tyT)e. We are thus unable 

 from the data at hand to show that a pound of feed goes further 

 in making gain with beef-bred animals than with those not 

 specially designed for that purpose. These figures are a sur- 

 prise to the writer, as they must be to the reader; but as they 

 represent practically all the work done at the Stations to date 

 they should stand for the present. 



571. Early maturity. — The most common claim for superiority in 

 the beef breeds is that animals so bred mature earlier than others. 

 Consulting the figures given in the next table we find that steers 

 of the strictly dairy breeds reached as heavy weight as did several 

 of the beef-breed representatives. Holstein steers made substan- 

 tially as large daily gains as did any of the others, and Jersey and 

 Native steers rivaled the Devons. So far as data from the Stations 

 go, we have no evidence that beef -bred animals make more rapid 

 growth than do otliei'S. The claim of early maturity, then, is not 

 substantiated by the data at hand if daily gain in live weight is 

 the sole measure used. The degree of maturity of the animal is 

 not measured entirely, however, by its weight, so that this divis- 

 ion of the subject cannot be considered as covered by the data 

 presented in regard to daily gain. 



572. Dressed weight of carcass. — This topic naturally follows 

 that just presented, and fortunately, from the experiments last 

 quoted, we have data at command. The animals used in the 

 several tests at the Stations were slaughtered and the weight of the 



