FEEDING CATTLE. 263 



to change often from grain to grass, thus avoiding the wash- 

 ing away of the land. I determined to feed all the products 

 of the farm to stock, and I have not failed to do so, excepting 

 hay, a few tons of which, having been left over, have been 

 hauled to market. 



I have made fattening cattle a specialty for twenty years. 

 I will give a little of my experience from experiments made. 



FEEDING CATTLE. 



I have fed cattle in the yard and cattle tied up. I have 

 fed with corn in the ear, corn in the shock, broadcast over the 

 yards, corn mixed with oats equal parts, and snapped corn 

 with the husk on, also corn and cob crushed. 



Corn in the ear, unless well soaked, is certainly very poor 

 feed for fattening cattle ; shocked corn is very good where you 

 feed in the open yard. Corn ground with one-fourth oats is the 

 very best of feed. On the last named I have made the best cattle 

 I have handled. The cheapest feed that can be gotten up is 

 corn snapped, fed with the husks on. It is quickly snapped, 

 hauled and put in cribs near the feeding barns, where it can be 

 readily carried to the stock, and is fed without waste. The 

 cattle are slow about grinding it, the corn is held in the mouth 

 by the husks until corn, cob and husk is thoroughly masticated, 

 before being swallowed. I say cheap method, because it saves 

 the labor of husking and grinding, and is readily fed to cattle 

 in stalls or in the yard. Corn and cob crushed is last, but not 

 least, in the catalogue of feed for stock of any kind. I would 

 class it second best only for fattening qualities. The flinty 

 particles in cob meal are thought by some to be injurious to 

 the digestive organs. Much lias been said by papers in that 

 regard, causing many besides myself to give it up, fearing it 

 would injure young growing stock. If these statements are 

 facts, they have yet to be proven. Chemists seem to find but 

 very little nutriment or fattening properties in it. But my 

 experience leads me to believe that in their analj'sis they fail 

 to discover something which has produced most favorable results 

 m my use of the article. Cornmeal is unfit for food, unless 



