STOCK FEEDING — COMMON STEERS. 773 



I keep for young cattle and horse pasture. Sometimes I plow 

 them up. 



STOCK FEEDING. 



I combine stock feeding with grain raising. I sell no grain 

 but wheat, and I feed all the corn, oats and hay I raise on the 

 place. I raise no horses, and keep but seven head, three teams 

 and an extra horse for general use, on the place. 



FATTENING HOGS. 



For a number of years I have fattened between four and five 

 hundred head annually, averaging two hundred and fifty pounds, 

 three-quarters of which I bought when shoats. But owing to 

 the prevalence of hog diseases and low prices in market, I have 

 lately paid more attention to cattle. Poland China and Berk- 

 shires are the breeds which I prefer. At the time of feeding 

 cattle grain, either in the stable or the pasture, I allow a suffi- 

 cient number of hogs to run with them to pick up the corn 

 wasted. The usual number of cattle kept on the place is be- 

 tween forty and fifty, but I feed yearly seventy-five to eighty 

 head, partly turned off from the grass, and partly corn fed. 



COMMON STEERS. 



I buy steers of average country grade and turn them off 

 when just passed two years in Fall, and three years in the Sum- 

 mer. I feed first in Fall on bottom stalk fields, then on straw 

 till the middle of February, then hay and corn till grass is 

 plenty. I feed blue grass early in the Spring, timothy in Sum- 

 mer, and return to blue grass in the Fall. The last two years 

 I raised those that averaged about one thousand pounds, and 

 three years old thirteen hundred pounds. Their average gain, 

 gross weight, during the pasture season is three hundred 

 pounds. I keep a Durham bull, but have only graded cows, 

 and I make enough out of butter and poultry to pay for all my 

 family groceries. I have used a corn crusher, but believe it is 

 cheaper to follow hogs after cattle. 



SHEEP. 



I have but fifty head of sheep, owing to the number of 



