•792 BOONE COUNTY, MISSOURI. 



and a little bran. They soon learn to eat dry feed, and when 

 Winter sets in, are fed mostly on cut corn, and having good 

 shelter, are in a shape to thrive. 



As the farm will graze from two to three hundred cattle, 

 the calves raised at home are a small per cent, that are re- 

 quired. Steers I buy at all ages, from a calf to a three year 

 old, as opportunity and amount of feed require. The steers 

 are full corn fed the Winter after they are three years old, and 

 are marketed in the Spring or Summer following. I feed cut 

 corn in large troughs, the fore part of the Winter, and as 

 Spring approaches the corn is shelled and ground, so that by 

 the middle of April they are entirely fed on ground feed. The 

 change in their feed must be made gradually, and should be 

 accomplished before the cattle are put on pasture in the Spring. 



My steers, grown and fed in this way, average, when sold, 

 from seventeen hundred and fifty to eighteen hundred and fifty 

 pounds, and are usually sold, weighed and delivered on the 

 farm, as iS the case with all kinds of stock products. I have 

 learned,^from fifteen years' experience, that home prices and 

 weights are preferable to shipping, and much more satisfactory 

 in every way. 



HOGS. 



Hogs are raised and fed in connection with cattle feeding, 

 and are an important item on a stock farm. When properly 

 managed they afford about the best market for corn that the 

 Western producer can find. My stock is mostly of the Berk- 

 shire breed, which I regard the best distinct breed there is for 

 all purposes, although some of my best results have been a 

 cross of the Chester White and Poland China with the Berk- 

 shire. This makes a very desirable feeding hog, but I prefer to 

 keep the breeders of pure blood, no matter what stock or breed 

 I select. I have one hundred and fifty hogs on the farm, which 

 are allowed to mature at about sixteen months old, when they 

 average three hundred and twenty-five pounds. Corn ground 

 and cooked is a great advantage in the Winter for young shoats 

 and brood sows with young pigs, but for Spring and Summer 

 feeding, the meal should be soaked instead of cooked. My 



