IMPOETANCE OF LIVE STOCK 205 



grain fanning has generally been profitable and 

 will be if farm fertility is kept up, and as many 

 do not have and cannot secure the capital requi- 

 site, and do not have the capacity for raising and 

 caring for stock, the business of grain farming 

 will continue to occupy the attention of the vast 

 majority of our farmers. 



Most any farm can be fitted and so managed 

 that much stock can be fed to a profit, even though 

 it have none of the natural advantages for so 

 doing. 



First, we must get away from the idea that a 

 large acreage of pasture lands is necessary. The 

 most successful stock feeders of our own and 

 foreign countries get best results from lot feed- 

 ing, and this method does not require large pas- 

 ture acreage. The essential thing is shelter from 

 inclement weather and excessive sunlight, and it 

 does not always mean expensive buildings to se- 

 cure these protections. A simple shed of poles, 

 rails, and straw, will make shelters that protect 

 from cold, sleet, rain, or fierce summer heat, 

 and make comfortable places for stock even in 

 the winter seasons. If commodious, sanitary 

 equipped buildings can be erected, so much the 

 better, but the worst failures in stock raising the 

 author has ever seen were those of farmers who 

 had the most expensive and best equipped building 

 facilities for the caring of stock. Simply con- 

 structed sheds of poles, rails and straw, erected 

 where drainage is perfect, will give as good re- 

 sults in the care of stock as the most expensive 

 and elaborate stock barns, and like every other 

 business the success of producing live stock de- 



