786 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



Feeding for Beef. Perhaps there is no one branch of 

 stock-farming in which farmers universally feel so great an in- 

 terest as the feeding of cattle for beef, and none which, if a 

 profit is to be realized, requires more skill and judgment, par- 

 ticularly if winter stall-feeding is attempted. The inexperienced 

 farmer who attempts winter stall-feeding, is far more likely to 

 lose than to make money by the operation, as many have found 

 to their sorrow. There are different systems of feeding adapted 

 to different localities, and the farmer must determine for himself 

 which he will adopt. In the West, where land and grain are 

 cheap, a system would prove profitable that would be ruinous 

 on high-priced land, where it costs two or three times as much 

 to produce a bushel of grain. In the new prairie countries no 

 account is taken of the value of the manure, and under the sys- 

 tem practiced but little benefit is derived from it, while among 

 the truck farmers of the Eastern States manure is so valuable 

 that farmers are willing to invest thousands of dollars in cattle 

 and food in the fall, if they are sure of getting their money 

 back in the beef, as they consider the manure a fair profit for 

 the investment and labor. 



Different Systems of Feeding. I have spoken of Mr. 

 Gillett, the great cattle feeder of Illinois. From a statement 

 of his method of feeding, which I find in an agricultural paper, 

 I should designate it as the forcing system. That he handles 

 good stock will be seen from the weight of his yearlings, which 

 he averages at seven hundred pounds. In the statement before 

 me he does not give the details of the management of the calves, 

 but states. that they are fed no corn until one year old, and he 

 puts the cost of a calf at this age at $29, and its value five 

 cents per pound, or $35. I infer that the calves are allowed to 

 run with the dams through the summer. At one year old he 

 begins feeding corn, and for two years they are fed summer 

 and winter all they will eat, and hogs allowed to follow them 

 to eat the waste. 



Mr. Gillett claims, under this system of feeding, that the 

 steers will gain nine hundred pounds each from one to two 

 years old, and that they will consume an average of one hun- 



