788 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



market is never over-stocked with them, and the price rarely, if 

 ever, gets below the figures named. 



For a year past I have heard marvelous stories concerning 

 a steer raised by Mr. Oliver Keffer, of Union County, Indiana, 

 a man of large experience in feeding and handling cattle, and 

 wishing to know the truth I wrote him asking that he would give 

 me the facts about it. In reply, Mr. Keffer writes as follows : 



"DEAR SIR, The steer you ask about I bought when he 

 was three months old, paying $12.50 for him. I sold him 

 when thirty-four months old, at which time he weighed two thou- 

 sand one hundred pounds. He was shipped to Pittsburg with 

 five others that averaged eighteen hundred and fifty pounds, 

 and the lot sold at nine cents per pound. I could have sold 

 this steer alone for ten cents per pound. This statement you 

 can rely on. 0. KEFFER." 



The Labor-saving System of cattle feeding is practiced 

 to some extent, and is, perhaps, not without some advantages. 

 Under this plan corn is kept before the cattle all the time after 

 they are on full feed. Pastures are allowed to grow up to fur- 

 nish rough feed for a part of the winter, and straw-stacks are 

 provided to which the cattle can run when the grass is covered 

 with snow. Feed-boxes are placed high enough so that the 

 hogs can not get into them, and in these corn is always kept so 

 that the cattle can help themselves. If at any time soiled corn 

 is found in the boxes, it is shoveled out to the hogs that are 

 allowed to follow the cattle. The labor of feeding cattle is thus 

 reduced to a minimum, and one man can in a very few hours 

 do all the work necessary for a week for a large lot of cattle, 

 as a load of corn at a time is shoveled into the boxes. It 

 will not answer to begin this heavy feeding at once, as the 

 cattle would injure themselves by over-eating, but begin with a 

 small quantity of corn and gradually increase until the cattle 

 leave some in the feed-boxes, and then fill them up and allow 

 the cattle to help themselves. 



I have never tried this plan, as I prefer stall-feeding, so as 

 to save the manure, but a neighbor who has practiced it for 



