800 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



feed, and that he can well afford to pay half a cent a pound more 

 for good cattle the first of January than the less price for the 

 same cattle two months earlier. 



The novice will need to keep a sharp lookout in selling his 

 cattle. As a rule, I would advise against contracting them be- 

 forehand. It is the safer rule to keep control of them, so you 

 can sell when you wish. If your stock is sold to be delivered 

 the last of May, and the scales show in April that they are not 

 gaining, you will be obliged to keep them for a month, probably, 

 at a loss. Keep well posted on the value of cattle, and do not 

 take the butcher's or drover's word for it. If you have a car- 

 load of good cattle it will perhaps pay you to take them to an 

 Eastern market; but that is a matter to be determined at the 

 time. You must take shrinkage into consideration, if you ship. 

 I have learned from a feeder who has had considerable experi- 

 ence, that he loses more from shrinkage when he ships to Cin- 

 cinnati, which is sixty miles distant, than when sent to Pitts- 

 burg, which is three hundred miles away. He accounts for it 

 in this way: Those shipped the shorter distance are just long 

 enough on the way to get well emptied. They do not get over 

 the excitement and worry of loading and unloading, and are sold 

 at once without feeding. Those shipped the longer distance are 

 unloaded and fed before they are put on the market, and make 

 up a part of the shrinkage. 



Experience shows that it is not profitable to turn cattle on 

 grass in the spring if they have been full-fed for some time and 

 are to be sold as early as June, as the young grass will be likely 

 to scour them, and they will lose flesh rather than gain, and not 

 be in as good condition for selling as if kept upon dry food. 



Grass and Grain Combined. I have had considerable 

 experience, for a few years past, in feeding cattle for a June 

 market, and have found that I could make a greater gain in 

 flesh at this season of the year than any other, and consequently 

 I have realized greater profit. I find that under proper man- 

 agement I can, in from ten to twelve weeks, with only a mod- 

 erate amount of grain, make fair beef out of old cows and indif- 

 ferent stock which would be very hard to fatten at any other 



