CATTLE GENERAL MANAGEMENT. 807 



very much less. I have had seventy-five hogs follow thirty- 

 four cattle and make a fine growth. It is not best to try to 

 fatten hogs with cattle, as if full fed they do not eat the waste 

 corn clean. When growing corn to feed to cattle from the 

 shock I plant considerably thicker than is the common practice, 

 as it gives smaller ears for the cattle, and besides I think it 

 not only handles better, but gives more feed to the acre. 

 There is quite a difference in steers as to the amount of corn 

 they will eat, but two-year olds on full feed will eat about a 

 peck a day on an average, and three-year olds a half more. 



"Notwithstanding I do not house my cattle, I believe it 

 would pay, and I am contemplating building a barn in which to 

 feed cattle. A neighbor of mine fed two car-loads in a barn last 

 winter, and his experience was satisfactory. I believe that the 

 time will come when the cattle-feeders of Illinois will adopt 

 Eastern methods, and house all their stock. 



" I will close by giving you the figures on two lots of cattle 

 that I have fed. The first was a lot of sixteen choice three- 

 year-olds that averaged, when I began feeding, January 23, 

 1880, 1,124 pounds. I was nearly a month getting them on 

 full feed, after which I gave them all they would eat, feeding 

 shock corn once a day and ear corn once. They averaged, April 

 29th, 1,358 pounds, having made a gain of 2 3-7 pounds per 

 day each. At this date I turned to pasture and fed one peck 

 of corn per day to each. This was fed in large troughs. I 

 sold August 18th, when their average weight was 1,609 pounds, 

 their gain on grass being 2J pounds per day. I paid for these 

 cattle $35 per head, or $560. I fed 981 bushels of corn, worth 

 25 cents per bushel, which makes $245.25. They were grazed 

 three and two-third months, at $1 per month, making $60. The 

 customary price for pasturing is $1.25 per month, but when corn 

 is fed the price is less. These cattle brought $1,105.06, a frac- 

 tion over $69 per head. I estimate that the increased value of 

 the hogs following these cattle more than paid for the labor of 

 feeding and caring for them. 



" My second experiment in feeding cattle was in 1881, when I 

 fed 34 head, three-year-old past. Commencing September 18th, I 



