1208 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



Forests temper drought and flood, heat and cold. Trees 

 will yield a steady income on land unfit for cultivation. Pre- 

 pare land as thoroughly for trees as for grain. A tree does not 

 need annual cultivation, and it does its own manuring. 



It makes both the farm and pocket richer to put crops on 

 four legs. An old cow or a runty pig is as devoid of profit 

 as a mule is of poesy. Regularity is a valuable indorsement on 

 feeding, watering, milking, and salting. Better green feed than 

 medicine ; better to go to the lumber yard than to the horse doc- 

 tor. Shelter and kind treatment are equivalent to food. Put- 

 ting up stock shelters enlarges the cribs. A pound of flesh lost 

 is twice lost, for the waste of the body must be provided for 

 while it is being regained. Unnecessary exercise is waste of 

 food. The strongest feeding consistent with health and com- 

 plete digestion, and of concentrated, agreeable foods, is the most 

 profitable feeding. The more easily food is digested, the more 

 of it is digested; and a certain amount of digested matter di- 

 gested easily makes more gain than the same amount digested 

 with difficulty. Selling two poor animals to buy one good one 

 is the beginning of wisdom in stock raising. Keep the best and 

 sell the rest. To breed immature animals is poor policy. Straw 

 or saw-dust used liberally for bedding saves the urine and keeps 

 the animals clean. As age is added to an animal a certain amount 

 of food makes less growth, i. e., gain. Summer-made flesh costs 

 less than winter-made. Generally, the profit of flesh and fat is 

 increased as the time of their production is decreased. Good 

 animals regularly supplied with reasonable allowances of whole- 

 some food and drink, and properly sheltered and treated, do not 

 eat their heads off. Keep good stock suited to the character 

 and size of your farm, so fed and treated as to lead to their 

 best development, and so managed as to increase the fertility 

 of the land. Feed dry food with roots. Change food gradu- 

 ally. Better one animal full-fed than four half-fed. For stock 

 for the shambles make each day a day of gain. Small shel- 

 ters are poor economy. The full bite is the profitable one. 

 Though pasture be in excess it is not lost. A variety of food 

 for farm stock is essential, and this must be in the pasture as 



