BREEDS OF BEEF CATTLE 315 



of the actual average requirements, but it is at best more or less of an 

 approximation. It would be foolish, therefore, to seek extreme ex- 

 actness in realizing it or to go to more expense in the weighing and 

 apportioning of the feed than the saving in the latter would amount 

 to. The scale upon which the feeding is conducted will play an im- 

 portant part. Where scores or hundreds of animals are being fed, 

 an exactness may be profitably sought which would be absurd in the 

 case of two or three animals. Finally, it should be remembered that 

 these computed rations are guides and not recipes. They may aid 

 the feeder in wisely using the resources at his command, but they 

 can not take the place of experience and good judgment. 



BEARING ON FARM MANAGEMENT. 



The data and the methods of computation on previous pages 

 will aid the feeder in determining the amounts of each class of 

 feeds needed for each class of his animals. The man of good busi- 

 ness habits will find them useful in determining the quantities of 

 each kind of feed to grow or purchase and in deciding upon the pur- 

 chase of animals to feed and the feeds to keep or to purchase for 

 feeding them. These facts and methods will aid the farmer, the 

 feeder, or the user of work animals in deciding upon the chances 

 of profit in proposed enterprises. Often by using these formal ways 

 of checking up a proposed business project the way is made more 

 clear to avoid loss and to secure the largest practicable profit. In 

 case of the farmer who grows most of his feed stuffs, these facts and 

 methods of calculation may often be used in connection with the 

 planning of his scheme of crop rotation and in proportioning the 

 acreages of the respective crops to each other and to the numbers of 

 each class of animals. They will prove useful in reducing the farm- 

 management plan to a scientific basis. (Agr. Dep. F. B. 346.) 



FEEDS AND FEEDING FOR BEEF PRODUCTION. 



Importance oj. Corn as a Stock Food. Corn is the great Amer- 

 ican stock food. No other plant compares with it in its wide and 

 general distribution, in the ease, certainty and cheapness with which 

 it may be produced ; in the yield of valuable food material per acre, 

 and in the close relation it bears to the development of the live stock 

 interest of the country. Practically every State in the Union is re- 

 ported as growing corn commercially. Where corn is grown ex- 

 tensively, there the live stock interests are extensively developed and 

 prosperous. A corn center is synonymous with a live stock center, 

 and the geographical distribution of corn production is in a general 

 way an index to the distribution of live stock production. Eleven 

 prominent corn states, producing something over 75 per cent of all 

 the corn of the United States, produce practically 60 per cent of the 

 horses, mules, cattle, hogs, milch cows and sheep of the country. 

 From these states are drawn the chief supplies of well finished 

 beeves and hogs, and well developed horses and mules. They are 

 the feed yard of the nation. (Univ. Mo. Circ. Inform. 11.) 



Dairy Cows. Jordan reports the result of an experiment in 

 which the yield of milk from cows when fed on six pounds of corn 

 daily and all the timothy hay they would eat was compared with 



