164 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



but it is well known that cattle are now treated with much more 

 kindness than years ago. People differ very much in their 

 manner of getting profit on their cattle. In the year 1866 I 

 knew a man who did all the work on a large farm with a pair of 

 cattle, and realized over $200 gain on the same. I also knew 

 another man who said his cattle and himself worked out, aside 

 from his own farm work, to the amount of something more than 

 $200. Here is quite a difference in the manner of gaining the 

 $200. 



This is an imcommon case, but farmers do not generally get 

 the gain on their cattle that they ought to. The time has come 

 when all farmers can raise or buy the best kind of cattle, and a 

 good pair can be raised as cheap as a coarse, sharp-backed, thin- 

 thighed pair, which the farmer will sell for from fifty to one 

 hundred dollars more than the latter for beef or for work. This 

 fact ought to be enough to put every farmer, who has not duly 

 considered the matter, on the right track. 



To have cattle do well, they should be fed regularly and lib- 

 erally. Everything they have to eat, and the place where they 

 eat, should be kept neat and clean, for they are truly neat cattle. 



My experience in making beef successfully is that it depends 

 more on feeding such kind of food as best suits their appetite 

 and health, than a great quantity of meal. My best experiment 

 in fattening cattle was in the winter of 1866. I fed twice per 

 day ; first with early cut hay, as much as wanted ; then, after 

 being watered, fed them one peck of some kind of roots with 

 two quarts meal. The same at night, and fed in the same way. 

 That is, hay, half bushel roots, four quarts Indian meal to each 

 ox per day, and they gained to my satisfaction. The pair 

 weighed, when dressed, 3,228 pounds. This is the best gain I 

 ever made on one pair. I have sold my working oxen fourteen 

 years out of sixteen for either extra or fine quality of beef. 



This is no more than every farmer can and ought to do. 

 Beef made with some roots added with the meal, and careful 

 tending, so as to gain fast, is much the best beef. It causes the 

 fat and lean to be nicely mixed or marbled, (as the butchers 

 say,) and will eat rich and juicy ; while the animal which is fed 

 longer and with a larger quantity of meal will have more tallow 

 and more outside fat, and will not eat as sweet and juicy. 



J. T. Ellsworth, Chairman. 



