FERTILIZING BY FEEDING STOCK. 37 



is not as rich as it once was, and where farmers are learning the value 

 of manure and the advantage of good farming, practice a regular 

 system of feeding animals to feed their land. They make hay, grow 

 corn, roots, wheat, rye, potatoes, and make butter; sell the grain, 

 potatoes and butter, and feed hay, corn fodder, roots and straw, and 

 even purchase feeding stuffs, and buy lean stock in the early fall to 

 consume all these. The cattle or sheep are turned on to the stubbles 

 and pastures as long as there is good feeding. They are then fed 

 during the winter on dry feed, and as they become fat and fit for 

 market are turned off, so that by the spring they are all disposed of. 

 A steer weighing 1, 200 Ibs. and costing $40, is thus made to weigh 

 1,600 Ibs. and sell for $80, or even more ; because there is not only the 

 increased weight made for the profit, but the increased value of a fat 

 animal for every pound of its weight over the value of a thin and un- 

 salable one. The feed is thus disposed of at a good price, and there 

 is a profit besides to pay for the labor. In addition, there is a large 

 quantity of manure, which is worth much more than common barn- 

 yard manure because of the high feeding of the cattle. In a similar 

 way the owner of poor land may buy cattle, and all the fodder and 

 grain, and feed them, and make an equal profit as the farmers above 

 mentioned; because they charge the animals with the feed at market 

 price. There is then the manure left to go upon the land and increase 

 the next year's crop, which makes less purchased food necessary. As 

 the land improves, and the crops increase in yield, the profits of the 

 business are larger. In a few years it will be unnecessary to buy fod- 

 der, and the income from the farm will then be more satisfactory, be- 

 cause the expenses will be lessened considerably. In my long ex- 

 perience with different farms, and some of them very poor when I went 

 onto them, I have found this practice very successful. But cows are 

 more profitable to keep than fat stock, where there is a good market 

 for milk, and the owner can make an extra good article of butter. 



