8 



bulls. Mr. J. S. Kernachan, of Florence, Alabama, the 

 farmer with whom the work was conducted, began in 1900 

 the work of grading up some Holstein and scrub cows b.v 

 the use of pure-bred Aberdeen-Angus bulls. The Holstein 

 cows had been used for dairy purposes. The scrub cows 

 were bought from some of the neighboring farmers. The 

 scrub and Holstein mothers were not included in the experi- 

 mental work. Their grade offspring were used. The experi- 

 mental herd, at the beginning of the test in 1906, consist- 

 ed of the following animals: 



Cows (that had dropped calves) 15 



Two year old heifers (18 to 30 months) . . .13 



Yearling heifers (12 to 18 months) 121 



Heifer calves (recently born) 14 



Three of the above cows were five years old; the others 

 were less than five years of age. All of them were grade 

 Angus. Some of the young ones were three-fourths pure, but 

 the majority were but one-half pure. While Mr. Kernachan 

 -{had some pure-bred Aberdeen-Angus cows upon his farm, 

 they were not included in the test. No pure-bred animals 

 -except the bulls were used. 



MANAGEMENT OF THE HERD. 



During the summer months the herd grazed upon a good 

 pasture; no feed was given in addition to the pasture. 

 This pasture was made up principally of white clover, ber- 

 muda and lespedeza. This afforded the animals abundant 

 pasture for about seven months of the year. During the 

 winter months all of the cattle, young and old, had the 

 run of the range. This range, which was inclosed, consisted 

 of the old corn and cotton fields, with some cane along the 

 river and creek banks. In addition to the winter range, 

 hay and cottonseed were fed ( See statement later for the 

 winter feeds). The cattle were not made to go through the 

 winter on range alone, so when spring came they were in 

 reasonably good flesh. It might have been profitable to 



