14 



This does not mean, however, that there are not many ex- 

 ceedingly important differences between practices which the 

 feeder, with all his experience, has not the facilities for measur- 

 ing, and which he must rely upon the experiment station to de- 

 termine for him. 



The series of tables presented at the end of this Bulletin 

 contain the data furnished by these gentlemen in so far as they 

 were susceptible of tabulation, with the substance of their con- 

 clusions as to the best methods of feeding, in the remarks at the 

 end. Necessarily some details have to be omitted in presenting 

 the matter in this condensed form, for to print these reports 

 separately and in detail would of course be impossible. The 

 tabulation of these data was done entirely by the writer, and 

 every effort was made to interpret correctly the feeder's mean- 

 ing and in condensing it to retain the real essence of his report. 



To the student of beef production and to the beginner in 

 beef feeding, nothing could be more profitable than the most 

 detailed and careful study of these individual reports, taking 

 into account, in estimating the conclusions of the men, the num- 

 ber of years of experience and the number of cattle upon which 

 he bases his conclusions. 



Question i. How many years have you fed steers? 



A glance at the detailed reports at the end of the Bulletin 

 will show that the number of years' experience of these men 

 varies from two to fifty. But few men however with less 

 than five years experience attempted to answer the questions. 

 Of the 726 replies received from Missouri, the average length 

 of experience in feeding was 18.3 years. For the 91 returns 

 from Iowa, the average was 17.5 years. For the 39 replies from 

 Illinois, the average was 22 years. 



Question 2. State approximately the total number of ani- 

 mals you have fattened and marketed ? 



This varied from a few hundred to a maximum in the case 

 of one man of 140,000. It will be observed that from 5,000 to 

 6,000 is not an unusual number for the different men reporting. 

 The total for the 609 who answered this question from Mis- 

 souri was 1,133,744. For the 82 answering this question from 

 Iowa, 235,469. For the 34 answering from Illinois, 78,259, and 



