FINISHING STOCK FOR MARKET 245 



the opinion of those best informed upon feed and 

 live stock values has proved faulty by the time the 

 stock was fitted for market. 



The finishing of live stock on a basis profitable 

 to the feeder is an industry that is carried on under 

 continually changing 1 conditions, and requires a 

 keenness and alertness on the part of those who 

 engage in it fully as great as that required in any 

 business or profession. A mistake in judgment 

 when purchasing steers for fattening, for instance, 

 may result in a loss on the year's operations large 

 enough to wipe out the profits of one or more pre- 

 ceding years. Calculations based upon the hypoth- 

 esis that corn will be worth 30 cents per bushel are 

 entirely upset should market conditions force the 

 price to 50 cents. It is a question of grave moment 

 whether to market half-finished cattle when the 

 price is high, or whether to continue feeding them 

 on expensive feeds until finished and take a chance 

 of finding a lower market. These, and numberless 

 other considerations, enter so largely into the ques- 

 tion of expediency in live stock feeding that the 

 making of definite, set rules for the guidance of the 

 farmer is an utter impossibility. The numberless 

 details of market conditions and demands, of feed 

 values and live stock values, of the thousands of 

 little things that enter into the most successful 

 type of feeding, can be gained only by experience 

 and by a large degree of intelligence and observa- 

 tion on the part of the feeder. While each may 

 be a small thing in itself, taken collectively they 

 frequently denote the difference between success 

 and failure in the feeding operations of the farm 

 for any term of years. There is scarcely a feeder 

 of extended experience anywhere in the country 

 \vho has not, in some particular season, lost money 



