CATTLE-FEEDING. 233 



CHAPTER VIII, 



CATTLE-FEEDING. 



THE business of cattle-raising in the United States has 

 grown to very great proportions within the last fifteen 

 years so great as to astonish the European cattle-growers. 

 The typical American is prone to reduce every business to 

 its simplest elements ; and he naturally prefers a system of 

 cattle-feeding in which, instead of the expenditure of 

 labor in raising cattle food, building warm barns and feed- 

 ing the cattle in them with all the modern appliances of 

 science and machinery, the cattle shall feed themselves all 

 the year on the natural grasses of our Western plains. 

 Cattle are thus produced by millions over large districts of 

 our domain ; and, from the most favored belts, steers have 

 come to market with a well-matured weight of 1,400 to 

 1,800 pounds. Skillful ranch operators have made and are 

 making fortunes under this simple patriarchial system of 

 beef production. But this system is merely temporary, a 

 few years, more or less, and the native grasses are eaten 

 out, and beef-growing returns to the civilized system, 

 involving labor directed by skill. Besides, the home and 

 foreign markets require all the good beef we can produce 

 under the best system. 



We shall therefore confine our attention to the regular 

 system where so. much depends upon skill in its manipula- 

 tion. We have previously shown that there is no mystery 

 in the growth of animals that every pound weight put on 

 represents so much food. We wish to impress upon the 



