278 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



Steers of common, or inferior breeds, which will not he well 

 covered with flesh at the ages, and under the circumstances of 

 those above named, are scarcely worth breeding and rearing at 

 all, where good beef is in question, and fair profits in the busi- 

 ness are considered. The modes of feeding, the materials on 

 which they are fed, and their values, vary so much in different 

 sections of the country where the cattle are prepared for 

 market, that no directions can be given to govern all circum- 

 stances alike. In the Eastern and Middle States, where land is 

 dear, and forage of most kinds proportionately so, all the food 

 given to fattening cattle, should be prepared in the best manner 

 for ready assimilation to nourishment, when it goes into the 

 stomach. Grain should be ground into meal — no corn-cobs in 

 it, for coh meal is no better than sawdust — hay should be cut into 

 chaff, and moistened, and with a due proportion of meal, mixed 

 together for easy mastication, with warm shelter for stall-feed- 

 ing during the winter, thus saying at least twenty-five to thirty 

 per cent, in food, to make a given quantity of flesh, over feeding 

 unground grain, or uncut hay. If roots be fed, they should be 

 cut also. The policy of cooking the food for cattle, by steaming, 

 is discussed elsewhere. It is a question for trial, and its 

 economy must depend on circumstances touching the price of ftiel, 

 the value of labor, and other circumstances ; but as food, cooked 

 and warm, is made easier to the digestive powers of the stomach, 

 there is no doubt that a less quantity will make more flesh, than 

 when uncooked. That ground grain, and cut hay, will make 

 more flesh than if not so prepared, has been too thoroughly 

 tried to admit of a question. The item of expense in so prepar- 

 ing it must determine its policy. 



With the mass of "Western feeders, where land is compara- 

 tively low, labor dear, artificial shelter does not abound, and mills 

 are scarce, the case is different. Corn fed from the shock, where 

 the stalks and blades supply the place of hay, as is almost uni- 



