280 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



think, for the difference in estimate, was the inequality of the 

 seasons and weather during the feeding time ; as, if the winter 

 were colder, or warmer, and the cattle being unsheltered, the 

 amount of food consumed would depend much upon the severity, 

 or mildness, of the weather, and the storms to which they were 

 subjected, the cattle eating much more, and taking less flesh in 

 cold, and- eating less, while making more flesh in mild weather. 

 Thus, we can readily conceive, that in a mild season fifty bushels 

 of grain would give as much flesh as a hundred would in a very 

 severe one. That is a fact so palpable, that no one, of any expe- 

 rience in the business, will dispute it. 



STALL-FEEDING. 



Now, if those cattle were properly lioused, and kept dry under 

 an equable temperature, their hay, or corn fodder cut, and their 

 corn ground, the food would be consumed in nearly uniform 

 rations, and the feeder could know, nearly to a certainty, about 

 how much his bullocks would cost per head to fatten them. The 

 scales, and measures, would decide the matter. Nor need the 

 labor question here interfere against the latter method. With a 

 good horse power — not an expensive one — a good straw cutter, 

 (both costing not to exceed two, or three hundred dollars,) and a 

 horse of the cheapest kind to propel them, two men will cut and 

 mix, for feeding, two tons of food every day. We have seen 

 it done when every thing was handy for the work, and the forage 

 at hand. 



The process of feeding beef cattle in this way, is quite simple. 

 The stalls being properly prepared, the bullocks, even if they 

 never before went into a stable, and wild in habit, once being inside 

 and finding good fodder, will soon eagerly return, take their 

 proper places, and submit to be tied by the rope, or chain, or put 

 their heads through stanchels. At the first few feedings, the 

 quantity of grain, or meal, should be moderate, but daily increas- 

 ing until the stomach will dispose of aU that may be necessary 



