Besvlts of Steer-feeding Trials at the Stations. 361 



period. Our Experiment Stations are now generally adopting the 

 practice of -vreighing the steer for three successive days and taking 

 the average of these three weights as the true weight of the steer on 

 the second day. It has been supposed that this variation is due to 

 a difference in the amount of water drank from day to day, but 

 this explanation does not always seem sufficient. It is prob- 

 I ably due in many cases to the irregular movement of the contents 

 of the digestive tract, which movement is influenced by changes 

 in the character and quality of the food consumed, the exercise 

 or confinement enforced, and the effect of the weather. 



n. Beef Making at the South. 



558. What Southern Stations have found. — For generations the 

 effort of the South has been toward cotton production, which de- 

 mands scrupulously clean culture. Until recently grass has been 

 a despised plant, but it is now overrunning many of the old 

 plantations, and while restoring the soil to something like its 

 former fertility and clothing the gashed fields with a carpet of 

 green, it is giving good returns in nutritious food to the cattle 

 grazing upon it. Many a worn-out cotton plantation can be made 

 to yield in Bermuda grass, Johnson grass, Japan clover, corn, 

 sorghum and other plants, an amount of feed that would surprise 

 Northern stockmen. 



559. Cotton seed for beef production. — Equally important with 

 the growth of grass is the enormous production of cotton seed, 

 which furnishes a most valuable feed for cattle. Cotton seed, 

 either raw, boiled or roasted, furnishes a nutritious food for cattle, 

 while meal from the seed is the richest stock food produced in 

 this country. The hulls of the cotton seed have been found to 

 possess considerable feeding value as a substitute for hay. Because 

 of their abundance and availability they constitute a factor of 

 importance in steer feeding at the South. 



Several of the Southern Experiment Stations have been doing 

 useful work in showing the value and importance of the cotton 

 seed and its by-products for steer feeding. While it is impossi- 

 ble to report all the results in this line, the following examples 



