386 Feeds and Feeding. 



590. The possibilities of pastures. — Sir J. B. Lawes^ reports 

 a pasture of 14 acres in Leicestershire, England, on whicli 17 oxen 

 were grazed without artificial food throughout the season, return- 

 ing from 500 to 600 pounds of increase, live weight, per acre. 



From Morrow's trials (554-5) we are led to estimate that in 

 the Mississippi Valley, on the richer farming lands, we may look 

 for about 200 pounds of gain with steers from each acre of tame 

 pasture. This gives laud capable of these results a value of from 

 fifty to one hundred dollars per acre for that purpose at a reason- 

 able rate of interest on the money invested. 



591. Grain feeding on pastures. — The writer once heard J. D. 

 Gillett, the great Illinois steer feeder of the last generation, say 

 that he could not afford to fatten steers in winter. His cattle 

 were fattened in the summer and fall, subsisting in winter in stalk- 

 fields and on the dry grasses of the pastures. In summer they 

 luxuriated in rich old blue-grass pastures where the feed boxes 

 always stood loaded with grain. The great success attained by this 

 feeder is sufficient evidence of the wisdom of his practice with 

 the conditions and markets then prevailing — good prices for 

 well-fattened cattle. 



Wallace, ^ in summarizing the experience of numerous cattle 

 feeders in the West, writes: "The general opinion seems to be 

 that good steers fed grain on grass will gain from 75 to 100 

 pounds per month, and that steers on good pasture will, during 

 the two or three most favorable grazing months, gain almost as 

 much on grass alone. . . . Prom all the facts I have been able 

 to obtain, I am inclined to the opinion that in general there is not 

 much money in feeding grain to steers that are on full pasture of 

 the best kind." 



Where pastures carry a sufficient growth of grass for full feed 

 even during mid-summer, it is usually best to allow the cattle to 

 subsist entirely on natural herbage, for this is of low cost, and 

 animals relying upon their own exertions gather their food vigor- 

 ously and willingly, wasting no time in standing idly waiting 

 for food. Where the pastures run short in mid-summer, and the 

 lack of food, together with flies and heat, are cutting down gains 

 already made, feeding with grain should be practiced. 



• Kept. Ont. Agr. Col., 1886. 



» Live Stock Report, Chicago, June 3, 



1892. 



