484 



Early Maturity of Stock. 



rye pollards, earth-nut cake, and cottonseed meal. In the 

 case of the last two foods in this category the experiments 

 showed a marked deficiency of fat-contents and dry sub- 

 stances in the milk, as well as a reduced flow, and two of 

 the cows fed with cottonseed meal exhibited slight affections 

 of the udder. 



Rations of rape cake, bruised wheat, bruised rye, palm- nut 

 cake, and dried grains are stated to have furnished indifferent 

 results as regards the effects on the production of milk. Palm- 

 nut cake increased the percentage of fat, but in other respects 

 it proved less satisfactory : the milk had an oily flavour and a 

 pronounced, sharp flavour. The dried grains had a beneficial 

 influence on the live w^eight, but the results obtained with this 

 fodder were not otherwise particularly favourable. 



Early Maturity of Live Stock. 



The fourteenth annual report of the Bureau of Animal 

 Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture 

 contains an article by Mr. C. F. Curtiss, Director of the 

 Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station, on Some Essentials 

 of Beet Production," in which attention is directed, inter alia, 

 to early maturity as one of the considerations having an 

 important practical bearing on the meat producing industry. 

 A few years ago the prevailing practice among American 

 cattle breeders and graziers was to allow the steer the first 

 three years of its existence in which to attain the standard 

 grow^th, and to supplement this by six months on a heavy 

 grain ration for the fattening process. The two periods were 

 regarded as essentially distinct, and it was believed thjtt they 

 must always remain so. Under these conditions, as the 

 fattening process advanced the gains invariably diminished, 

 the last hundred pounds produced on a bullock not infrequently 

 costing per lb. treble the live weight value per pound of the 

 animal on the market. The market demand was, at that 

 period, in the direction of heavy cattle. For instance, in 

 January, 1893, the Iowa experiment station sold cattle 

 weighing 1,500 pounds each that were valued at is. 6|d. per 



