Early Maturity of Stock. 



485 



cwt. below 1,700 pound cattle of the same quality. The 

 buyers stated that they were equally good in every respect, 

 except that they lacked the size required to furnish the cuts 

 demanded by the trade. A marked change has taken place, 

 however, in America in recent years. The large, over- 

 fattened steer is supplanted by the well-fattened, medium 

 weight carcase, and it is considered probable that the old 

 heavy weights will never again outsell the compact bullock 

 of prime quality and medium weight. 



In commenting upon the advantages to the feeder of this 

 change in the direction of earlier maturity, Mr. Curtiss 

 observes that it is a well-established principle in animal 

 nutrition that young animals make more economical gains 

 than older ones, and that the amount of food required to pro- 

 cure a given gain in weight increases as the age of the animal 

 advances toward maturity. Experiments are recorded where 

 gain has been made at the rate of one pound of increase in live 

 weight for each pound of dry matter consumed as food. This 

 was in the case of calves under three weeks old, each of which 

 was fed daily with 17-6 lbs. of milk, to which 3*9 lbs. of cream 

 were added. 



In an experiment conducted at the Iowa Experiment 

 Station, a gain of i lb. in live weight was obtained from every 

 I '97 lbs. of dry matter in the rations consumed during a period 

 of ninety days, beginning when the calves were about one 

 week old. The food consisted of separated milk, supple- 

 mented with maize, oats, and oilcake meal, and in addition a 

 moderate allowance of hay. But as compared with this, 

 during the first eight months it required an average of 4*6 

 lbs,, and for the first seventeen months 5*97 lbs. of dry matter 

 in the food, to procure a gain of one pound live weight ; and 

 for a period of two years the average amount of food neces- 

 sary to return one pound of live weight increase rose to 7*19 

 lbs., and during the last four months it ran up to 9*02 lbs. 

 In another experiment five steers were finished for market at 

 the age of 32 months, and on the average 10-4 lbs of food 

 were given to obtain a pound of increase at this age. In a 

 summary of results obtained at the experiment stations in 

 eight American states, covering 132 head of cattle from two 



