FATTENING STEERS ON VELVET BEANS 5 
The concentrates and silage were divided into two equal feeds and 
fed morning and evening. The concentrates were mixed with the 
silage by hand in the troughs to prevent greedy steers from getting 
more than their share. The feed not consumed from one feeding to 
another was cleaned out of the troughs, weighed, and deducted from 
the total amount fed. The steers in all experiments were fed in open- 
sided barns with access to open lots. 
The cottonseed meal fed in all experiments was bright and of good 
quality. The velvet beans fed were thin-podded, speckled beans, 
fully mature and air-dry in all experiments with the exceptions noted 
in the text. At Collins, Miss., in 1918, some frosted beans were fed 
through accident and at McNeill, Miss., in 1922, some Osceola beans 
were fed during the last period. All weights in the tables for soaked 
beans represent the air-dry weight of the beans before they were put 
in water. 
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Fig. 4.— Native southern Mississippi steers such as were used in the Collins experiment 
To avoid confusion in the text the lots of steers are designated 
according to the principal concentrate being fed instead of using num- 
bers for each lot. 
THE EXPERIMENT AT COLLINS, MISS. 
The object of this experiment was to compare equal quantities of 
velvet beans in the pod and ground velvet beans for fattening steers, 
when each was fed with corn silage. 
STEERS USED 
Twenty-two native Mississippi steers, from 3 to 5 j T ears old, and 
showing no evidence of improved beef breeding, were divided as 
equally as possible into two lots. On December 3, 1917, 28 days 
before the beginning of the experiment, they averaged 632 pounds in 
weight; at this time they were turned into a corn and velvet-bean 
field where the corn had been snapped. There were about 15 acres of 
velvet beans which would yield an average of 500 pounds an acre. 
On December 19 they were moved to a new field. They were driven 
8 miles to the location of the experiment on the day before initial 
