180 
ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 
in following the gain in cows over three years old, the average will bo 3 
diminishing quantity, until in the case of the cow ten years old, table 2, 
No. 12, the daily gain is but 0.52 of a pound ; and in the case of the 
oldest steer, nearly six years old, table 1, No. 2, the daily gain was 1.13 
pounds per day. These great results were arrived at by warm shelter, 
careful feeding, and as careful care from birth — most potent factors in 
any case when money is to be made in cattle, cither for beef or the dairy. 
As a rule, a yearling, as it is ordinarily wintered, will weigh much less 
in the Spring than in the previous Autumn. The next Spring and Sum- 
mer it must first regain the flesh lost, and then add to growth and weight. 
The next Winter it again loses flesh, and at two years old often will not 
weigh as much as it did at eight months old. So it goes on gaining a 
little in Summer and losing as constantly in Winter, until at the end of 
the fourth year the animal will weigh 1 ,000 pounds — less than the samo 
animal would have been made to weigh at eighteen months old with good 
common shelter and feed . There are cases in new countries where feed- 
ing, except hay, cannot be had ; where this is plenty, and the range good, 
cattle may be raised at a minimum cost — simply salting and herding in 
Summer, and feeding in Winter. Here again the question of shelter must 
be considered and will be found to pay, and without which no profit can 
be realized. 
This'system of feeding, however, is no longer feasible except in limited 
areas. The great West is fast settling up and increasing in wealth. 
Herds are yearly improving through attention to breeding and feeding — 
the result of the cultivation of vast areas in corn, the seeding of meadows 
and pastures, and in superior buildings for wintering stock. The history 
of the thickly settled portions must be the history of the newer regions 
in the future. The profits, in farming in the West, are in the stock sold. 
Pastures and meadows are the groundwork of good farming everywhere. 
Thus verifying the Belgian maxim : No pasture no cattle ; no cattle no 
manure j no manure no crops. ... 
Make Beef Younp. 
The time has gone by when it would be believed that an animal musl 
reach the age of four or five years before it could make good beef. Tha 
time has also passed when the mere tallow in an animal would sell it. 
The reason why we have so little beef fit for export to the English market, 
and which will bring in Western market from five to six cents per pound 
gross weight, is that very few western farmers have adopted the English 
standard of forcing a calf from the time it is born until it is killed, the 
age never exceeding three years. This tendency of English breeders and 
