194 
ILLUSTRATED STOCK DOCTOR. 
of corn per head, and sell them weighing 1,200 lbs. average. They cost 
$25 and sell for $48, leaving $23 as the value of the corn fed and care 
given. The manure in any country will pay for the care taken ; so, your 
corn will have netted you near forty-six cents per bushel. From this, 
knowing the cost and price expected when fat, it will be easy to figure on 
promts, fluctuations and accidents excepted. 
Estimating Weight. 
An expert judge will estimate from seeing and handling steers often 
within ten pounds of their live weight. The buyer will always underes- 
timate weight, and in nine cases out of ten convince the inexpert owner 
that the guess is right ; in fact, more than half the time the seller will bo 
convinced that he has the best of the bargain. The only safe way in 
such cases is for the seller to weigh. Every man who makes a business 
of fattening cattle should own a proper scale. He may save the cost in 
a single year. The merchant, the manufacturer and the’ builder, who 
work by guess, always end in bankruptcy. The only reason why farmers 
do not, is, they have that generous bank, mother earth, which never fails 
to respond, even to indifferent managers. 
In weighing cattle note carefully why certain ones weigh out of pro* 
portion to others, and study whether the weight is in tho prime parts, a 
broad loin and hips, and good barrel, or in heavy fore-quarters, with thick 
neck and big head and horns. Study carefully *the points as given in 
detail elsewhere in this book, and as carefully remember them for futuro 
use. Thus you may in time become yourself an expert judge of stock. 
If an animal is to bo killed, estimate his weight alive, how much he will 
shrink in offal and hide. When the quarters are weighed, if the record 
is not as you expect, examine carefully wherein the discrepancy lies. It 
is an especially interesting study for the young man, who expects himself 
to become a breeder and feeder of cattle. If a breeder, he must know 
how to sell ; and if a feeder, he must know both how to buy and sell. 
Estimating by Measurement. 
Many breeders have rules of estimating the weight by measurements. 
There is no rule that comes nearer than good guessing, and all guessing 
should be avoided, especially when the guessing is to lie on the part of 
the buyer ; that is, the seller should avoid trusting to the guess of tho 
buyer, based upon measurement. No two animals will weigh aliko 
according to measurement. 
One rule, perhaps as good as any and for this reason given, is to find 
the superficial feet by multiplying the girth, just behind the shoulder* 
