PRACTICAL PAPERS—SHORT HORNS. 
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own breeding, they can feel satisfied they are getting just what 
you represent it to be, and that when you record a pedigree, full 
faith and credit can be given to the statements therein contained. 
Herd book pedigrees, no matter how fashionable the blood, may 
be valuless, not worth the paper they are printed on, unless the 
breeder of the animal and the writer of the pedigree are men of 
character, whose acts and statements can be implicitly relied on. 
FEEDING. 
Much has been said on the subject of feeding, especially on 
what is termed over or high feeding of breeding animals. That 
is a subject on which successful breeders have widely differed. 
Thus far my “experience and observation teach that generous 
feeding of all kinds of stock, breeding stock included, is the best. 
I mean by that, such feeding during the winter season as will 
keep animals in good flesh, not fat, giving in quality, quantity 
and kind, that feed which produces this result the most readily 
and to the best advantage. Feeding should be commenced as 
soon as the grass begins to fail in the fall, continued through the 
winter and into the spring, until the grass is sufficiently well 
grown to furnish full feed. During the summer, or the season of 
pasture, feed only the grasses in the natural way, being sure to 
have a supply sufficient to furnish good feeding. Breeding ani¬ 
mals should be kept in good flesh, especially the females, particu¬ 
larly so when carrying their young. 
Young animals should be better fed, especially calves, than the 
older stock. The first year is the best in which to make growth, 
and it can then be made at less expense than at any other time. 
In feeding for beef, I believe the best method is that followed 
by Mr. John Johnson, the old Scotch farmer of the state of New 
York. He fed short-horn steers, when he could get them either 
by breeding or buying. The method of feeding he considered 
the most successful, and the one he recommended, was to make 
the calf fat as soon as it could be done after it was dropped, then 
keep it in that condition, summer and winter, until it was sold to 
the butcher. By that plan, he generally sold his beef steers at 
three years old, and frequently at two, with satisfactory profit. 
Note. —For the calf-breeding of sliort-horns, and other parts of my paper, 
I am indebted to Lewis F. Allen’s Short-IIorn History. 
