Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1870-02-17
Facts In Stock Raising.

MANI io1uIC1o say ~ uOCS uOt pay W
keep stock, and in point Of fact, they are
very often in the right I can hardly see
how it pays to keep wether sheep three
years and six months getting say 81 for
the three fleeces, and then selling him for
So. But think it must be quite as profit
able as to keep steer the same length of
time and then sell him for $50. Such q
steer will eat as much as eight or ten
Merino sheep. But the truth is, we can
not expect to make anything by keeping
stock of any kind unless we keep it well !;
it must be gaining all the time. If we let
q machine lie idle, all that we lose is the
interest on the money which it cost But
an animal cannot be kept idle.
1t must eat every day; and if it gains
nothing we lose all the food and the inter-
est on the value of the animal machine
besides. But many farmers not only keep
them for weeks and months together with
out their gaining anything, but it not un-
frequently happens that the animals actu-
ally decrease in weight. 1t has to live on
its own flesh and fat-which is certainly
very expensive food. Even in the case of
well fed pigs, which store up more flesh
and fat for the food consumed than any
other domestic animal; for every pound
OF flesh and fat We get in the animal, they
eat about five pounds of food. They use
four pounds to live on and give US one
pound of flesh. And when we have got
this one pound, how excessively wasteful
it is to feed it to the animal and have it
worked over again; and yet this is pre-
cisely what thousands of farmers are do
ing today with cows, Sleeps and pigs.
No wonder that excepting stock does not
pay" But good stock, fed literally and
with care and judgment, will pay better,
all things considered, than any other
branch Of farming. Good meat brings a
good price, and is always in demand. 1t
is the "Scallawags" that are hard to dis
pose of, and always at loss-a loss to the
producer and loss to the consumer.
Those who buy such meat get little be-
sides bones and water. The poor animals
have had to live on their own fat and
their nutritious juices
The first step in keeping good stock is
to make the land dry and clean. The next
is to feed literally, and this will insure
good manure, and that in its turn insures
good crops.
1t is all very well to say that 'peck of
clover seed to the acre is the cheapest fer
tilizer," and that by its free use we can
dispense with manure. do not dispute
the truth of this proposition. No one
thinks more highly Of clover than do.
But it only tells half the story. Clover
makes good food and good manure too.
An animal will take out the food, con-
vert it into valuable products, and leave
the manure behind. Our aim should be
dry, clean land, more clover and rich grass,
more and better stock and more and better
manure. =
1t cannot be toe. often repeated, how
ever, that the value of manure depends on
the food and not on the animals A raw
boned steer, If it has the same food, win
make as rich manure as the best Short
horn in the herd-book; and the droppings
Of Merino sheep living on clover-hay
and oil.cake are just as valuable as those
from Cotswold But this is the point:
We cannot feed clover-hay and oil-cake to
. Merino with half the profit that we can
to Cotswold. The former is adapted to
live on comparative poor food and grow
slowly; the Cotswold has been bred with
especial reference to rapid growth on rich
food. So when we advocate keeping we'll
bred stock, In order to make rich manure,
we do 20 for the simple reason that We
cannot afford to feed rich food to poor
stock, and without rich food we cannot
have rich manure.-J. HARMS, in Amert-
can AgriculturiM.