The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-03-19
AGRICULTURE.
HOW TO EATEN CATTLE

full of good sense, and if stock-raisers
will follow it the qualify of cattle sent
to market will be rapidly changed :
The price of cattle fattened for market
| depends on the symmetry of the animal,
as well as the fat style, as shippers
term IL. l want here to state that good
blood is important, but not absolutely
necessary to make what is termed q
| good seller. In order to fatten a steer
to bring the highest market price, he
must be kept in growing condition
| from calf, and in no case allowed to
| go hungry. 1t is the starving the first
| and second winter which willis and
| shrivels up a steer that causes him to
be sold at reduced price. No amount
| of feeding will make him a frst-class
| seller, no difference what mis- color or
blood. An animal well fed Ct care not
| what the blood-Texas or not) from q
calf until the spring he is three years
| old, will be smooth, with bones well
| covered, and will sell at profit while
| a half starved animal becomes crooked
IN the back, bone-projecting and shriv-
eled up, takes the best part of the sum-
mer to get In condition to live, and will
| not be IN condition for market until he
| is four years old, and then will bring a
| price which is unsatisfactory to the
| producer and to every one that handles
| him. This is no theory, but fact de-
| duced from close observation, and ]
have tested the plan for several years.
1t will and does pay to feed corn to
calves and to yearlings. They start out
on grass in the spring strong and Wig
! orous. You are then able to market
your cattle the spring they are three
| years old, weighing l, 400 pounds, which
is heavy enough to bring the first price
The best steer I sold in 1872 was a COM
mon native. He had all he could eat
| from a calf, and was never hungry. He
was a handsome animal, and worth
more per pOand than anything I ship
ped in 1872. He weighed in Chicago
| $50 pounds age three years. I have
a steer calf eleven months old, from a
very ordinary COW. The calf now May
ID weighs $50 pounds. l think it will
weigh, when three years old, 1900
| pounds. l do not wish it understood
| that l am not in favor of improving the
blood as we'll as feed.
l shipped two Texas steers this
spring, which were three years old
They were smooth and nice, and I sold
| them with a lot of Durhams four years
old at the same price, and they were
worth as much per pound and weighed
better according to age. They were
raised and fed by different parties.
Mammoth, overgrown steers have had
their day, and We now come down to the
neat, compact, wellfattened animal,
beth in hogs and cattle. To accom-.
plish this IN cattle, good feeding from
a calf is necessary.
LICE ON COLTS.
No other farm stock is more subject
to lice than colts. These voracious and
multitudinOus parasites do vastly more
harm to colts, calves, and other neat
cattle, hogs and poultry, than is geuer-
ally believed. They favor all diseases.
and all possible evils from low or scant
feeding, killing thousands of stock, to
the serious less of farmers, and stead
lily consuming blood and flesh which
are money 10 the husbandman. Feed
sulphur in meal with little salt. Wash
mot too copiously) with strong tobacco
J water to remove lice.
! Changers who may reasonably hope
to do a better business than raising
these and other parasites in large num-
bers, will act wisely to buy salt and
sulphur at wholesale prices. A dollar
saved is equal to a dollar made by rails
ing cora or cotton, and il does not
| hurt the soil half as much. Sound
| economy is the corner stone of sue
cessful agriculture. If you fear mites
on chicks, put little sulphur in their
! dough. Learn to make all young
stock do first rate, knowing that young
life is wonderful power in the hands
| OF science and industry. 1t is the life
in all seeds and animals that multiplies
their value to mankind.
| GROUND VS.. WHOLE GRAIN FOR HORSES.
The Irish Farmers Gazette, in rela-
ton to the difference between ground
| and uugrOund feed. and whole or cut
| fodder, quotes the following fact The
! London omnibus company have lately
| made a report which discloses some in
| teresting information, not only to farm
ers, but to every owner of horse.
! They use no less than 5000 horses /;
| 5000 of this number had for their feed
| bruised oats, Is pounds cut hay, u
| pounds; straw, 2! pounds and the
/ other, bruised oats, 10 pounds uncut
| hay, ID pounds. The horse which was
fed on the former, and consumed 26
pounds per day, could do the same work
as we'll, and was kept in as good condi-
ton, as the one receiving 30 pounds,
thereby causing a saving of six pounds
on each horse, amounting to eco per
day, or 922 800 per annum on the COM
pany's 5000 horses.
TRANSMITTING SPRUCE TREES.
The proper time for transplanting
young spruce trees is either in 7erE
early autumn, or in spring, after frosty
weather has ended. Those who have
tested the former season prefer it to
any other, believing that the percentage
of loss Is far less when performed then.
If the young plants are removed from
the woods, 1t is best to allow a ball of
earth to adhere, if practicable, and par
tlal shade must be given them for the
first year. Late in the fall is the worst
possible time, as the roots of newly
planted trees have a desire to begin
growth at once, and the lateness of the
season in this case effectually debars
them from adding flores, and so when
spring arrives the specimen is not I'm
frequently dead. For the better forma-
ton OF rOotlets, mulching is tesorted
to, and 1t Will often preserve the life of
tree that NJ glect would certainly kill.
TO SOW LIGHT GRASS SEED.
All who have attempted to SOW the
lighter grass seeds, such as red-top,
Kentucky blue grass, etc, have real.
lied the difficulty OF distributing them
evenly. A correspondent of the Prac-
teal Farmer manages as follows The
course which Inow pursue is thoroughly
to mix one part of the seed with one
part OF course, sharp sand, or fine
gravel (the sharper the better and
mOisten the mass, carefully manipulat-
ing it until the seed and chaff are well
separated and caused to adhere to the
rough particles of sand. The weighty
sand thus becomes an effective vehicle
with which to distribute the buoyant
seed, which by moisture is made to adj
here to the sand.
CURE FOR BOTS.
A Georgia correspondent of the de-
partment of agriculture writes ! know
of a remedy that is safe aud Gel tain.
discovered in the following way: About
thirty years ago, friend lost by bots a
very fine horse. He took from the
stomach of the dead horse about a gill
of bots and brought them to my Office to
experiment upon. He made prepara-