The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-03-20
AGRICULTURE.
HOW TO FATTEN CATTLE.

The following communication from
r. A Steele, q prominent stock-r iiser
of Kansas, to the Drover's Journal, is
full of good sense, and if stock-raisers
will follow it the quality of cattle sent
to market will be rapidly chsnged
The price of cattle fattened for market
depends on the symmetry of the animal,
as well as the fat style, as shippers
term IL. 1 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 steer
to bring the highest market price, he
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 his color or
blood. An animal we'll fed q care not
what the blood-Texas or no0 from q
calf until the spring he is three years
old, will be smooth, with bones well
covered, and will sell at profit while
half starved animal becomes crooked
in the back, one-projecting and shriv-
eled up, takes the best part of the sum-
mer to get in condition to live. and will
| uO1 NC III CouCitlOu IOT udTkeG 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 lie no theory, but fact de.
duced from close observation, and I
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 /, 400 pounds, which
is heavy enough to bring the first price
The best steer sold in 1872 was COM
mon native. He had all he could eat
from calf, and was never hungry. He
was handsome animal, and worth
more per pound than anything I ship
ped in 1872. He weighed in Chicago
1850 pounds age three years. have
a steer calf eleven months old, from a
very ordinary COW. The calf now MAY
weigh, when three years old, 1,5OO
pounds. I do not wish it understood
that am not in favor of improving the
blood as we'll as feed.
| 1 shipped two Texas steers this
spring, which were three years old.
They were smooth and nice, and sold
them with 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, welIfattened 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 voracioue and
multitudinous parasites do vastly more
harm to colts, calves, and other neat
cattle, hogs and poultry, than is gener-
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 to the husbandman. Feed
sulphur in meal with little salt. Wash
(not too copiously) with strong tobacco
] 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 dollar made by rails
ing cora or cotton, and it 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. It is the life
in all seeds and animals that mulfipIies
their value to mankind.
GROUND VS.. WHOLE GRAIN FOR HORSES
The Irish Farmers Gazette, in rela-
ton to the difference between ground
and unground feed, and whole or cut
fodder, quotes the following fact The
London omnibus company have lately
made report which discfoses some in
teresting information, not only to farm
ers, but to every owner of horse.
They use no less than 6,OOO horses
5000 of this number had for their feed
bruised oats. 16 pounds !; cut hay, II
pounds straw, p 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 well, and was kept in as good condi-
tloD, as the one receiving 80 pounds,
thereby causing saving of six pounds
on each horse, amounting to ego per
day, or EDS, 300 per annum on the COM
pany's 1000 horses.
TRANSMITTING SPRUCE TREES.
The proper time for transplanting
young spruce trees is either in yerS
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,
Ii the young plants are removed from
the woods, it is best to allow q ball of |
earth to adhere, if practicable, and par
tial shade must be given them for the
first year. Late in the fall 10 the worst
possible time, as the roots of newly.
planted trees have desire to begin
growth at once, and the lateness of the
season IN this case efectuslly debars
them from adding fibres, and so when
spring arrives the specimen is not un
frequently dead. For the better forma-
ton OF rootlets, mulching is resorted
to, and it will often preserve the life of
a tree that neglect 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-
tical Farmer manages as follows: The
course which Inow pursue is thoroughly
to nix one part of the seed with one
part OF course, sharp sand, or fine
gravel (the sharper the better and
noisten the mass, carefully manipulate
ng it until the seed and chaff are we'll
separated and caused to adhere to the :
'ough particles of sand. The weighty
and thus becomes an effective vehicle j
With which to distribute the buoyant
iced, which by moisture is made to ad-
lere to the sand.
CURE FOR BOTS
A Georgia correspondent of the de-
,artment of agriculture writes know
II remedy that is safe aud cal tain, {
discovered in the following way: About
hirty years ago, friend lost by bots a ,
'ery fine horse. He took from the