Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-10-12
Feeding for Beef.

Feeding cattle, says the 4merican
Agricultwist, must in the future be
made an accessory of all grain or mix
ed farming. Dairying, grain and cattle
raising, and special cultures, will UNI
doubtedly form the three chief divisions
of Agriculture in the future. This is
made necessary by the course of events,
some of which are the gradual change
of the soil from its new condition to
one in which it must be fed systemati
cally and scientifically; the increasing
popular demand for meat, dairy pro-
duets, and other choice domestic sup
plies, which are needed in community
whose manner of life is improving year
by year, and also by the necessity of
conducting our industries in very eco
nomical manner, so as to meet the pres
ent active competition. All these
events, with others, to which we need
not refer, are combining to force farm
ers to feed live stock and make beef,
mutton, pork, poultry, of high quality.
Grain must be grown. There must be
wheat, oats, barley and corn, to supply
the markets. But we can no longer
grow these in haphazard, slip-shod
manner, but only in a regular skillful
rotation with grass, green crops and
roots interchanged, and liberal manur-
ing is the first necessity of for all these.
We cannot afford to waste straw, chatf,
or fodder, nor can we sell roots in any
quantity, because of their bulk, and al
so for the reason that, except Tor feed
ing beeves, sheep, pigs and cows, no.
body wants them. 1t is needless to ex
plain further to the farmer who has
gone through some years experience in
growing grass and grains, how this ne
cessity is rapidly forcing him to change
his methods. There are some who have
adopted the new order of things, and
are satisfied with the results; there are
others, however, who not seeing, or re-
fusing to perceive, the pinch they are
in, are going on in the old way, year by
year growing poorer, more dissatisfied,
and more given to complaining that
farming don't pay any longer. The
trouble is not in their business, but IN
their poor management OF it. We have
frequently spoken of the need for bet
ter work, for higher culture, for en-
larged yields, and for the most econom-
ical and skillful management. How to
reach these, is the point, that they are
necessary is nowhere disputed. We see
plainly, that it is only by choosing the
most desirable branch of farming, suit
ed for particular soils, locations and
other controlling circumstances, and
sticking to this; bringing to the chosen
business all the study, skill, patience,
and capital that may be needed. We
emphasize capital, because without this
all the rest is unavailing. A farmer
without capital is a slave; with it, he
has the means of utilizing all his other
No man can be a farmer without sui
ficient capital, any more than he can be
a banker, a merchant, or a manufactur-
er. A man may go on to the prairie or
into the woods upon fresh homestead
with very little capital, and worry out
poor living but he sells himself to the
government for five years for this priv
ilege, and for that time, until he has
the patent for his land in his hand, he
is not free man, but is in bonds; but
to go into the business Of farming prof
itably, capital is needed. When the
particular branch is chosen, not from
fancy, because this will not do, for there
are dairy farms and grain farms, one of
which will not suit the other business;
and there are milk farms and market
farms in the vicinity of cities, that can
be carried on nowhere else, and upon
which other sorts of farming will fail;
but the kind of farming to be chosen
must be. that which can be most profit
ably carried on under the circumstances
and in the locality Grain growing and
mixed farming, including the rearing or
purchasing and feeding Of live stock,
must necessarily form the largest branch
of agricultural industry. AS we have
said, the one cannot be conducted alone,
but must be assisted by the other. 1t