Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1877-11-28
FARM AND FlREsIEDE
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Raising Cattle for Market.

3
At the March meeting Of our Grange,
q resolution was adopted requesting
me to prepare an essay on the most
profitable way to raise steer from the
calf to the matured fat bullock, to be
read before the Grange atits May meet
ing.
| suppose this request was made OF
me for the reason that most Of the mem
hers of our Grange know that | have
aoen breeding and fattening cattle for
market for more than thirty years, and
that, in that time l ought to have
learned something worth communicat-
ing to them and thinkI have.
1t is that unthrifty animals on the
farm are most undesirable boarders,
yielding no profit but too frequently
eating up all the profits realized in
other departments of the farm we must
get rid of them !; it would be better even
TO give them to someone to keep
them, for the longer we hold them the
poorer they will make US.
We may get along on The farm, after
q manner, with Inferior farming imple-
nents. but cannot afford to run the
farm with inferior stock of any kind
When 1--we consider the quantity OF land
devoted to pasturage, and the proper
ton Of the produce Of the farm fed to
live stock, we perceive that it is the
most important business of the farm ;
and if managed with proper system and
care it will always yield satisfactory
profit. | think no fact, relating to our
farm management, is better established
than that if our live stock be above the
general average it will make US richer ;
while if it be below the general average
it will make us the poorer. 1t is OF the
utmost Importance to US as farmers that
we give intelligent consideration to all
our surroundings, especially the rapid
communication and cheap transportation
with The great grain growing regions OF
the West, placing wheat on the Allan
tic Seaboard below the actual costs OF
production with US, and to- seem what
we can successfully compete with more
newly settled and cheaper lands of the
great West and Northwest.
Piedmont Virginia is superior corn
and grass growing section. and ouI
county will compare in fertility favorably
with any portion Of it d; and am well
satisfied that We can compete success
fully with any other country anywhere,
in raising and feeding live stock but II
must be stocked Of the best character
and Of the right kind; we cannot com.
pete with the cheap corn of the West in
raising hogs for lard but we can raise
prohtably the quick maturing smaller
breed for Virginia bacon" and our
lands are too high priced to compete
with Texas or the Northwest in raising
cheap beef to feed the poor of large
cities, but are always anxious bidders at
good prices for good stock.
This is large country, and if we
succeed as we most surely can do, and
must do, in competing with the produc-
lions OF its cheaper sections it must be
by the superiority ofwhat we make to
sell. and there is nothing L know Of in
which We can certainly succeed so well
asin the production of superior beef
pork and mutton we must constantly
aim for, and be satisfied with nothing but
the best; the most meat, of the best
quality, in the shortest time this can
only be attained by close and constant
attention to improving our live stock
breeding from more thoroughbred males
and closely wedding out all inferior
females; fix in our minds eye stand
ard OF excellence and breed constantly
to that point. looking to a quick
maturity, flesh Of the best quality, ano
abundant On those points that command
the highest price ia the market.
BY care in the selection and use O.
thoroughbred bulls on the farm, we can
in few years, by successful crops, pro
duce an Improvement the general
stock of the farm so close to the stand
ard of the thoroughbred that for the
purpose of the grazier it Is practically
as good.
After this seeming DEPRESSION return
to the subject of my essay, by saying
that have bred and fattened nearly all
the different kinds of cattle raised in
our section, from tolerably good scrub
up to the pure bred Shorthorn, and
have always found the more the i'm.
proved Shorthorn blood predominated
the greater the profits. hold the i'm.
proved shorthorns and their grades as
decidedly the farmers cattle for our
section; they. are peed mixers, rapid
growers and quick feeders, maturing one
or two years earlier than the comm ON
cattle OF the country, weighing at thirty
months old with rational treatment)
from l, 400 to l,500 pounds, and worth
IN the market from one to two cents
more per pound.
Our CALVES are allowed what milk
they will suck tor the first three or four
weeks they are nursed 10 the middle
OF the day, and ruu with their mothers
at night for the first fortnight, and if kept
Ia the house we give them little wheat
bran and hay (nicely cured clover if We
have it, which they will soon learn to
eat; and after they are parted at night
from their mothers, unless we have
good tender -rass for them to run on
they should have small feed of bran
and oat meal mixed equal weights OF
each) until they are eight or ten weeks
old; between the age of six and eight
weeks we give them all the milk from
two teats, after that We allow them one
"NSA' ohlii eAOy dlo ufC uUubllS OlU,
about which age we wean them during
the whole period of sucking, whenever
The grass is mol good, we give them a
feed OF the bran ana meal mixture at
night. When We commence weaving
them, they are put on young. tender
grass and fed night and morning for the
first two or three weeks. and salt kept
where they can get it at will after they
have forgotten their mothers they will
take care of themselves without much
trouble, until the young wheat is up
enough to Craze they are then put up
on the wheat, with straw or haystack
in the field, and rough board shelter
near the stack to protect them in bad
weather; we give them very little other
attention until the first to tenth of April
except an occasional feed of cornmeal
and bran equal measures of each) in
frosty Or bad weather; when taken of
the wheat they should have the run ola
good sod field as affording the earliest
grazing. and be fed with brans, meal and
a little cut hay, until the grass is sufi-
GENTLY high to keep them in good grow
ing condition. In carrying a calf
through its first winter, it is important
that it should be so cared for as not to