The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-10-16
Feeding for Beef.

The Agriculturalist says: Breeding cattle
must in the future be made an accessory of
all grain or mixed farming. Dairying, grain
and cattle raising, and special culture, will
undoubtedly 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 the one in which it
must be fed systematically and scientifically;
the increasing popular demand for meat.
dairy products, and other choice domestic
supplies, 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 economical manner.
so as to meet the present active competition.
All these events, with others, to which we
need not refer, are combining to force farm
ers to feed their live stock and make beef,
pork, mutton and 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 regular skilful rotation, with grass, green
crops and roots interchanged, and liberal
manuring is the first necessity for all these.
We cannot afford to waste straw, chat, or
fodder, nor can we sell roots in any quantity,
because of their bulk, and also for the reason
that, except for feeding beeves, sheep, pigs
cows, nobody wants them. 1t is needless to
explain further to the farmer who has gone
through some years. experience IN growing
grass and grains, how this necessity is rapid
ly 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 refusing to perceive, the pinch they are in,
are going on in the old way, year by year
growing poorer, more dissatisfied, more given
to complaining that farming don't pay any
longer" The trouble is not in their bust
ness, but in their poor management of it.
We have frequently spoken of the need for
better work, for higher culture, for enlarged
yields, and for the most economical and skill
full 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 farm
ing, suited 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, be-
cause without this, all the rest are unwilling.
A farmer without capital is slave; with its
he has the means of utilizing all his other
forces or capabilities, to the utmost. No
man can be farmer without sufficient capt.
tai, any more than he can be a banker, a
merchant or manufacturer. A man may
60 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
privilege, and for that time, until he has the
patent Tor his land in his hand he is not a
free man, but is in bonds; but to 90 into the
business of farming proftably, capital is need
ed. When the particular branch is chosen,
not from fancy, because that 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
vicinity OF cities, that can be carried on no
where else, and upon which other sorts of
farming would fail; but the kind of farming
to be chosen must be that which can be most
proftably carried on under the circumstances
and locality. Grain growing and mixed farm
ing including the rearing or purchasing of
and feeding of livestock, must necessarily
form the largest branch of agricultural in
dustry. AS we have said, the one cannot be
conducted alone, but must be assisted by the
other. 1t comes then to be a most important
consideration, what kind of animals are the
most profitable to keep, and how they are to
be fed with most profit. 1t is evident from a
view of what is going on in the live stock
markets, that it cannot pay to feed an animal
that requires four or five years to mature,
nor one that will not be extra in quality and
of heavy weight. No beet animas adn now be
reared or fed with profit, that will - reach
weight of 1,400 lbs. at least, al thirty
months old A grade Shorthorn or Hereford
steer, of |, 400 lbs. at two years and one-half
years old, will sell for seventy or eighty dol
lars, if not mere. and it is as certain as any,
thing can be, that for many years to come
the value of beef will not be less than now.
The new foreign outlet for meat secures this.
Such animals as these, ted skilfully in yards
or pens, with moderate allowance of pur-
chased foods, that are always cheaply avail
able, such as bran, mill stuffs, linse, or cot
ton seed cake, with the roots and straw
grown upon the farm, will produce an i'm
mense supply of the very best manure; and
II turned off on the market at cost only, the
animals will leave as profit sufficient manure
to produce grain and root crop. This
ought to satisfy good farmer; but there is
more profit in this business than that, al
though many farmers may not be able to
realize more. The subject merely touched
as one to be thoughtfnlly studied.