The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-02-10
How to Produce Beef in the Cheapest
Manner.

feeders to prove that beef of good quail
ity can be most cheaply produced by
giving their animals, from birth up to
slaughter, all such suitable food as they
will daily eat and digest well. Steers
of the most improved breeds may be
made by this method, as general rule,
to weigh from 1000 to 1,5OO pounds at
eighteen to twenty months of age, and
extra choice at the same age exceed
these weights by several hundred
pounds. In pushing animals up to, or
near maturity in this rapid manner, in
order to obtain the best quality of flesh,
they must have sufficient exercise in the
open air, and be exposed to the health
full influence of sunshine as much as
possible. There is nothing equal to
good old grass pasture to obtain all this,
and the longer the steers can be kept
out upon it the more advantageous it
will be to them. Many feeders provide
cornfields for their steers to run in dur
ing winter, contending that they are
nearly an equivalent to the grass past
ures of summer. If strip of forest,
with soil sufficiently porous to absorb
the rain as fast as it falls is near by for
the cattle to shelter themselves at night
and in stormy weather, they will do bet
ter often than in yards or stables. The
fallen leaves of forest trees make one
of the warmest and best of beds, and
cattle enjoying the benefits of these come
out in the spring like the deer, elk and
other wild animals, in excellent health,
well-feshed, thrifty and with the finest
and smoothest of coats. / have never
seen domestic animals in the Western
States show superior condition in the
spring to those which were thus win
tered. Their beef, also, when slaught-
cred, proves, after all this exposure and
exercise, nicer and more evenly marbled,
with greater percentage of tender,
juicy lean, which alone is what the con-
sumner wants, and not the gross fat
which often abounds to an excess in the
stall-fed, unexercised, shaded ami
NAL. That fattened in the open air is
not only the juiciest and highest fla
vored, but, pound for pound, it proves
the most nourishing and consequently
the most economical both for the pro-
Queer and consumer. The prediction
thus gives high satisfaction and becomes
a pleasure to all concerned.
This pushing for early maturity is I'M
doubtedly best where the soil is rich
and grass and grain consequently alum.
dant But on poor lands. and especially
when stony and hilly, later maturity is
found about as profitable, and if the
cattle are of a right sort the flesh gets
a better chance to fully ripen, and upon
the whole is perhaps of a superior quail
ity. On such lands cattle Craze freely
in summer, and are fed hay and corn.
stalks in winter. Thus treated they at
tain full growth of frame at no great
cost at four to five years old. Early in
summer they are then taken to rich
pastures, where they fatten rapidly, and
in the course of few months become
choice beef. In this way. and also by
subsequent stall-feeding for an addi-
tional time, greater gain of flesh per
day during the fattening process has
been obtained after the above ages than
l have as yet met reported for the first
and second years of such as were rapid
ly pushed from birth. The utmost gain
of those found at the late Fat Stock
Show in Chicago was l. AT to 2.20 pounds
per day for bullocks from 616 to 952
days old, while that of those past four
to five years old, spoken of above, dur
ing the time fed for slaughter, am in
formed, has often reached two and one
fourth to three pounds, and even more,
per day. This method of feeding is fol-
lowed somewhat in the Eastern States,
but more largely on pasture alone gen.
orally on the vast plains of the West.
1t is pursued also moderately in the
United Kingdom, where cattle are kept
till four to five years old in the mount
ainous districts OF Ireland. Scotland,
England and Wales.
We may apply the above systems of
rearing and feeding. with proper modi-
fications, to sheep, pigs and even poul-
htry. In former years have seen focks
geese in England, vary from few to
iearly 1000 in number, after pastur-
Ting on poor waste lands, driven up
from these to the vicinity of London and
other large towns, to be fattened there
for daily supplying the city markets.
Perhaps the late multiplication of rail-
roads has cheapened transportation so
much that this system may now be
changed, and the geese fattened where
reared and then taken to market. This
latter method we pursue IN the United
States. and it is undoubtedly the best
for us. Not many years since we drove
our fattened cattle, sheep and pigs in
large herds on foot hundreds of miles,
from the Western to the Eastern States
for a market. Now, railroads and
steamboats, transport them to market
in infinitely less time, and at a much
less expense of money and loss in
weight and condition. The various
methods of feeding stock among us de-
mand longer and more frequent expert
ment than yet assayed among us to set.
tie which are the best and most econom-
ical to follow; and this is thing to
which our agricultural schools and col
leges ought to devote more attention
than they have hitherto done; for in due
time they might discover improvements
which would annually save millions of
dollars worth of food to the Nation, in
rearing and fattening its domestic ami
mails. B. Ailea, in ~ Y. Tribune.
A Lesson in Bookkeeping.