The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1882-01-13
Rapid Movement in Beef.

~ 1OuS a. Jul SuI Plus UcCA ID Scul
abroad for market, European competi.
ton will fix limit to the upward ten.
dency of price. As population presse.
upon pasturage, and adds to the value OF
corn, the cost of beef-making will in.
crease. Thus the margin for breeder
and feeder is gradually narrowing. Will
it render Improbable the production Of
beef? Not at all. 1t will sharpen the
wits of those engaged in the business,
induce study of animal physiology and
teach a multitude of economies in the
practice of feeding and management
There are instances of success in feed
ing on the sterile soils of New England,
and at the same time failures in the
country of broad prairies and cheap corn
west of the Mississippi. There is quite
as much in the man as in the land. II
is question whether the range of ca.
pacity for this business is not equal to
the whole breadth Of physical and
economic differences that modify its
profits.
Whatever else may contribute to profit,
as the margin lessons, early maturity
will be very prominent. Great
ANllnH was tuC ASC " lcdTu
this practical lesson. The Shorthorn
is result of it in English breeding, and
it is enforced and emphasized in En-
glish feeding. American feeders are al
ready learning it. They are finding out
that good flesh can be taken on, not by
spasmodic generosity of ration, but by
continuous abundance. The flush sue
culence of summer diet does not har.
monte well with an excess of harsh
straw and coarse slower in winter. Good
hay and sound grain may compensate for
loss of vital heat in pitiless storm, while
it may not lay on an ounce of flesh. II
has long since been learned that the COW
eted mixture of fat and fibre, the
''marbling'' of beef, is not obtained by
alternate stuffing and starving. The
loss in this country from periodical cessa-
ton of growth, in summers drouth OF
winter cold, is enormous.
There is another reason for early ma
turity. The cost of pound of flesh is
always greater during the second year
than in the first; greater in increasing
ratio the third, the fourth. This may
be generally known but is seldom fully
realized. The Fat Stock Show in Chi
cago illustrated foreibly the fact. There
were nine young animals exhibited, not
Shorthorns but Herefords, from 1913 to
S65 days old, none of which had gained
less than two pounds per day from birth,
weighing from 400 to $50 pounds, and
averaging 6O3 pounds. Their average
daily gain was two and fifty-seven one
hundreth pounds. Then there were nine
grade Shorthorns about two years old,
or from go to $50 days, all of which
gained above two pounds daily, averag-
ing scarcely two and one-tenth pounds.
These were the only beef animals in the
exhibition that came up to twO-pound
gain daily or wsre less than two years
old, though there were 1873 all told,
some of which had made less than
pound per day. One had lived $500
days, making but ninety-two one-hun-
dreth pound per day. Another at 2,76O
days showed gain of one and fifteen
one-hundreths daily. As rule, the
longer kept the smaller rate of gain.
One grade Shorthorn, only go days old,
bred by H. C. Nelson, weighed 1,525
pounds, and J. D. Gllett's ''Wild Bilr'
was tame enough to put on weight of
l ,935 pounds in S72 days. 1t is quite
certain that these animals were fed at a
profit. The superior advantage of early
of steady and rapid growth,
was one of the most obvious lessons of |
the fourth Fat Stock Show of Chicago
~ Y. Tribune.