The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-01-14

So long as our surplus beef is sent
abroad for market, European competi-
ton will fix limit to the upward ten
dency of price. AS population presses
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 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. 1t
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
Britain was the first to learn
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. 1t
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 or
winters 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 forcibly the fact. There
were nine young animals exhibited, not
Shorthorns but Herefords, from 1913 to
365 days old, none of which had gained
less than two pounds per day from birth,
weighing from 400 to $50 pounds, and
averaging 603 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 $40 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 were less than two years
old, though there were 1873 all told,
some of which had made less than a
pound per day. One had lived 1900
days, making but ninety-two one-hun-
dreth pound per day. Another at 2,760
days showed a gain of one and fifteen
one-hundreths daily AS a rule, the
longer kept the smaller rate of gain.
One grade Shorthorn, only 679 days old,
bred by H. G. Nelson, weighed 1925
pounds, and j. d. Gllett's "Wild Bilr'
was tame enough to put on weight of
1885 pounds in 872 days. 1t is quite
certain that these animals were fed at a
profit. The superior advantage of early
maturity, of steady and rapid growth,
was one of the most obvious lessons OF
the fourth Fat Stock Show of Chicago
~ Y Tribune.