The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1889-10-18
CORRESPONDENCE
FROM suPT. GREGG, or THE STATE
FARMERS INSTITUTES.
THE MINNESOTA STEER

The time has come when every one
who is interested in the advance
ment of the agriculture of Mimi
esota should take s'the Minnesota
steer for his theme. and Gift up his
voice, cry aloud and spare not"
1t should be generally understood
that this steer should be means
and not an end-a means by which
we obtain cash in paying quaint
ty, and if he fails in this he is failure
indeed. In old scriptural times, cattle
by numbers alone indicated wealth;
to day an equal number may be an
Indication of poverty. To use a
common phrase, ''the more he has,
the worse he is of" An Indian counts
all the parts of an animal almost
equally valuable hsfood. Soeven the
entrails form to him q delicate mOrsei.
AS civilization advances the appetite
becomes more fastidious and parts
of the animal are rejected as food,
and the reserved portions are called
sdressed meats" and have alone a
food value. Many people to-day in
their estimate of meat, count every
portion of the carcass as nearly equal
in value. Such people make a great
mistake, for another division has
taken place, and a portion of the
steer is now really valuable SO as
to bring a profita BILE price and the
balance is simply endured and sold
for what it will bring. The loin and
hind-quarter form the valuable por-
ton referred to. Breadth OF back
and deepness of lOip makes a steer;
without development the steer is like
a COW without an udder-a horse
without foot. The old saying, mo
foot, no horse" could be paraphrased
mo back, no steer ?
The drive ways to the canning
factories are choked with the
crowds of sloping backed cat-ham-
med steers. Trains are loaded with
canned meats and the fertilizing fac
tories are consuming the balance
of the low priced beef and making it
into manure for depleted fields.
Still this stream of cattle continues
with it's unchanging lack of quality
But what shall be done?
l. Stop raising them-as factories
stop when the market refuses it's
products; so we should call a halt
to the production Of that kind of
steer that the market does not
want. No one can afford to raise
this steer of the past-unless he be
rich and by reason d some strange
freak of fancy finds pleasure in SO
doing. The growing of such stock
cannot be in the near future any
thing except a losing business. The
stock is burden to the grower !;
they eat his hay and feed, appear
on assessment roll as a beast for
taxation, but never will make a cash
return commensurate Ito the cost of
their production. Al in times of
abundance of the buffdlo the tongue
was alone taken by tile hunter, and
the balance of the huge creature
was left to rot upon the ground,
so to-day in the abundance OF meat,
the market takes the Juicy and ten
der back. aud plump hind-quarter
and leaves tile rest to the Gamers.
when a steer lacks this part he is a
blank in the profitable meat market
of to-day. The great majority OF
the steers of Minnesota are of this
type, but are loss to the producer
and burden upon industry.
Some will say that these illshaped
steers can be fed so al to be made
valuable. This is the talk of folly
the steer of today must first be bred
and then be fed. No amount of train
ing can make a speedy horse if it
have straight shoulder. A cochin
china fowl can never fly with the wild
goose; the wing is too small and
weak for it's great adipose body So
no amount of food can make a slab
sided pitch-backed steer to have a
lOin that the market demands.
The back is first formed by proper
breeding. The loin is an ancestral
trait; like the face OF the Hebrew, it is
suggestive of parentage One can
not be produced by feeding any more
than the other. These things are
like the truly good man-we must be-
gin with him before he is born.
Heredity has control of certain
birth rights, and among the many
things is this one of loin in steer
He who talks of feeding a back on a
steer is like him who sends half wit
to college. A college can develop
but it cannot create. Capacity must
first exist before development cal
take hold.
The feeders of the great Missouri
valley say we cannot feed our cheal
corn to steers with sloping ribs ant
high back bone, ior such steers for
bid meat deposit, where the marke
wants it, as the back of duck for