The Fort Worth gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-189?, 1891-04-09
LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION.

The Chicago Drovers' journal, q first
class authority undoubtedly, says the ma
iority OF farmers raising stock fully believe
they know everything worth knowing rela-
tive To the industry, and that there is no
need whatever for looking after further in
formation. They may possibly be correct
in part, or. at least in many instances, yet
the world is moving, and the producer of
livestock must move with it else he will
eventually find himself left.
1t would seem as if this ought 10 be no.
body's business, provided The producer is
himself satisfied with the results. But is he
satisfied in all cases. or even in very many
cases! Our contemporary says we are just
now standing face to face with the fact that
great body of the farmers and livestock
producers of the country have, for the past
three or four years, been greatly dissatis
ned with the results Of cattle production
particularly, and any person who daily
watches the cattle market at the Union
stockyards in Chicago can easily uote this
marked dissatisfaction. Il springs in the
main from the different prices paid differ
cnl parties. IN watch of this market
thousands of cattle viii be seen selling at
from 81. 81. 80 and 81. - per 100 pounds. OF
course there IS no money TO the producer at
those figures, and were they the ruling fig
ures they would soon sound the death knell
to the cattle business. But they are not
the ruling figures, for while these ruinous
sales are being made thousands of cattle
Ia IF Ia l,p-
from 81 - up to IS, 20 per 100 pounds. Many
will also be going at figures intermediate
between these highest and lowest rates.
Now the question arises: Why this
great difference in the price of cattle? The
man awarded the low figures will say it
comes Of the fact that he has been swim
died, while the man obtaining the good
price will not have much 10 say about it.
The most rational conclusion for one TO ar
rive at is that somebody ought TO know
little more than he does know with refer
cnce to cattle production. There is no kind
Of swindling in the case-competition is too
strong 10 admit of that. In plain words
the cattle really bring all they are worth.
But" says the dissatisfied man, my
cattle selling for next to nothing are all fine
grades His words may be entirely true,
but grade alone will not make marketable
cattle. Thousands of cattle of good blood
come upon the Chicago market in such
condition as renders it wholly impossible to
class them above the veriest scrubs.
1t has been clearly demonstrated over
and over again, tens of thousands of times,
that nothing but the best kind OF manage
ment, with a correct variety of good feed,
associated with pure water, all systemati-
cally given to cattle while in keeping on the
farm, will ever produce stock of choice beef
quality. No farmer raising beef cattle for
market can now afford to run in the So
called old ruts with his scrub stock, or his
better breeds treated as scrubs. 1t will
never do to market cattle at from 81 to 81 80
per 100 pounds.
It is no very difficult matter to produce
good beef cattle, especially where one has
good breeds to work upon, and no other
kinds should be tempered with. Good feeds.
good water, and little intelligent manage
ment cover every need. As 10 feeds grain,
pasture and suitable forage for winter, with
good water, are the chief things figuring in
the case. Considerable space in the
Drovers' Journal is here devoted to the hay
crop, and TO the ordinary cultivated grasses,
referring mainly to the North, and hence OF
no special interest to Texans. The writer
shows that there is not much of profit in