The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1895-07-26
A PROFITABLE INDUSTRY

The work which Prof. Shaw is do
ing at the state agricultural farm is
bound to be of great benefit to the
farmers of the state if they but fol-
low out the line which has led to the
results obtained. A short time ago
we gave an account of the experiment
he is following in feeding 16 sheep for
the season upon an acre of ground.
During the past eight months he has
been feeding nine steers and the eX-
pertinent came to close few days
ago, when they were sold at the farm
for 1855. They cost last December
1915, so that the profit has been one
which would satisfy most any in
yestor, being about 112 per cent for
the eight months. But this does not
cover the entire profit, for Prof. Shaw
points out that the farm has received
benefit in the way of fertilization,
the profit from which cannot be esti-
mated.
IU loS UCSI SUdUSu
such experiments are misleading in
that the farmer cannot hope to realize
anywhere near such returns as receiy-
ed at the experiment farms. But sup
posing the farmer obtains but little
more than half the profit, he is then
doing good thing and improving his
farm at the same time. And the bet
ter he looks after the matter the
larger his profit. His success in this
respect depends upon how closely he
studies his subject and the careful at
tention he devotes to it.
In commenting upon this expert
ment Prof. Shaw says:
"Attention may be drawn to the
following facts relating to the feed
ing of beef cattle in Minnesota The
work can be made profitable. That
fact is all important, for it has been
denied, and in an emphatic way, by
some who are looked upon as good
authority on the question. Where no
profit can be made in any line of work,
it would be almost criminal to advise
men to embark in it. In feeding for
beef many kinds of coarse food can
be fed upon the farm, and thus turned
into money, that would not bring
nearly SO good price if sold in the
bulky form owing to the greater cost
of transportation. The farmer should
try and finish the steers which he
grows. Here we have nine steers sold
at an average of S65 per head. They
were not yet three years old on an
average. Steers of that age are COM
monty sold for from SIS to S25 by the
Minnesota farmer, but of course in the
unfinished form. The price obtained
may seem large, and yet it is not what
it ought to have been for steers of the
age mentioned. Had they been pushed
along from the first they would have
brought SOS per head when a little
more than two years old. And yet
many of our farmers rear steers until
they are more than two years old and
then sell them to farmers in Iowa and
Dakota to be finished. The price paid
is usually less than SIS.
Minnesota farmers, who should buy
steers for feeding in addition to those
they raise, sell those which they do
rear to the farmers of other states.
Tell it not in Gath. The farmers who
feed steers also feed their lands, and
in the feeding of the land lies the
secret of the most successful farming.
The farmers complain of drouth and
blight and mildew and many other
evils which come upon the crops, but
when the land is kept enriched the
crops grow with vigor which enables
them so to resist these influences that
the grower is seldom greatly disap-
pointed in his expectations. Unques-
tionably the greatest mistake in Min
nesota farming today is the little
value put upon soil fertility.
The day is surely drawing near
when Minnesota will not require to
send to Kansas and Nebraska for beef
that is worthy of the name. Our own
state can produce it as cheaply as the
states named, and with even greater
certainty as to the results, for crops
are more certain in Minnesota than in
either of the states named.
The Duluth Herald holds that the