The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-01
CONDUCTED BY rUrE

pea and sorghum hay. ...1.ss lbs. With cotton seed and sorghum
 hay .......... ...... ..1.ls IDS. With cotton seed and shredded
 corn stover ...... ...... 'ss IDS. To produce one pound of increase in live weight there was required of con Icentrated food. grain" with the cot ton seed meal rations and sorghum hay l4S2 pounds, with the mixed hay and cotton seed ration, 5.41 lbs; with the sorghum hay and cotton seed ra- tion. SIP lbs, wit ht he corn stover and cotton seed ration, 9.41 lbs.
 The amounts of roughness required to produce one pound of gain were. re- spectively, 6.56, 6.s5. 11.09. and 1o.2a pounds. The cotton seed meal ration afforded the largest per cent of dress ed meat.
 A decline in the price of cattle while the experiment was Tn Jrogress reduc- ed the margin between the buying and selling prices to les than six-tenths of a cent a pound. a margin usually too narrow for profitable feeding. Cn the basis of the very high prices of food stuns prevailing in the winter of 1903- |, there was with all cotton seed lots a profit during the first fifty-six days of the experiment, but a loss after this time with all lots. If no account be taken of the manure.
 On the basis of moderate prices of ! feed. Lot II was fed at a profit for efghty-four days. With low prices of food. Lots I. II and III afforded a prof 1t. in addition to the manure. The profit in feeding beef cattle is made not by producing new growth nt less cost per pound than it sells for. but in the increased value of the l original weight. due to fatttening. A margin of one cent per pound between purchase price and selling price is de- sirab1e.
 I About seven pounds of raw cotton seed was fed in the daily ration with out injury to the health of the average steer.
 Account Was Kept of the cost of food l consumed by three grades of steers. Up to the average age of 24.3 months | the average steer consumed $1S.39 worth of skim milk, grain, hay, and pasturage. of which amount the first years food cost $1045. and that of the | second year S7.94. At.243 months, tho average weight was se7 pounds, worth at cents per pound. s26.o1. The ave- | rage cost of food per pound of gain up to this age was 2.12 cents. In feeding calves rice meal proved decidedly inferior to corn meal. When | inferior shredded corn stover was fed to calves. 37 per cent of it was refus- ed, and when fed to steers, A per cent. Of 1t was rejected. The waste in feed ing coarse sorghum hay, slightly l moulded. to steers. averaged twenty per cent.
 A Jersey calf kept stabbed until six and one-half months old. produced ma- nure (wtth accompanying bedding) at the rate of 9.4 pounds per day. Xearling steers. kept in a barn, aver aged daily production of twenty pounds of manure per day. exclusive of bedding.
 fearling steers on rye pasture alone gained 1.67 pounds daily per head. Grade calves made on pasture alono an average daily gain of .72 of a pound, | or l5l pounds per season. Grade year. ling steers made an average daily gain Of 1.43 pounds per day, or three hum dred and seven pounds px, season, on native pasturage alone. dr ninetylone pounds of live weight per acre. This was equivalent to a rental of s2.7s per acre for the land.
 1 In cooperative experiment made on an unimproved sandy-land pasture In Macon county. Alabama, a study was made of the rate of growth of scrub cattle that received no food. even dur 1 ing the winter. subsisting entirely on native pasturage and the winter range. and otherwise managed in most primitive manner
 During a pasturaHe season of seven months the average gain in live weight ana per centage of increase as com pared with weight hn the spring. were as follows:
 Mature COW. nursing calves. 5s lbs. or per cent.
 Heifers e years old. etc.), 172 lbs. or 39 per cent. Yearlings. male and female. 1O3 Ibs or aS per cent
 Sucking calves. Al lbs, or s1 per cent
 Young steers and bulls, 14s lbs. or S5 per cent
 Young steers weighed for two pas- turage seasons in succession increased in weight 42 per cent. as yearlinrs. ana A per cent, as two-year-olds. On the winter range. cattle of all ages became very thin and in the opinion of the writers it would have been highly profitable for the owner to have supplied them with hay and other food during the winter.
 The principal essentials to the profit able production of beef cattle in Ala nama are the use of pure-bred bulls of the beef breeds. the economical produc- ton Of hay. especially from the legu minous plants. the substitution of this nay for part of the grain ration, and an increased study of the best meth ods or handling and marketing cattle.