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ten: “ carrots, parsnips, potatoes, beets, ruta
baga, turnips.” Meal of corn or peas, is too heat
ing when fed alone. It should be mixed with
hay, cut twelve inches long, soaked in water.
The use of rice flour is injudicious, being more
heating than meal, and if used as constant food,
produces.swellings of the joints and stillness in
the limbs and back, of all animals fed profusely
upon it.
In full-grown cattle, all the food consumed is
turned into flesh and fat, which is. not the case
with three year old steers. Stall-fed cattle
should bring a larger price than pasture cattle—
not only because it is fatter, but because the flesh
becomes more tender, juicy, and free from un
pleasant flavors, caused by rank vegetable
growth of almost every kind. Stalled cattle
should not be fed upon turnips, cabbages, &c.,
for two orjthree days before they are slaughtered,
but with the sweetest hay, mixed with the meal of
com or peas. It is best not to feed the last day.
Let two steers be driven from the pasture in the
evening, slaughter one on the spot, -starve the
other twenty-four hours before he is fetched to
the “ shambles,” and compare the flavor of the
two when dressed for the table. If tie pasture
is rank in growth, a peculiar odor will be per
ceptible to the nasal organ of the gourmand,
as soon as the cover is lifted from the dish in
which the first killed has been served up, and
the flesh exceedingly disagreeable to a well-train
ed palate; while the second will be good beef.
Sportsmen know that a deer killed as it springs
from its lair, is not as good venison as the same
deer, after a chase of five or six hours—that dis
emboweling a deer on the spot improves the
venison. In partridge shooting, the old sports
man will draw hiuyvrds scientifically, when
a covey is disposed^. J r jMie wild turkey is a
different bird, if dnCjU. >5 soon as it is killed,
from the same bird mingled for an hour at the
saddle skirts, undrawp This carelessness is the
reason why many people prefer the tame to the j
wild turkey. All of this goes to prove the im- :
portance of the kind of food fed to cattle just j
before they are slaughtered. It is too bad to
spoil good beef by carelessness at the time of
slaughtering, after three months care in keeping.
IV e give here the cost of stall feeding, and the
profits, if any, at the present market rates.
We suppose the ox to weigh on its heels when
put up, 700 lbs.—lie has gained 300 lbs. in three ;
months. Six-tenths or a little less is saleable t
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR.
meat, so that his weight per quarter was 105 lbs.;
after three months fattening 150 lbs.
For food, one-fifth of 700 lbs. is 140 lbs.
“ “ “ 1000 lbs. is 200 “
Average 170 lbs. consuim/i per day, of which
5 gallons water is 42 lbs., leaving 128 lbs. pro
duce—loo lbs. roots, 28 lbs. hay —and in 00 days
9000 lbs. of roots, 2520 lbs. bay.
Cost of hay on the farm, 50c. per 100 lbs. sl2 60
9000 lbs., equal to 150 bushels of
roots, at 50c 75 00
Cost SB7 60
Weight of beef when put up,
per quarter, 105 lbs.
Weight of beef when slaugh
tered, per quarter. ...*... .150 “
ie
Increase of flesh £5 “
180 lbs. at 25c.,.. ....$45 00.
Loss , $42 60
The offal litis gained four-tenths, or 120 lbs.—
that is balanced by time aud care iff 'feeding. %
“It is curious to compare the gain, of fatten
ing cattle, with the actual cost of kcomg. Two
pounds live weight in an ox is considered a large
gain. The largest gain mentioned* is. S.;OTUs.
At seven dollars per hundred, v this wcafld be
equal to 27c. To secure this, we suppose the
animal to receive one- peck.of meal, which at
G6£e. per bushel, (prices in 1844) would be 16$
cents, and 28 pounds of hay, which at $8 00 per
2000 lbs., would be about 28 cents per day. Or
suppose him to gain only 2 II*?. per which
would be 14 cents, and his daily allowance of
meal to be reduced to 4 quarts, and hay the
same as before, the daily cost of keeping would
be about 20 cents; in which if we place*
the manure as an offset for the
terest, Ac., there will be a loss of about 6 cents
per day. I believe the result is often much 1
worse than this; and it is much to be regrutted
that farmers do not look these facts in the face.
Ido not mean to deny that there are instances
of success in this department of husbandry—in
stances in which the farmer is well paid for ex
pense and trouble ; but these instances are com
paratively rare, and so much matter of con tin
i^enei, that c\cn the most skillful farmer•; oxnnpt
always rely upon their best judgment. The far-
L.ici ah\ s seems satisfied it he can, as he terms
it, double his money—that is, if he can receive ,