Fattening Cattle

A Michigan drpver, woll known t' man y oí' your readers, was once asked bj i pai : v w 'u se took ho irequently handi lea, to explaïu thé inferïority of Michigan beevi-3 as compared with Illinois oattle; Said hef "You take your Imstcet of oorn !u!o the y:i.icl and nasa out the ears tothi expectant anímala wlth a sighfor enoh, - ■■■■ an ither er oí coi u' ; while the CUinois man thinks s he fceds, no', 'how liítlo cení,' but, 'how much betí.' There waa truth in bis n j!j. Ccnvcrthig cora irito ít is thn mosi extensive and important Imiitch of rotuinfaoturing carried orí in the CJnUed Stiltes. Even a slight improveruent in iliu process would rexult in an immense aggregate gain. Perhaps w,e riiitrht gct ;ui idea of valué frora the Illinoia fcederg. ïhpy uro worth listening to, for thcii Stato does undombtedly turn ofF more fat cattle every year, than any cthor in the Union. Feeding cattle is 11 business there and is conducted inore closely upon business princpk's, figured dowB finar in short, then it is likely to be by nu;n who í'arni it in a general way. Cirounistimces alter oases, however, and it don't follow tliat Michigan or Massaohunotts had br.st adopt the western praotices in the manufacture referred to : but yot, let us notice briefly the two most prominent ones. ]st. The heavy feeding; lünd. the üght feeding. Most Illinois feeders giïes their fattening cattle all the corn they will eat, whether ground, husked, sernped, or on the stalk - shock corn. The grnin is the main artielo of diet, hay or corn fodder- "roupbness" - a relish instead of a roverscd order that niakes the grnin a sort of dessert. John A, Alexander'a plan is said to have been to bed the cattle down with corn. Thia otherwiso wasteful method becomes an economical one, when tho cattle are followed by hogs - from 1 to 2 to the steer - where it is practiced. By properly rcgulating the nnmber of hogs they will clean np tho waste almost entiroly ; and all agree, I believo, thnt the hogs do better with this system than any other. It is ordinarily ihought prof itublo in the east, at least, to grind corn for cattlo and steam it for hogs ; this plrn removes the necessity for either. We grind corn for cattle that they raay asiimilato it better - get out of it more of the fat there is in it. But so long as we catch in one hand what the othcr mieses where is the loss ? The thing is to get :he corn into fat ; whether beef orporkis immaterini, for, on food, they are usually about the same price. Cattle fed on whole corn do gain rapidly, and the grain ;hey void is ready cooked for the pigs -hut í'oeii themselve8. A great s'aving of abor is thus effecte 1 ; shelling corn, haulng to and from the mili, to say nothing of toil, cooking for hogs and feeding ;hem. Every man can estímate the cost of thia for himself; but many a little makes a miokle, and the economy is imüortant in proportion to the eitent of ,he business done. In conversation -with a large farmer and feeder of Pike County, Illinois, the other evening, I asked if they had never ;ried grinding for themselves with the ron crushers. Certainly, he replied, here is one oí tliem laid up on nearly every iá)pa. in our section of country. I don't knSw of any body who is using thera, it costs ko niucti,with' labor at $20 to $25 per month, to grind for a large lot of stock ; and besides as we feed the cattle grind for nothing, and we get all out of tho corn there is in it - if a littie less beef, a little more pork, usually worth about the same, so we loso nothing ai'ter all, y ou see." Miehignn produces much mora of pork than of beef, most of her tiogs get their orn from first hands, so tö speak. Her )eef cattle are, as a rule, sold both young nd thin. Would her farmers not do wcll o pattern somewhat after the west in beir feeding; keeping their teers one car longer, perhaps, on a full allowance f corn, making nearly as much pork by lio indirect rnethod as by tho direct, reieving themselves to a ceitain extent of miller's tit.hes and the outgo forsteamers, while their cattlo ripen into first-class. -