connected with cattle feeding, and must be considered when counting profits in this industry. On looking at the manure pile the other day, where I fed out 20 acres of corn to the cattle that went away on December 11th, I asked myself what could I afford to take for that pile of manure, if I had a purchaser. Could I afford to take forty dollars? My answer was, no, as I think it is worth that for the farm, and if it is, that is $2 an acre for the corn fed out, which should go to the credit side of the cattle, and I can feed out a crop of corn to cattle at a cost of three cents a bushel, where it costs about six to deliver it at the elevator. As to profits in cattle feeding, I cannot give any very satisfactory figures. The best I can do is to give the cost and receipts for cattle for several years in the following manner: Value of cattle on hand at beginning of the year; cattle bought during the year; value of cattle sold, and value of cattle remaining at the end of the year. You can see from this statement for six years that the fewer cattle I handled the greater the profit; so some of you may think if I had let then alone altogether, the profit would be greater still. In explanation, I will say that when the number was small, the care of them was much better, the quality of the cattle better, and the weight heavier. As to prices, I have sold good, fat steers since I commenced the business all the way from 3c a pound in the year 1879 up to 6 1⁄2c a pound in the year 1882 -three years after the lowest price. So you may see if I had dropped out of the business in '79, I would have been loser, but by perseverance I made up three years later what I had lost in that year. So I think to succeed we should jog along and not be too highly elated when we make a good hit, or be depressed too much when the bottom drops out of the market. But I will say that my greatest mistakes have been in being overstocked; that is, having more stock on hand than I could care for as it should be done, and if anyone is going to ask me for advice, the first thing I would say is, keep only enough stock so you can keep it growing every day in the year; and when it is ready for market, sell, for if you have to sell cheap, if you wish to stock up you can buy cheap and fit this cheap stock for a better market, as it is a long road that has no turns in it. One other thing I have learned the last few years: that is, do not value bluegrass pasture too high. It is all right for very early spring pasture or late fall and winter, but I have found that cattle will improve much faster on timothy and clover from June 1st to October ist than on bluegrass. I believe I learn something each year about cattle feeding, although when I commenced to feed for myself I thought I was a graduate in the business. Now, the more experience I have, the more I believe there is much for me to learn to get best results from cattle feeding, and I hope to learn some of these things today from those present here today. Discussion. President Farnsworth: The subject is open for discussion now. Let us have it discussed rapidly and to the point. Mr. Rankin: I want to ask Mr. Dunlap, in speaking of the gain in December that he mentioned, what part of the gain was made entirely on grass. Mr. Dunlap: I can't state that exactly. I could if I had the figures, but not unless I had them. When I turned them in on the clover pasture of 120 acres, I had them on grass from the first of April up to that time. I turned them in on the clover pasture at that time and commenced feeding corn. I only kept a record from that time on till they went away. Mr. Rankin: You fed them corn while they were on grass? Mr. Dunlap: Yes, sir, until some time about the first of August. Mr. Dunlap: Yes, sir. Mr. Rankin: These figures would be very satisfactory as to the profits if Mr. Dunlap had noted the value of the feed; but the question. is left open as to where the profit is. I would like to have an expression from him as to whether or not he thought, the feed being considered, that, of course, representing largely the gain in the price of the cattle, there was any profit. Mr. Dunlap: As I stated before I began to read this statement, I did not think it was very satisfactory. Some years I bought a little feed besides what I raised myself, and I did not keep a record of that. That is why I stated at the beginning that it was not very satisfactory. It only shows what I received for the cattle above what I paid for them, and their value at the beginning of the year. That is the only thing I can get at from my books. Some years I bought a little feed besides what I raised on the farm. Mr. Hanna: I would like to ask Mr. Dunlap how many square feet he calculates for a steer in the stock yard. Mr. Dunlap: I couldn't say that. I have a feed lot that I can divide into three lots for my cattle, and when the weather is not too bad, I put feed in two lots at a time, so that when there comes a real bad day my men do not have to go out to feed that day. I haven't threequarters of an acre in all three of the feed lots; I think that is all that is necessary. If you have too large a feed lot the cattle will tramp it up and make it muddy. If you have a small one they keep it pretty well bedded down and do not get in the mud so badly. Mr. Adams, Pickaway County: Mr. Dunlap in his discourse rather slightingly speaks of what has always been considered, and is today considered, the cattle men's friend, that is, blue grass. Now I would like to ask him how long that blue grass field he spoke about was in blue grass, and whether there was not as much dog fennel and crab grass in it as there was blue grass? Mr. Dunlap: Well, I supposed that Mr. Adams would have something to say. I can say that the blue grass they ran on is as pretty a piece of blue grass as there is in Ohio. It has been in blue grass for over thirty years; has not had a plow struck in it. It is perfect all over the field. There is a little bit of tansy starting in places where the hogs rooted it up, but I do not suppose there is half an acre of that in the fifty acres. Mr. Bauman, Pickaway County: I have one experience with stock that was just the reverse of Mr. Dunlap's. I turned in 19 cattle that weighed about 19,000 pounds. When they had eaten 19 acres of corn up, they each weighed within 10 or 15 pounds of the same weight they did when I turned them in. I never had cattle that apparently did better to the eye, and when you would go to observe them, you would think they were doing just first rate. They were behaving nicely and taking to their feed as well as any cattle that I ever had, but they didn't do any good. I did not attribute it to turning them in to the feed lot. It was my first experience. I am glad to hear that his is exactly different. I have a neighbor that had practically the same experience that I had. He had 30 or 40 cattle that he turned in and out with not very good results. He turned his in and out, and I turned mine in and left them. The hogs did well, but the cattle poorly. Mr. Rankin: There is another question that arose in my mind. during the reading of the paper, which is only indirectly connected with the subject; that is, in the cattling and hogging down of corn, what would be the method suggested to get that ground in grass. In our locality we depend almost entirely upon sowing wheat to change the ground from corn to grass. Has any one any suggestion? As far as cattling down corn is concerned, in our part of the country we consider it a success. Of course, there are some conditions in which there might be some waste, but it has been considered a success in our part of the country. Mr. Dunlap: I will say that I have tried this cattling down of corn for three different seasons. One season I had some sweet corn; I delivered the best of it to the factory, and left the balance to turn cattle in, after I had pulled the best of it off. My cattle gained four pounds Next year I turned them in on a day while on that piece of ground. . the common field corn. I have not the figures exactly, but I think that they gained fully as well as they did this year. So I have tried it on three different occasions, and I know they did better than I could have done by hauling grain out to them and feeding them, and it saves the expense of getting corn and hauling it out to the cattle, which makes a difference of three or four cents a bushel on that alone. A genteman asked about sowing grass. I never tried that, because after I hog my corn down, I think the ground is in about as good shape to put in corn next year as it was that year; so that I have used the same field several years for corn; but I could have gotten a good stand of wheat by taking a disc harrow, if I had wanted to put wheat in that field, because the corn was all off at the time I got my wheat sown in the other fields. Mr. Begg: Wherever the corn is hogged down, or fed to cattle standing, you can break that up and put it in oats; or if you will in the spring put it in oats or sow it in grass, I believe you are getting the same results as if it had been put in wheat. A Voice: Do you advocate breaking the ground? Mr. Dunlap: Not always. I run over it with the disc harrow, cutting the stalks up fine, and then pulverizing the surface in good shape. I would rather have it plowed up with a big plow. Mr. Gillespie, Butler County: I would like to ask the gentleman over here where he bought his cattle? Mr. Bauman: I went to Chicago a year ago and got 105 head and brought them home. I selected out the lighter cattle to make the experiment with. Mr. Begg: Chicago water comes pretty high. We have had some of that down in our neighborhood. Dr. Chamberlain: It strikes me that the gentleman over here is entitled to a vote of sympathy from this audience. A Voice: I would like to ask how much land was used in making all those profits, and about how much it was worth per acre? Mr. Dunlap: That question would be very hard to answer. I did not use all my farm for the purpose of grazing and feeding those cattle. Of course, I have about 1,000 acres down there to work over, but the |