baby beef. Every day that the animal does not gain is not only a loss of the food of support but a loss in quality, consequently a loss to the feeder. To feed a scrub is like throwing grain in a sack with the bottom out. The grain has gone in the sack, but we find no grain there. Calves of this sort should be disposed of to the butcher. This is a proper early maturity for this class of cattle.

DISCUSSION.

Question-To what do you credit the increase of price between baby beef and

the demand of the market, we must get a steer on the market when he is grown, when his carcass is full of water, juicy, toothsome meat, and it ranges all the way from 1,000 to 1,400 pounds. Those are the steers that bring the biggest prices, the fashion is to have that kind of beef. They want it and we have got to raise it and satisfy that demand if we expect to get good prices.

Question How long do you keep these calves on whole milk?

Capt. Arnold-Just as long as you think you can afford it.

Mr. Goodrich-As long as the mother gives milk?

Capt. Arnold-That depends altogether on where you live and the price of land. If I had a large tract of cheap lands in the northern part of this state as Mr. Rietbrock has, I would let them suckle their mothers and I would make some money on baby beef, and I would finish them up there, too. I would not send them down to Chicago to a lot of fellows where they would not bring me more than two and a half cents a pound.

Question-What is the most you ever realized for a steer and at what age?

Capt. Arnold-One hundred and ten dollars at three years old. The trouble is, we are attempting to make beef out of dairy bred stock and we never can do it, that is, to bring first prices; but if a man is situated so as to raise beef with the right kind of quality, that is, that are built right and have the right blood in them, we can make baby beef in Wisconsin just as well as anywhere. I do not see why we cannot; we have brains enough, but we aren't using them; that is all.

Question-Isn't it almost impossible to make this baby beef without giving the use of a COW for about three months?

Capt. Arnold - The best results I have had from making beef and in breeding thoroughbred stock, is to have the calves born in the fall of the year. They are fed through the winter on dry feed and you want to do that even if they are born in the spring. You couldn't turn them out in the winter anyway; then the next summer they do not need but a little milk and they go on flush feed. The main thing in raising good beef is to have good long grass, four to six inches long. Short grass never will fatten an animal. If you have that kind of grass for them to grow on in July, keep them there for three months without any grain whatever, then with an average of four pounds of grain at 16 months old, the animal would weigh about 950 pounds, and that is a very modest estimate, I would have done better than that. I can do better than that with a bull, and you know they do not fatten usually as well as a steer. Then the next winter you finish them up in the winter

and get them on the market about March, and you can make them bring you $72.00, that is no big thing.

Mr. Linse-I know it is no place for a dairyman to get up here to talk early beef. Now, I understand that you beef breeders give a whole cow to a calf for one year pretty much.

Capt. Arnold-No, sir, I do not. That is the way to do it.

Mr. Linse-It is mostly done. We are really feeding two animals in place of one in order to raise that steer, but you have only given us the figures of raising one calf, but you have to feed the old cow, and I know something about that myself.

Supt. McKerrow-We do not want any dairy discussion in here; we are talking about the early maturity of beef.

A Member I wish this gentleman would give us the profits out of this $110.00 steer.

Capt. Arnold I would have made money to have sold that steer a year younger.

Question-What breed of cattle do you raise for beef?

Capt. Arnold- I keep Shorthorn cattle.

Question-Then it probably wouldn't be any use to ask you whether there is any other breed of beef cattle that will come into maturity quicker than Shorthorns?

Capt. Arnold-Oh, yes, there are others that do just as well.

A Member-How is a Black Polled as compared with Shorthorns for early maturity?

Capt. Arnold-I do not know. Mr. Scribner-Be honest now. Capt. Arnold-I think if I had a lot of grade Shorthorn cows, I would just as soon use a Polled Angus sire to raise steers as to keep the best kind of a beef type of Shorthorn bull. I do not know, but I might do something with a Galloway.

Question How about Herefords?

Capt. Arnold-It is all right for one cross, but there is no breed of cattle that will nick in and give as good re'sults as the Shorthorn.

Mr. Jacobs Are you advocating cross breeds?

Capt. Arnold-I am advocating an animal that has sufficient vitality to as

similate its food. Unfortunately, with breeders, the cross bred animal is ordinarily the best feeder. But we are not talking about breeding now, we are talking about animals we are going to shove on the market. A steer that can eat, the most to the age of 16 months old and get him on the market is one of the best and ordinarily a cross-bred will do that better than a full blood.

Mr. Rietbrock-That will do for one cross, but not more.

Capt. Arnold-That is what I am talking about, I am not talking about breeding animals at all.

Question-What do you do with your

heifers?

Capt. Arnold-Well, there isn't such a big difference between the price of good heifers and good steers. It pays pretty well to keep them.

Mr. Rietbrock-You would not feed her the same as the one you were going to make a cow of?

Capt. Arnold-Oh, not at all-yes, I would in some respects. It is all nonsense to starve a calf to death to make a dairy cow of it. In northern Wisconsin there is a possibility of a man making more money by keeping his steers another year, where land is very cheap, but I am talking about baby beef on land that is worth $100.00 an acre. A man cannot keep three lots of animals on his land, he must have the cows and the yearlings and the twoyear olds, on the higher priced land it is just as well to sell them and get the money in his pocket at a year and a half; he will get just about as much for it. The trouble is, so many are making the mistake of sending scrubs and cattle that are half fed; they get down to market and won't sell for anything and feeders are losing money in Wisconsin just by this practice.

Mr. Moore Wouldn't you have just as good yearlings or calves by feeding them whole milk for three or four weeks as if they ran with the cows?

Capt. Arnold-The trouble is, if I wanted to let the calf suck, I would have a cow that gave a small mess of milk, so that I wouldn't be bothered with her after the calf has got through sucking. Feed a calf four weeks with good, sweet milk and at the end of 16 months' time you will have about as good an animal as if you let it suck six

weeks or more. Of course, after the four weeks, I would feed it skim milk, oats, bran and corn meal, equal parts. To make the feeder, I have it four pounds a day for 16 months. Three months of that time it is on grass in the summer time and when it is very young it doesn't take more than two quarts at a time. When it gets older, increase the milk and feed only twice a day, at 12 months you have more corn left and you finish it up with eight or 10 pounds. If you keep it another year and undertake to finish it up, you have got to give it eight pounds; it will cost you a little more and you get more money. There is a stoppage of growth at weaning time in any event, and when a man has good cows it don't pay. to spoil them to make any kind of beef.

Mr. Bradley-If that is so, why do the showmen showing beef yearlings always take three or four cows along to let those calves suck?

Capt. Arnold-Because they want the prize money and the reputation. So far as profits in beef making goes, very likely they are out of pocket. A calf will grow to be a bigger calf on three cows than it will on one; you have heard about that.

Question-Don't you think that an animal will lay on beef a great deal faster on grass raised on rich limestone land, such as you have, for example, than it will on grass grown on our sandy land in this northern part of the state?

Capt. Arnold-Well, I think if a man has studied the geology of the state of Wisconsin, he will notice down in the southwestern part of the state, near Platteville, there is limestone land and they raise the best cattle in the state of Wisconsin, and they raise fine corn, too. The proof of the pudding is in eating it. We do not generally raise as good beef cattle in other parts of our state. Limestone land is considered the best land to give good development to animals and also for plant growth.

Question-In other words, don't you think that dairy cattle will do better on our sandy land than beef cattle?

Capt. Arnold Why, yes, but that isn't the question at issue. The dairy is all right; if I did as well at it as you do I would stick to it. The question we are considering is whether it is best

and profitable as compared with other cattle with long feeding. I would not like to be considered so narrow as to not concede that under some conditions longer feeding might pay as well, where lands are cheap and hay and grass plentiful and cheap also. Neither does my paper contemplate proving that making baby beef pays better than dairying or raising horses for the market. It seems strange to me that so many farmers are so in love with themselves

and their ways of making money that they are not satisfied to let a man make money in any other way than their way. Some men succeed best with the dairy, some with horses, sheep or hogs as the specialty. We are not all cast after the same pattern, but I would like to leave this impression, that liberal feeding to young stock ordinarily pays best and makes a man vastly more contented when his stock is thriving and doing their best for what they are fitted for.

Mr. Roberts.

From the earliest history sheep have been closely associated with mankind. At the time of the birth of our Savior "there were shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night, and to! the angel of the Lord

came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them," so you readily see. in what high esteem the shepherds were held, that they were made the messengers of this wondrous tidings to man. I deem it is more honorable to be a good sheep grower than to be at the head of a corporation trust. A good sheep grower highly esteems his occupation and to be successful he must be faithful, honest, and careful for the well doing of every sheep in his flock.

The first record of sheep we have is of the fine wooled variety, the ancient merino of Spain, from whose wool the ancient Romans made their garments, even their imperial robes. At that early age the flocks supplied the people with food and raiment. Thus it is worthy to note the inseparable and necessary relation of sheep to mankind, as nothing can be effectually substituted to take the place of wool. These ancient sheep were the progenitors of the merinos of the present time, as the so-called Rambouillet, American Merino, and the various classes of sub-breeds of merinos. While possessing large, well developed bodies of fair mutton qualities to meet the demands of the butcher, their prominence is given to the quantity, quality and value of their fleece, which is their principal point of excellence, but confining myself to practical