The Project Gutenberg eBook of Profitable Livestock by The Pratt Food Company Of Canada, Limited.

HE PRATT FOOD COMPANY OF CANADA, Limited, maintains its established position of leadership, after nearly half a century of business service, because of the sustained good will of those whom it serves.

Better products than anyone else could produce, plus expert, personal, whole-hearted service, built that good will. And retained it through all these years.

It was the constant aim and effort of those who founded this business, and of those who have carried out the founders' work to the present, to anticipate the needs of the industry, to co-operate with the individuals in it, to show their vital interest in the success of their customers.

These principles of business practice won the good will that established this company as the authority in its important field.

Our future success depends upon the continuance of that good will. Our appreciation of that fact is your best assurance that in the future the services of this company, as well as the superiority of its products, will justify the confidence and good will of the thousands to whom the name of Pratt is but another name for Quality and Service.

PROFITABLE LIVESTOCK

INTRODUCTION

Animal husbandry is the sure foundation of profitable, permanent agriculture. Where many animals are kept and their manure properly cared for and returned to the land, the soil becomes richer and crop-production steadily increases. And the farmer grows rich with his land.

Further, the keeping of live stock distributes the farm labor and the farm income over the entire year. This is true whether meat, milk or eggs are the money crops. And certainly both factors are worthy of consideration from a straight business standpoint. With labor as valuable as it is at present, lost time cuts into the profits. And when the income is regular, not concentrated in a short period or dependent upon the success of a single crop, the matter of farm finance is much simplified.

Consider the richest and most desirable agricultural sections of our great land. With very few exceptions, the best and most valuable farms are those which are heavily stocked with domestic animals. Here, too, are found the finest farm homes, the most prosperous and contented farm families. And this fact, which is so well established that it requires no argument, plainly shows that animal husbandry pays.

In the following pages you will find much valuable information regarding the proper care—in health and sickness—of horses, cattle, swine, sheep and poultry.

We trust, and believe that you will find it most helpful in connection with your work. That it will enable you to be more successful, earn bigger profits.

Right at the start we wish to emphasize two facts which are really fundamental and which are recognized by the most successful stock keepers. The first is this: It does not pay to keep scrub stock, animals which cannot under any conditions give the big returns. The second: No animal, regardless of breeding, can do its best work unless it is kept in perfect physical condition.

The selection of your animals is up to you. Get good ones. Than keep them good and make them better. The Pratt line of stock and poultry preparations, regulators, tonics, disinfectants and remedies, will help you greatly. Made for nearly fifty years by America's pioneer concern in this line, each article is the best of its kind, each is backed by this square-deal guarantee—"Your Money Back If You Are Not Satisfied."

PRATT FOOD COMPANY

THE PRATT GUARANTEE

"Your Money Back If YOU Are Not Satisfied"

The Pratt Food Company believes in fair play. We desire that our millions of customers shall receive full value for every cent they spend in purchasing our goods. And to that end we spare no expense in making each article in the Pratt Line just as good, just as efficient, as is humanly possible.

More than that, we wish each customer to be completely satisfied. If for any reason any article bearing the Pratt trade-mark fails to give such satisfaction, the full purchase price will be refunded on demand by the dealer who made the sale.

You can buy and use Pratts Stock and Poultry Preparations with fullest confidence because you are protected by

The Guarantee That Has Stood For Nearly Fifty Years

While the automobile and the tractor are now doing much of the work formerly done by horses, the "horseless era" is still far off. A good horse will always be worth good money, will always be a desirable and profitable member of the farm family. But the undersized no-breed specimen will be even less valuable in the future than in the past.

The great demand for horses for army use and the high prices paid by the Government, tempted horse breeders and farmers to dispose of the fine specimens which alone met the exacting requirements of army buyers. It will take years to make good this tremendous wastage of horse flesh. But this is a big opportunity for breeders of good horses and we may expect them to make the most of it.

Prices of really desirable horses are now high. If you have a good one, take good care of him. Protect his health, lengthen his life. If you must buy, be sure that you get a sound animal which will serve you long and faithfully.

See the horse in his stall. If he has a spavin he will hop on one leg when made to "get over," or jerk it up as he backs out if he is affected with chorea (St. Vitus' dance). In the latter disease the tail is suddenly raised and quivers when the animal backs out of stall. Watch to see if the horse "cribs" and "sucks wind": also that he is not vicious in the stall. Stand him at rest on a level floor before exercise. If he is lame he will rest the sore foot.

Examine both sides of the horse. The dealer may stand the "bad side" next to a wall. Pick up each foot in turn. Suspect something wrong if he wears bar shoes, special shape shoes, leather soles or rubber pads. Remove all such things and examine carefully before buying.

Reject for contracted feet, steep heels, shrunken frogs and bars, dropped soles, corns, quarter cracks and signs of founder. See that hoof dressing does not cover evidences of un-soundness. Following bad attacks of founder the hoof grows out long at the toes, shows marked grooves and ridges, is convex at the points of the frogs, and the horse tends to thrust his forefeet out in front when standing and walks and trots on his heels. Ringbones are indicated by hard bony enlargements on the pastern; side-bones, by similar enlargements at the quarters just above juncture of horn and hair. Examine front of knees for scars indicating results of stumbling and falling. Similar scars on the inside of knees and fetlocks indicate objectionable cutting and interfering. Shoulders and hips should be smooth, well covered, and free from tumors or sores. No sores should be seen on back or top of neck under collar.

Examine teeth for age and soundness. See that eyes are of like color, are sound, and the eyelids whole.

The horse should allow one to examine his ears, and should neither hold them absolutely still nor keep them constantly moving. Still ears may indicate deafness; restless ones, poor eyesight or nervousness.

See that the horse goes sound and does not "roar" when galloped. Give him all the water he will drink before testing for "wind." It will bring out the characteristic symptoms of "heaves" if he has been "doped." Heaves is indicated by labored bellows-like action of the abdominal muscles when breathing. Examine the nostrils, as sponges or squeezed lemons may have been inserted to hide roaring.

A spavined horse starts out lame for a few steps or rods and then goes sound. A lame shoulder causes dragging of the toe and rolling when in motion. A ring-bone causes an extra long step and lameness increases with exercise. Stifle lameness causes walking on the heels of shoe and consequent wearing of the iron. Hip lameness causes outward rolling of the leg in trotting, and wasting of the muscles of stifle and hip leads to a characteristic drop. See that the horse's tail is sound, has not been joined on and is free from sores, tumors or evidences of recent docking. Always remember to back the horse up as well as drive or ride him and see that he is not only sound and gentle but suitable for the special work he will be required to do.

A grown work horse requires daily about one pound of grain (concentrate) for each hundred pounds of live weight. Of hay he will need a slightly larger amount or about fourteen to eighteen pounds a day, according to size, weight, and character of work done. The idle horse will do well on less grain and more roughage.

For a farm horse, 10 pounds of oats, 5 pounds of corn, and 3 pounds of bran, divided into three equal feeds, will make a suitable ration for one day.

The corn may be fed at noon to give variety. For the evening meal crushed oats, bran, and a few handfuls of cut hay, wetted and salted, will be relished. The bulk of the hay should be fed at night, and but two or three pounds of it at noon, during hot weather. Avoid dusty hay. Clover hay is apt to be moldy. It is suitable food for work horses, or idle drafters, if sound and not too liberally fed. Increase the corn in cold weather. Omit it in hot weather entirely. Alfalfa is of high feeding value, but if moldy, or fed as a well-nigh exclusive ration, is apt to affect the kidneys injuriously. It is deemed unsafe food for stallions, as it is said to induce impotence or sterility.

Horses should drink before they eat, unless they have ready access to fresh water. It is best to allow drinking water often in small quantities, even if the horse is hot. So used it will not hurt him. The horse's stomach holds three and one-half gallons. Water flows through the stomach along seventy or more feet of small intestine, into the "waterbag." Hay is not digested to any extent in the stomach. That organ cares for the concentrated food. Theoretically, a horse should drink first, then eat hay, then grain. Practically no great amount of water should be taken just after a meal as it tends to flush undigested food out of the stomach; nor should it be given soon after a meal.

All stables, pens, out houses, poultry houses and yards should be regularly disinfected every week; nothing better can be used than Pratts Dip and Disinfectant.

This preparation is entirely free from all dangerous substances, arsenic, mercury, etc., but full of medicinal qualities and properties which make it most effective without the dangerous results which are experienced with many other preparations, such as carbolic acid, etc. It kills disease germs and prevents contagious diseases from spreading.

Farm horses do not need blanketing in the stable under ordinary circumstances. A thin sheet in the stable keeps off flies and dust and is necessary. Pratts Fly Chaser is a proved and safe fly repellant. It does not gum the hair. Its efficiency is unequalled.

If a horse sweats under the blanket, uncover his rear parts. Always tuck the blanket about a horse's chest when standing on the street in inclement weather or when cooling off. Rubber loin covers, used on carriage horses in wet weather, should be perforated. In the spring, the amount of Pratts Animal Regulator given should be somewhat increased. This will put the horse into condition in much less time, and be of great assistance in helping to shed readily.

Insure Live Stock Health and Vigor

Don't permit your hard-working, heavy-producing or fast-growing animals to become run-down and out of condition. It's much easier and less expensive to keep them right than to restore them to perfect health.

The regular use of Pratts Animal Regulator absolutely insures health and vigor in live stock of all kinds. It keeps healthy animals in the pink of condition; it quickly puts half-sick, unprofitable stock in the money-making class.

Pratts Animal Regulator, America's original guaranteed Stock Tonic and Conditioner, is not a food. It is a combination of roots, herbs, spices and medicines which sharpen appetite and improves digestion, regulates the bowels, makes rich, red blood, and naturally invigorates the organs of production. It promotes growth, improves health and strength, increases production. And all at very little cost.

Packed in handy cartons, pails and boxes. The larger sizes are more economical.

If Disease Appears, Cure It Quick

Early treatment is most necessary. Do not let the disorder become firmly seated before you attack it. Keep these Pratts Remedies on hand and use them at once if needed. Delay may mean the loss of a valuable animal.

PRATTS COLIC REMEDY

A quick certain cure for colic and acute indigestion in horses. Has a record of 998 cures out of 1,000 cases.

Keep a bottle in each wagon and in your stable.

PRATTS DISTEMPER and PINK EYE REMEDY

It goes direct to the cause of the disease, purifies the blood, prevents weakening of the internal organs caused by impure blood or poisoned by absorbing the impure matter from the abscesses.

PRATTS HEALING OINTMENT

A splendid antiseptic ointment for man or beast. Keep a box on hand for cuts, burns, sores, scratches, eczema, galls, etc.

PRATTS WORM POWDER

is a special preparation for the destruction of all kinds of worms in horses, cows, hogs and sheep. It is purely vegetable and is unquestionably the quickest, surest and most thorough worm destroyer procurable.

PRATTS LINIMENT

For man or beast. The best thing in the world for lameness, sprains, bruises, thrush, kicks, shoe boils, etc. A bottle should be kept in every medicine chest.

PRATTS HEAVE REMEDY

A positive guaranteed remedy for heaves, coughs and colds. It cures coughs and colds by strengthening the digestive and respiratory organs, and counteracts the inflammation and irritation.

Try a box on your "heavy" horse.

PRATTS HEALING POWDER

A guaranteed remedy for harness galls, sores, grease heel, bleeding ulcers, etc. It will arrest hemorrhage and check blood flow. Dirt and dust cannot get into wounds, as the Powder forms a coating over them.

PRATTS FLY CHASER

Gives comfort to Horses and Cows. Insures more milk and prevents annoyance at milking time to both the milker and the cow. Guaranteed to satisfy.

Sold by 60,000 Pratts dealers. There is one near you.

"Your Money Back If YOU Are Not Satisfied"

Always go to a horseshoer who thor oughly understands the anatomy of the horse's foot.

The hoof is not an insensitive mass of horn, to be cut, rasped, burned, nail-pierced, and hammered without causing pain or injury. It is a thin mass of horn overlying and intimately attached to a sensitive, blood and nerve-endowed tissue called the "quick" which is capable of suffering excruciating agony.

The permanent teeth are forty—twenty-four grinders, twelve front teeth and four tusks, except in mares, which seldom have tusks. The age of a horse can be told more or less accurately by the teeth.

Bad teeth are often an unsuspected cause of indigestion, loss of condition, bad coat, slobbering and other troubles which puzzle the owner. Horses very often have decayed teeth, and suffer with toothache. These teeth should be removed.

If horses and cattle were left free to roam as Nature intended, many of their present-day ailments would be unknown. Man has taken these animals from Nature's broad garden, and confined them to the narrow limits of stable and stall. No longer can they seek out and instinctively find just those roots, herbs, seeds, and barks which their systems demand.

This explains why Pratts Animal Regulator has been used by successful horsemen for nearly a half century, as it is largely composed of these same vegetable ingredients from Nature's garden.

Merit and quality count, and while hosts of imitators have sprung up, none have ever come near equalling our product. Pratts Animal Regulator restores to the animals their natural constitutions and functions, supplying just that which they formerly had, but now lack. While not a cure for every disease, it is a positive preventive of the most common disorders.

It aids digestion and insures the animal receiving full benefit of its food; purifies the blood and keeps the bowels free and regular. After you have accomplished these three things, you need not fear disease in the shape of colic, bloat, heaves, hide-bound, distemper, constipation, worms, and the like.

Clean with soap and water, and apply Pratts Healing Ointment or Pratts Healing Powder. These remedies heal naturally and leave no dangerous scar.

Symptoms.—A dull appearance of the horse, rough coat; the body will be hot in parts and cold in others; running of the eyes and a discharge from the nose.

Treatment.—Keep the horse warm and free from draughts; use nose bag and give Pratts Heave, Cough and Cold Remedy according to directions. It never fails. Give nourishing feed and bran mashes and Pratts Animal Regulator daily.

Common causes of colic are sudden changes of food; feeding too much or too seldom; feeding when the horse is hot and tired; watering or working too soon after a meal; feeding new oats, or new hay, or grass; or, in short, anything that is apt to derange digestion. There are various forms of colic. In cramp (spasmodic) colic, pains come and go and the horse rolls violently and fearlessly. In wind (flatulent) colic there is bloating of the right flank and the horse lies down, rolls without violence, breathes with difficulty, paws, looks around at his sides and finds no relief. In bloat of the stomach, gas and fluid gush back and forth from the stomach to the throat; flanks may not show bloat; pain is steady but not violent; horse sweats; nostrils flap; pulse is fast and weak; countenance is haggard and anxious. In enteritis (inflammation of the bowels) pain is constant and severe; the horse makes frequent attempts to lie down but is afraid to do so; pulse and temperature run high; membranes of eyelids, nostrils, and mouth are red; bowels and bladder do not act; horse may walk persistently in a circle. In impaction of the bowels, pains are comparatively mild or fugitive; horse is restless, paws often, strains and passes no manure, or only a few balls covered with slime and streaks of white mucus. In gut-tie, hernia, and other absolute stoppage of the bowels, symptoms of enteritis are common and the horse may, when down, strain and then sit on his haunches. The latter condition, and enteritis, usually prove fatal. Wind colic may need prompt use of the trocar and cannula to puncture high up in the right flank for liberation of gas. In impaction, raw linseed oil should be freely given in repeated doses of one pint, and rectal injections of soapy warm water and glycerine will help. No irritants should be inserted in the vagina or sheath in any form of colic. Stoppage of urine is a result of pain, not the cause of colic. The urine will come when the pain subsides. A good all-around colic remedy will be found in Pratts Veterinary Colic Remedy. It is compounded from the prescription of a qualified veterinarian and has a record of curing 998 cases out of 1,000 treated.

All horses should be given a warm bran mash weekly and Pratts Animal Regulator daily, and constipation will be unknown. Constipation is often the cause of hide bound, rough coat and loss of flesh. Give a good physic of linseed oil, aloes or cantor oil, and use the Regulator mentioned above.

Cause.—Chronic coughs are the result of distemper, sore throat, a neglected cold, catarrh or dusty hay, and frequently turn into heaves, bronchitis, etc.

Treatment.—Give only the best and most nourishing foods, dampened. Keep horse warm, and blanketed in a well ventilated stable.

If there is a swelling of the throat it should be blistered with Pratts Liniment, or Pratts Spavin Paste—A Blister. Use Pratts Heave, Cough and Cold Remedy according to directions.

Symptoms.—At first it resembles colic, and will be followed by violent diarrhoea; the discharge soon becomes merely discolored water and smells bad; the horse is very thirsty, the pulse thick and feeble, the heart skips its beats, the position of the horse is something like colic, and he sweats freely.

Cause.—From diseased condition of teeth, eating rich, juicy food, drinking impure water or from overdose of physic.

Treatment.—If the diarrhoea is severe, call a veterinarian. During and after recovery pay attention to the food. Avoid bran mashes. Much depends on the care at this time, and the constant using of Pratts Animal Regulator, with all feed, during his recovery. Feed lightly for first two or three days.

Distemper and Pink Eye are closely related and one is often mistaken for the other.

It usually affects colts between the ages of three and five years. If a horse is once afflicted it is immune from a second attack. The feature of distemper is the swelling under the jaw, the size indicating the severity of the case. The animal is dull; the head has a "poked-out" appearance; coughs; no appetite; feet are cold; saliva runs from its mouth; has catarrhal symptoms and difficulty in swallowing; the name "strangles" is often applied to it. When this swelling forms on the lungs, liver, etc., the case is aggravated and difficult to cure.

Distemper is contagious. It may occur at any time, but is most prevalent from September to April.

Pratts Distemper and Pink Eye Remedy will positively relieve the disease at once. Blanket the horse and keep in a well-ventilated stable, free from draughts. Give cold water frequently in small quantities and feed with whatever he will eat. When an abscess forms on the outside and becomes soft, it should be opened and the soft parts surrounding it poulticed so that there will be no "bunch" left after it heals. Disinfect stable with Pratts Dip and Disinfectant.

Symptoms.—An inflammation of the entire foot which causes such intense pain that the animal cannot stand. The pulse is strong, thick and throbbing, and the horse lies down with legs stretched out.

Cause.—Over-exertion, or after-effects from chilling, inflammation of the lungs, bowels or mucous membrane of the bronchial tubes, etc.

Treatment.—Remove the shoe, and soak the feet in warm water for six or eight hours and repeat in two or three days. Also apply Pratts Peerless Hoof Ointment at night all over the bottom of the foot and to all parts of the frog and at top of hoof joining the hair, and cover the entire wall of the foot. The horse should stand on a deep, soft bed. Cover with blankets. Feed bran mashes, vegetables and hay; no grain. Use wide-webbed shoes two weeks after recovery.

The symptoms of this disease are chronic, spasmodic cough and simultaneous passage of gas from the rectum; double bellowslike action of the abdominal muscles in breathing; harsh staring coat; hide-bound skin; weakness, and ill-health in general. Over-burdening of the stomach with coarse, bulky, dusty, or woody hay or other roughage, and working the horse immediately after such a meal induces heaves. The horse that has inherited a gluttonous appetite is especially subject to the disease. Probably the most effective remedy for this disease is Pratts Heave Remedy. In addition to using the Remedy as directed, we would suggest wetting all food with lime water, feeding wet oat straw in winter and grass in summer in preference to hay; allowing double the customary rest period after meals and keeping the bowels freely open by feeding bran mashes containing raw linseed oil or flaxseed meal.

This is the name given to mange, eczema and other skin diseases. It is usually prevalent in summer and from a small beginning on an animal, will rapidly spread all over the body.

Treatment.—Wash the parts thoroughly with a solution of one part of Pratts Disinfectant to 20 parts water. Let it dry and then apply Pratts Healing Ointment or Healing Powder two or three times a day.

Sprinkle Pratts Disinfectant on an old blanket and tie it around the animal for two or three hours. This will quickly kill all vermin. Spray lightly upon the legs and such places that the blanket will not cover. Then spray thoroughly the stable and all poultry houses near with the Disinfectant, according to directions. Give Pratts Animal Regulator to build up the animals that have been affected.

In all cases, the opening or puncture in the hoof must be made larger, so as to give free vent for the matter which is sure to form. If this is not done, quittor will follow. Then dress with Pratts Peerless Hoof Ointment.

While working the horse, a pledget of tow, covered with Pratts Peerless Hoof Ointment, may be placed in and over the puncture and confined; but it must not be allowed to remain after the horse returns to the stable. Soak the feet for eight or ten hours a day for two or three days in a 5% solution of Pratts Disinfectant and apply the Ointment. Horse will not have proud flesh when this remedy is used.

Cut top of hoof above the crack deep enough to draw blood. Soak foot in hot water, apply Pratts Peerless Hoof Ointment and cover with oakum. Pare out sole and open heel—blacksmith must use care in expanding. Apply Pratts Peerless Hoof Ointment daily to the coronet and frogs—this is very important. Use bar shoe.

Animal needs a good tonic. Use Pratts Animal Regulator daily with the feed according to directions. This is a regulator, tonic and digestive and so works upon the blood, liver, bowels and digestive organs that the animal is quickly built up, and is given strength, health and flesh.

Symptoms.—Shown by a foul discharge issuing from the cleft of the foot, and usually attended with decay of the horn and a vile odor. The foot is hot and hard.

Cause.—In the fore feet, it is generally the result of navicular disease or contraction of the feet. In the hind feet it is entirely caused by filthy stables, allowing the feet to stand in decaying manure.

Treatment.—Have absolute cleanliness in the stable and stalls, disinfecting with Pratts Disinfectant. Wash the foot thoroughly with soap and water, and cut away all diseased and ragged parts as well as the white, powdery decayed horn and substance, even if the flesh is exposed and the frog much reduced. Then pour Pratts Liniment over the affected parts. Dress daily until cured. Another excellent remedy is to wash out diseased portion of hoof with one part Pratts Disinfectant and 20 parts of water three times a day.

Horses take in worm eggs on pasture, in hay, and in drinking water from contaminated troughs or ponds. Marsh or swale hay is particularly liable to infest with worms. Avoid sources of worms. Cleanliness is imperative.

Cut down feed one-half, mix bran with feed and dampen it. Give one dose of Pratts Specially Prepared Worm Powder with the feed twice a day for four days. After fourth day give large, soft, well-scalded bran mash to loosen bowels freely. Repeat the bran mashes if necessary, as the bowels must be moved freely. Should the horse refuse to eat the bran mash, it will be necessary to give him a dose of Glauber's salts, or some other purge to loosen the bowels.

Pin Worms.—Sometimes pin worms remain just inside the rectum, and are very hard and stubborn to cure. In cases of this kind, if the desired result is not obtained by feeding Pratts Worm Powder, dissolve one of the powders in a quart of water and inject in the rectum. Repeat this once a day in the evening, and continue for four or five days. Do not fail in this case, as in all other cases of worms, to feed bran mashes until the bowels are freely moved, and should the horse refuse the bran mash or should it fail to move the bowels, give the horse a dose of Glauber's salts.

Pratts Worm Powder is a special preparation for the destruction of all kinds of worms in horses, hogs, and sheep. It is purely vegetable, has a strong tonic effect that builds up and helps the animal to regain strength, and is the quickest and most thorough worm destroyer on the market.

Cows will bring large or small profits in proportion to the care they receive. If properly housed, properly fed, properly bred, and properly protected against disease they will fully repay the little extra attention required. Strive intelligently to secure the greatest possible regular production. Keep a sharp lookout for unfavorable symptoms and be prompt in finding a cause for poor condition and remedying it. Cows kept in perfect health are the least expense, least trouble, and the greatest profit-earners.

You do not need to be a veterinarian to know that the health of a cow depends on a good healthy appetite with complete digestion and perfect assimilation of the daily ration.

That is just plain common sense. No cow which is not a big eater can be profitable. But appetite is not of itself sufficient to make a cow a money maker. There must be sound digestion.

Once establish and maintain good digestion, food performs its natural functions. Bodily waste is repaired. Strength and growth are noticed and the cow gives the utmost possible amount of milk. See then, that your cows have hearty, healthy appetites and good digestion. Good digestion does not always follow a large appetite. A cow giving only a few quarts of milk a day will often eat as much as one giving gallons. She requires the same amount of care and attention.

The trouble is that she does not have good digestion to convert food into milk. Of course there are cows which will always be small milkers, but there are many many more cows which can be made to give substantial, paying increase of milk production if proper attention is given them. Perhaps there are such cows in your herd. Without your even realizing it, they are out of condition. A little help and they would give enough more milk to pay you a satisfactory profit.

This "help" can easily be given. Your own dealer has it. We mean Pratts Cow Remedy, for cows only.

We all know how, when we are well, the sight or smell of pleasant tasting food, "makes the mouth water." This is literally true because the digestive glands of the mouth and stomach pour out their secretions and are ready to begin digesting the food.

When, however, the nerves fail to send their messages to the glands or the glands fail to respond, we have a diseased condition and we take medicine to assist in recovery.

Thus the sensation known as appetite is really at the basis of sound health. Without it, it is doubtful if animals would eat enough to supply their bodily needs.

The mere forcing of food into the stomach would avail little. There must be desire for food, and restoring the appetite is the first step in bringing the health back. In other words an appetizer is often required to induce us to eat. Then thorough digestion builds up bodily strength.

Pratts Cow Remedy does all this for the cow, assisting Nature in bringing up the appetite, stimulating digestion, restoring and maintaining health.

Cattle is generally divided into dairy, beef and dual purpose breeds. The names signify the advantages claimed for them. In the dairy breeds, the Holstein, Jersey, Guernseys, French Canadian and Ayrshire are leaders.

While among the dual purpose breeds, Milking Shorthorns, Red Polls, Brown Swiss and Devons have many admirers.

The indications when selecting dairy females, and important in the order given, are: (1) Much length or depth in the barrel or coupling, indicating a large possible consumption and utilization of food. (2) Refinement of form, as evidenced more particularly in the head, neck, withers, thighs, and limbs. (3) Good development of udder and milk veins. (4) Constitution, as indicated by a capacious chest, much width through the heart, a broad loin, a full, clear eye, and an active carriage. (5) Downward and yet outward spring and open-spaced ribs, covered with a soft, pliable and elastic skin.

The essential indications of correct form in beef cattle are: (1) A compact form wide and deep throughout, and but moderately long in the coupling. (2) A good back, wide from neck to tail, well fleshed, and straight. (3) A good front quarter, wide, deep, and full. (4) A good hind quarter, long, wide, and deep. (5) Good handling qualities, as indicated in elastic flesh and pliant skin.

The important indications of good form in dual females are: (1) Medium to large size for the breed or grade. (2) Good length and depth in the coupling. (3) Good development of udder and milk veins. (4) Good constitution, as indicated by good width through the heart. (5) Head and neck inclining to long and fine. (6) Ribs of medium spring, open spaced, and covered with a good handling skin. The dual types have an absence of extreme development in the direction of either the dairy or the beef form.

In males selected for breeding, the evidences of masculinity should be markedly present. These include increased strength as shown in the head, neck, breast, shoulders, back and limbs.

The advantage of having pure blood stock over "scrubs" is apparent. For those, however, who want something better than scrubstock and cannot pay the high price which pure blood commands, the ownership of grade cattle offers a satisfactory solution of the problem.

Grading consists in mating thoroughbred sires with common females and with the female progeny for a number of generations. Where the work is wisely done by the use of good sires, accompanied by the rejection of all inferior animals for future breeding, the progeny of beef sires may be brought up to the level of the pure breed for beef making from which the sires have been selected in four generations. To bring milking qualities up to the level may call for one or two more generations of such breeding. Not only do these grade animals answer almost equally well, with pure breeds, but they may be bought for much less.

If cows are to produce a maximum return in milk, they must be kept in comfort. In winter they are usually tied in the stall. The light should be ample and the ventilation thorough. Lack of proper ventilation causes the spread of tuberculosis in cattle.

They should be allowed to go out daily for an hour or more into a sheltered yard, save on days when the weather is extreme; or, better still, be given the liberty of a closed and well-ventilated shed during a portion of the day. It should be supplied with a fodder rack.

In summer, cows in milk must be protected from storms, from excessive sunshine, and from flies, as far as this may be practicable. Pratts Fly Chaser is unequalled as a fly repellant. It is perfectly safe to use, does not injure or gum the hair, and is economical. A light spray is both lasting and effective.

Cows in milk should be driven gently. The pasture should not be too distant from the stable, and driving during the heat of the day should be avoided.

The quality of milk is easily injured by coming in direct contact with foreign substances or by imbibing odors. The milk must be drawn from clean udders, with clean hands, into clean pails, and amid clean surroundings. The stables must have attention. The udder and teats should be wiped off by using a damp cloth. Milking should be done with dry hands into metal pails, kept clean by scalding. Milking before feeding prevents dust particles from getting into the milk. Noxious odors are kept down by the prompt removal of droppings and by strewing sand, plaster, rock phosphate, or dry earth in the manure gutters.

Unless milking is done at stated times, and by the same person, there will be a loss in the production. When milking is delayed, a decreased flow is noticeable the following morning. When a change of milkers is made, some cows resent it by withholding a part of the milk.

It is not easy to dry some dairy cows prior to the birth of the next calf, and yet, as a rule, it ought to be done. When they are to be dried the process should begin by milking them once a day and putting them on dry food. The food may also be reduced somewhat in quantity. Later the milk is taken out at intervals which constantly increase in length until the cow is dry. The udder should be carefully watched during the later stages of the drying process.

Where suitable pasture may be obtained, it is usually a cheaper source of food for cows than soiling food or cured fodders, as the element of labor in giving the food is largely eliminated. The best pastures, viewed from the standpoint of production, are those grown on lands that may be irrigated during the season of growth. These consist of clover and certain grasses. Permanent pastures which are grown on moist land, and which contain a number of grasses, are usually satisfactory, but the nature of the pasture must, of course, be largely determined by the attendant conditions. Blue grass pastures are excellent while succulent and abundant, but in midsummer they lose their succulence for weeks in succession. Brouer grass is a favorite pasture in northwestern areas, and Bermuda grass in the South. In the Eastern and Central States, the most suitable pastures are made up of blue grass, timothy, and orchard grass, and of the common red, white and alsike clovers.

There is more or less of hazard to cows when grazing on alfalfa—liability to bloating, which may result fatally. Likewise second growth sorghum or the second growth of the non-saccharine sorghums is full of hazard, especially in dry seasons when it has become stunted in growth. Nor should rape and rye be grazed, save for a short time after the cows have been milked, lest they give a taint to the milk.

The change from winter rations to grazing should never be suddenly made, or purging caused by the fresh grass will lead to loss in weight and loss of milk, though at first there will probably be an advance in the same. The change may be made in outline as follows:

(1) The cows will not be turned out until after the food given in the morning has been sufficiently consumed.

(2) They will be kept out an hour, or two the first day, and the time increased.

(3) The time called for to effect the change should never be less than one week or more than three.

(4) As soon as the change begins, the reduction in succulent food, ensilage, and field roots should also begin.

(5) The dry fodder should be continued morning and evening as long as the cows will take it.

(6) There should be some reduction and it may be modification in the grain for a short time.

After turning out a full supply may be necessary. Should the pasture be composed mainly of grasses, food rich in protein, as wheat bran, should be fed, but if it is composed mainly of clover, then more carbonaceous grain, as corn, should be fed.

When pasture is succulent and abundant, it is a disputed point as to whether it will pay to feed meal of any kind in addition. The following conclusion in regard to this question would seem safe:

When cows are fed grain on pastures succulent and abundant, the tendency is to increase the yield in the milk and also to increase flesh.

Some saving is effected in the grazing, and the resultant fertilizer from the grain fed has a tangible value. It is certain, therefore, that full value will be obtained for a small grain ration thus fed.

Get More Milk Money

Help your cows, every one, to give the largest possible amount of milk and to produce big, strong, husky calves each season. The extra pounds of milk, the extra value of the calves are all clear profit.

It costs as much to house and care for and nearly as much to feed a poor producer as a good one. The first may be kept at a loss. The latter is a sure profit-payer. The difference is generally merely a matter of physical condition. And this you can control.

Pratts Cow Remedy makes cows healthy and productive. It is not a food—it is all medicine, preventive and curative. It is absolutely safe to use because free from arsenic, antimony and other dangerous ingredients.

Pratts Cow Remedy

is nature's able assistant. It not only improves appetite and assists digestion, increases milk yield and percentage of butter fat, but in large measure prevents and overcomes such disorders as barrenness and abortion, garget, milk fever, scours, indigestion, liver and kidney troubles.

The reason is plain when you know the ingredients. Here they are—gentian root, Epsom salts, capsicum, oxide of iron, fenugreek, nux vomica, ginger root, charcoal, soda, salt. All of superior quality and properly proportioned and combined.

You may think your cows are doing their best when they are not. Now find out. Secure a supply of the original and genuine Pratts Cow Remedy. Use it and watch results. You will be astonished and delighted. But if for any reason you are not—

"Your Money Back If YOU are Not Satisfied"

As soon as the supply of pasture becomes insufficient in quantity or lacking in succulence, it should be supplemented with food cut and fed in the green form, as winter rye, oats and peas, and oats and vetches grown together, millet in several varieties, grasses, perennial and Italian rye, especially the latter, alfalfa, the medium red, the mammoth, alsike and crimson clovers, corn of many varieties, and the sorghums. Alfalfa, where it can be freely grown, is king among soiling foods. Peas and oats grown together are excellent, the bulk being peas. Corn is more commonly used, and in some sections sweet sorghum is given an important place. The aim should be to grow soiling foods that will be ready for feeding in that succession that will provide food through all the summer and autumn. Soiling furnished by grains, grasses, and clovers are usually fed in the stables or feed yards, and corn and sorghum are usually strewn over the pastures, as much as is needed from day to day.

Where much soiling food is wanted from year to year, it would seem safe to say that it can be most cheaply supplied in the form of silage. Even when grass is abundant, cows will eat with avidity more or less of ensilage well made. They should not be fed in winter more than 25 pounds per animal per day, but the quantity needed is determined largely by the condition of the pastures. Because of the less quantity of the silage called for in summer, the silo that contains the silage should be of less diameter than the silo that holds food for winter use, otherwise the exposed silage will dry out too much between the times of feeding it.

In autumn soiling foods may be fed with profit that are possessed of less succulence than would suffice at an earlier period, as in the autumn the pastures are usually more succulent than in the summer. Corn may be fed at such a time with much advantage from the shock, and sorghum that has been harvested may likewise be fed from the shock or from the cocks. Pumpkins may be thrown into the pasture and broken when fed.

Viewed from the standpoint of milk production, the legumes (clover, cow peas, soy beans, etc.) must be assigned first rank. After these come grain fodders, corn and sorghum fodders, and fodders from grasses, suitable in the order named. Lowest of all is straw furnished by the small cereals. Fodders when fed are not restricted in quantity as concentrates are.

Among legumes, hay furnished by alfalfa, any of the clovers, cow peas, soy beans and vetches, is excellent for producing milk when these are cut at the proper stage and properly cured. Alfalfa should be cut for such feeding when only a small per cent. of blooms have been formed, clovers when in full bloom, and cow peas, soy beans, and vetches when the first forward pods are filling. Proper curing means by the aid of wind stirring through the mass rather than sun bleaching it.

When good leguminous fodders are fed, from 33 to 50 per cent. less grain will suffice than would be called for when non-leguminous fodders only are fed.

Fodder may usually be cheaply furnished from corn and sorghum, when grown so that the stalks are fine and leafy, and if cut when nearing completed maturity and well cured. Such food is excellent for milk production when fed with suitable adjuncts, even though the fodder is grown so thickly that nubbins do not form. The aim should be to feed the sorghums in the autumn and early winter and the corn so that it may be supplemented by other hay when the winter is past, as later than the time specified these foods deteriorate.

Rye and wheat straw are of little use in making milk, oat straw is better, and good bright pea straw is still more valuable. When fodder is scarce, these may be fed to advantage if run through a cutting box and mixed with cut hay.

The necessity for feeding succulent food in some form where maximum milk yields are to be attained has come to be recognized by all dairy-men. The plants that furnish succulence in winter are corn in all its varieties, field roots of certain kinds, and the sorghums. Corn and sorghum to furnish the necessary succulence must be ensiled. Corn ensilage is without a rival in providing winter succulence for cows. Field roots furnish succulence that, pound for pound, is more valuable than corn, because of the more favorable influence which it exerts on the digestion. But roots cost more to grow than corn. Rutabagas and turnips will give the milk an offensive taint if fed freely at any other time than just after the milk has been withdrawn, but that is not true of mangel wurtzel, sugar beets, or carrots.

The necessity for giving grain feed containing high percentage of digestible matter (known as concentrates) to dairy cows is based on the inability of the cow to consume and digest enough coarse fodders to result in maximum production, even though the fodders should be in balance as to their constituents.

Concentrates are purchased or home grown. It matters not from which source they are obtained, but the values of those purchased are becoming so high as to force upon dairy-men the necessity of growing them at home as far as this may be practicable, and of insuring sound digestion by giving some such tonic and appetizer as Pratts Cow Remedy. This splendid prescription should be kept on hand the year round, and should be given with every feeding, especially in winter. Its value in keeping up milk production and for maintaining health is unequalled.

The method of furnishing concentrates by growing certain of the small grains in combination is growing in favor. These combinations may include wheat, barley, outs, peas, and flax. Frequently but two varieties are grown together. They are grown thus, in the first place, to secure better yields, and, in the second, to furnish concentrates in approximate balance. Such a food, for instance, is obtained from growing wheat and oats together, and if some flax is grown in the mixture it will be further improved.

When choosing concentrates for feeding cows, the aim should be to select them so that when fed along with the roughage on hand, they will be in approximate balance, that is, the elements in them will best meet the needs of the cows.

If a flesh and milk-making food, like clover, is the source of the fodder, then a fat and heat-producing food, like corn, should furnish a large proportion of the grain fed. But it is not more profitable in all instances to feed foods in exact balance. Some of the factors may be so high priced and others so cheap that it will pay better to feed them more or less out of balance.

When good clover hay or alfalfa is being fed to cows in milk, any one of the following grain supplements will give satisfactory results.

(2) Corn meal, wheat bran, and ground oats in the proportions of 2, 1, and 1 parts.

(3) Corn meal, wheat bran, and cottonseed meal in the proportion of 2, 1, and 1 parts. Whether corn meal or corn and cob meals is fed is not very material. Barley meal may be fed instead of corn.

Should corn ensilage be fed to the extent of, say, 40 pounds per day along with clover or alfalfa, any one of the following grain supplements should suffice:

(1) Corn or barley meal, wheat bran, and ground oats, fed in equal parts by weight.

(2) Corn or barley meal and wheat bran, fed in the proportions of 1 and 2 parts.

(3) Corn or barley meal, cottonseed meal, and wheat or rice bran, fed in equal proportions.

(4) Ground peas and oats, also fed in equal proportions. The succotash mixture may be fed alone or in conjunction with other meal added to make the food still more in balance.

It is preferable to feed meal admixed with cut fodders. The mastication that follows will then be more thorough and the digestion more complete. When ensilage is fed, admixture will result sufficiently if the meal is thrown over the ensilage where it has been put into the mangers.

In order to insure the animal obtaining full benefit of all its feed, it will be found highly profitable to include Pratts Cow Remedy with the daily ration. It acts as a digestive and at the same time insures a healthy and natural action of the bowels.

Bulls should be fed and managed with a view to secure good, large and robust physical development and the retention of begetting powers unimpaired to a good old age. The aim should be to avoid tying bulls in the stall continuously for any prolonged period, but to give them opportunity to take exercise in box stalls, paddocks, and pastures to the greatest extent that may be practicable.

A ring should be inserted in the nose when not yet one year old. Rings most commonly used are two and one-half to three inches in diameter. When inserting them the head of the animal should be drawn tightly up to a post or other firm objects, so that the muzzle points upward at a suitable angle. A hole is then made with a suitable implement through the cartilage between the nasal passages, and forward rather than backward in the cartilage. The ring is then inserted, the two parts are brought together again, and they are held in place by a small screw. When ringed, a strap or rope with a spring attached will suffice for a time when leading them, but later they should be led with a lead, which is a strong, tough circular piece of wood, four to five feet long, with a snap attached to one end.

Sell the Milk but Grow the Calves

Whole milk is too valuable to use as calf feed, even if calves—both veals and those kept for dairy purposes—are selling at such high prices. Sell the milk, get all the cash out of it, but grow the calves just the same. Merely feed the perfect milk substitute—

Pratts Calf Meal
"Baby Food for Baby Calves"

When prepared and fed in accordance with the simple directions, Pratts Calf Meal will grow calves equal to those grown on whole or skim-milk and at less cost.

This truly wonderful calf feed has practically the same chemical composition as the solids of whole milk. It is made of superior materials, carefully selected and especially adapted to calf feeding. These are milled separately and bolted to remove hulls and coarse particles, which insures perfect digestion. Finally, the mixture is thoroughly steam-cooked, in a sense pre-digested.

Calves fed Pratts way thrive and grow rapidly and are not subject to scours and other calf disorders. Just make a test. Feed some calves your way and some Pratts way. Let your eye and the scales tell the story. Learn how easy it is to grow the best of calves at less cost.

"Your Money Back If YOU Are Not Satisfied"

Avoid using in service bulls under one year. During the one-year form they should not be allowed to serve more than a score of cows; after they have reached the age of 24 to 30 months they may be used with much freedom in service until the vital forces begin to weaken with age. When properly managed, waning should not begin before the age of 7 or 8 years. It has been found that the bull's service can be made more sure by the use of Pratts Cow Remedy, because of its mild and safe tonic properties. Bulls should he able to serve from 75 to 300 cows a year without injury when the times of service spread over much of the year.

Calves reared to be made into meat at a later period are very frequently allowed to nurse from their dams. This should never be done in the dairy. Such a method of raising them is adverse to maximum milk giving, as the calves when young cannot take all the milk the cows are capable of giving; hence the stimulus is absent that would lead her to give more.

At no time in the life of a dairy cow should she be allowed to suckle her calf longer than the third day of its existence.

In certain parts of the country, especially where whole milk is sold for consumption in the cities, dairy-men frequently kill calves at birth because of lack of milk for feeding them. This practice is wrong and unnecessary. All strong calves should be grown, either for milking animals or veal. And this can now be done, easily and cheaply, by feeding Pratts Calf Meal, the perfect milk substitute, the guaranteed "baby food for baby calves." When this scientific food is used, calves of really superior quality, big, sturdy, vigorous, are grown practically without milk.

Pratts Calf Meal must not be confused with coarse mixtures of mill by-products sometimes sold as "calf meal" or "calf food." Pratts is as carefully made as the baby foods which are so widely used for children. It appeals to the calf's appetite, is easily and quickly digested, produces rapid growth and even development. It does not cause scours and other digestive troubles. And it is easy to prepare and feed.

In chemical composition, Pratts Calf Meal is practically identical with the solids of whole milk. It is made exclusively of materials especially suited to calf feeding and these are always of the highest quality obtainable. This is one secret of the great success of this truly remarkable feed.

The various materials are ground very fine, milled separately, and are then bolted to remove any coarse particles. They are then combined in exact proportions and thoroughly mixed.

Finally, the mixture is steam-cooked, which makes the feed easy to digest and assimilate. This expensive, but most necessary process, prevents indigestion and bowel troubles which accompany the use of unbolted, uncooked meals.

The young calf should take milk from its dam for, say, three days. During that period the milk is only fit for feeding purposes. It is very important that the calf shall be started right, and in no way can this be done so well as by Nature's method, that is, by allowing it to take milk from the dam at will. At the end of that time it should be taught to drink. This can usually be accomplished without difficulty by allowing the calf to become hungry before its first lesson in drinking. It should be given all whole milk, for say, two weeks. This given in three feeds per day, and not more in quantity, as a rule, than two quarts at a feed.

The change from whole to skim-milk should be made gradually. A small amount of skim-milk should be added to the whole milk the first day, and a corresponding amount of whole milk withheld. The amount of skim-milk increased from day to day, and the whole milk fed decreased correspondingly. The time covered in making the change from all whole to all skim-milk should be from one to two weeks. Any skim-milk that is sweet will answer, but it should not be fed to young calves at a lower temperature than about 98 degrees in winter. Milk obtained by cream separators, soon after drawn from the cow, is particularly suitable.

As soon as the change from whole to skim-milk is begun, some substitute should be added to replace the fat withheld by reducing the amount of whole milk fed. Ground flax or oil-meal is the best. It is generally fed in the latter form. In some instances the oil-meal is put directly into the milk beginning with a heaping teaspoonful and gradually increasing the quantity. A too lax condition of the digestion would indicate that an excessive amount was being fed. Later the meal may be more conveniently fed when mixed with other meal.

As soon as the calves will eat meal it should be given to them. No meal is more suitable at the first than ground oats and wheat bran. A little later whole oats will answer quite well. To calves grown for dairy uses they may form the sole grain food. If the calves are to be grown for beef, some more fattening food, as ground corn, or ground barley, should be added to the meal. For such calves, equal parts of bran, oats whole or ground, and ground corn, barley, rye, or speltz are excellent. Until three months old they may be allowed to take all the grain that they will eat. Later it may be necessary to restrict the quantity fed. Calves for the dairy must be kept in a good growing condition, but without an excess of fat. The meal should be kept in a box at all times accessible to the calves and should be frequently renewed. Grain feeding may cease when the calves are put upon pasture.

As soon as the calves will eat fodder it should be given to them. Fodder gives the necessary distention to the digestive organs, which makes the animals capable of taking a sufficient quantity of food to result in high production. Alfalfa, clover-hay, and pea and oat hay are excellent, provided they are of fine growth and cut before they are too advanced in growth. If field roots can be added to the fodder the result in development and good digestion will be excellent. Any kind of field roots are good, but mangels, sugar beets, and rutabagas are the most suitable because of their good keeping qualities. They should be fed sliced, preferably with a root slicer, and the calves may be given all that they will eat without harm resulting.

The duration of the milk period more commonly covers three to four months with calves that are hand fed, but it may be extended indefinitely providing skim-milk may be spared for such a use. Such feeding is costly. Calves reared on their dams are seldom allowed milk for more than six or seven months, save when they are reared for show purposes.

(1) The amount should be determined by the observed capacity of the calf to take milk and by the relative cost of the skim-milk and the adjuncts fed along with it.

(2) During the first weeks until it begins to eat other food freely, it should be given all the milk that it will take without disturbing the digestion.

(3) Usually it would be safe to begin with six pounds of milk per day, giving eight pounds at the end of the first week, and to add one pound each week subsequently until the age of 10 to 12 weeks. Any excess of milk given at one time usually disturbs the digestion and is followed by too lax a condition of the bowels.

When milk has been the chief food, and the weaning is sudden, usually growth will be more or less arrested. When sustained largely on other foods, the change may be made without any check to the growth, even in the case of calves that suck their dams. When hand raised, the quantity of milk is gradually reduced until none is given. In the case of sucking calves they should be allowed to take milk once a day for a time before being shut entirely away from the dams. The supplementary food should be strengthened as the milk is withheld.

Calves should have constant access to good water, even during the milk period, and also to salt.

Where many are fed simultaneously, the milk should be given in pails kept scrupulously clean. The pails should be set in a manger, but not until the calves have been secured by the neck in suitable stanchions. As soon as they have taken the milk, a little meal should be thrown into each pail. Eating the dry meal takes away the desire to suck one another.

Calves of the dairy, dual purpose, and beef breeds may be reared by hand along the same lines, but with the following points of difference:

(1) The dual types want to carry more flesh than the dairy types, and the beef types more than either.

(2) To secure this end, more and richer milk must be given to calves of the beef type, especially during the first weeks of growth. Forcing calves of the beef type would be against the highest development attainable. Until the milking period is reached, the food and general treatment for the three classes is the same. They should be in fair flesh until they begin to furnish milk.

When calves come in the autumn, the heifers enter the first winter strong and vigorous. They should be so fed that growth will be continuous right through the winter, but on cheap foods. It is different with animals for the block, which should have grain every winter until sold, when reared on the arable farm, unless roots are freely fed, when they may be carried through the winter in fine form on straw and cornstalks, feeding some hay toward spring. They may be fed in an open or a closed shed, and without being tied when dehorned as they ought to be when not purely bred. It is a good time to dehorn them when about one year old, as they will be more peaceful subsequently than if the horns had never been allowed to grow. The bedding should be plentiful and they should have free access to water and salt.

To carry growing animals through the winter so that they make no increase and in some instances lose weight, to be made up the following summer, is short-sighted policy and wasteful of food. If a stunted condition is allowed at any time, increase is not only retarded, but the capacity for future increase is also lessened.

The pastures for heifers should be abundant, or supplemented by soiling food where they are short. This is specially necessary because the heifers will then be pregnant, and because of the burden thus put upon them in addition to that of growth, certain evils will follow.

In some instances calves are grown on whole milk and adjuncts, and are sold at the age of 6 to 9 months. This is practicable when two or three calves are reared on one cow. The meal adjuncts to accompany such feeding may consist of ground corn, oats, bran, and oil meal, fed in the proportions of, say 4, 2, 1, and 1 parts by weight. In some instances they are kept two or three months longer, and when sold such calves well fattened bring high prices.

The growing of baby beef is coming into much favor. Baby beef means beef put upon the market when it can no longer be called veal and when considerably short of maturity, usually under the age of 24 months. To grow such beef properly animals must be given a good healthy start, growth must not be interrupted and must be reasonably rapid, and the condition of flesh in which they are kept must be higher than for breeding uses. The process is in a sense a forcing one through feeding of relatively large amounts of grain. Though kept in good flesh all the while, the highest condition of flesh should be sought during the latter stages of feeding.

When stall feeding begins, cattle are led up gradually during preliminary feeding to full feeding. Full feeding means consumption of all grain and other food the animal can take without injuring digestion. A lean animal cannot be fattened quickly. Before rapid deposits of fat can occur the lean animal must be brought into a well-nourished condition. Preliminary feeding should cover a period of four to eight weeks in ordinary fattening.

When cattle are to be finished on grass, they are usually fed a moderate amount of grain daily the previous winter. The amount will be influenced by the character of the fodders and by the season when the cattle are to be sold. Usually it is not less than three pounds per animal, daily, nor more than six pounds. Steers will fatten in much shorter time when Pratts Cow Remedy is used. It causes them to quickly put on solid flesh, due to its action on the blood, bowels, and digestive organs.

COMMON DISEASES OF CATTLE

The cow is generally healthy and if fed, stabled and cared for properly she will seldom be ill.

When a cow is sick, provide clean, comfortable quarters, with plenty of bedding and let her lie down. If weather is cold, cover her with a blanket. A healthy cow has a good appetite, the muzzle is moist, the eye bright, coat is smooth, the horns are warm, breathing is regular, the milk is given in good quantities and the process of rumination is constant soon after eating. The sick cow has more or less fever, the muzzle is dry and hot, the breathing is rapid, no appetite, an increase in the pulse, dull eye, rough coat, a suspension of rumination, and the cow will stand alone with head down. Usually all that is needed is Pratts Cow Remedy with bran mashes and good digestible feed. Give pure, clean water, and careful attention.

Many excellent cows have been lost through milk fever within a day or two of the birth of the calf. The preventive measures include:

(2) Feeding food that is not unduly succulent, lest the milk flow should be overstimulated.

(3) Giving a mild purgative a day or two before the calf is born, or within a few hours after its birth. The purgative most commonly used is Epsom salts, and the dose is three-quarters of a pound to one pound.

(4) Removing only a small portion of the milk at a time for the first two or three days. Only moderate amounts of food are necessary until the danger of milk fever is past. Where Pratts Cow Remedy has been given, there is little, if any, danger of milk fever. The value of this splendid prescription during the calving season has been tested time and time again.

A germ disease highly contagious and one of the most injurious of those which affect dairy cattle. The money-making value of a herd in which the germs of contagious abortion are permitted to exist will be completely destroyed.

A cow which has once aborted will do so again unless carefully treated. So contagious is the disease that the germs introduced into a perfectly healthy cow will cause her to abort, and it is no uncommon thing for the infection to spread through an entire herd in a single season. The herd bull readily becomes a source of herd infection, and service from a bull, where there are aborting cows should be refused.

Cause.—By infection, the herding together of a large number of cows, high feeding, smutty corn and ergotty pastures. In a small number of cows abortion may result from accidental injuries. Such cases are pure accidents and are not to be considered along with contagious abortion.

Treatment.—As in all contagious diseases, treatment should be given the infected animals and sanitary measures with treatment should be adopted to prevent its spread to healthy cows. For increasing the disease resistance of cows as well as for building up the vitality of infected and suspected animals, Pratts Cow Remedy is most effective. It is a true remedy and tonic, which restores to health and upbuilds the cow's constitution. It is all medicine, free from harmful ingredients or mineral poisons.

Give one level tablespoonful of Pratts Cow Remedy three times a day to each cow, either with the grain or separately.

Pratts Cow Remedy should be given before and after service, and when Contagious Abortion is only suspected, should be continued during the period when the cow is in calf.

An excellent preventive practice is to douche the vagina of all pregnant cows and to wash the tails and hind quarters of the entire herd with one part Pratts Dip and Disinfectant to 100 parts warm water.

As a certain number of the cows will harbor the germ in the womb when treatment is started, it is not to be expected that abortion will cease at once, but by keeping up the treatment the trouble will probably disappear the following year.

When the small cost of Pratts Cow Remedy and Pratts Dip and Disinfectant and their wonderful effectiveness in ridding the cow of the disease are considered, there is no question but that it ought always to be given to all cows to keep them well.

To prevent the spread of Contagious Abortion, the entire premises should be disinfected regularly with Pratts Dip and Disinfectant.

Causes.—The cow, the most of all our domestic animals, is especially subject to this accident. It is most likely to occur after abortion. Again, in low conditions of health and an imperfect power of contraction, we have causes for retention. The condition is common when the cow is given food insufficient in quantity or in nutriment.

Comfort for Cow and Milker

Milking is a twice-a-day job. And if the cow has a sore, feverish and inflamed udder, cut, cracked or sore teats, milking time is most uncomfortable for both the cow and the one who does the milking.

Whenever a cow gives any indication of tenderness or soreness of udder or teats, apply

Pratts Bag Ointment

and speedy improvement will follow. It quickly penetrates to the seat of the trouble, softens and soothes the feverish parts, and heals up the sores.

Use it for caked bags, or garget, for cuts, cracks, scratches or sores on udder or teats. It works wonders. Better keep a package on hand for quick use.

"Your Money Back If YOU Are Not Satisfied"

Treatment.—Blanket the cow in a warm stable, and three times a day give hot drinks and hot mashes of wheat bran to which two tablespoonfuls of Pratts Cow Remedy have been added. When the after-birth comes away, continue treatment giving one tablespoonful of Pratts Cow Remedy until full recovery. The vagina and womb should be syringed with a solution of one ounce of Pratts Dip and Disinfectant to a gallon of warm water. Repeat daily until all discharge has disappeared.

Prevention.—If the cow has been given Pratts Cow Remedy during pregnancy or from two to four weeks before calving, there will be very few cases of this trouble.

When a cow persistently fails to breed and bear young, she is said to be barren. That a barren cow cannot be a profit maker, goes without saying.

Causes.—Barrenness in many cases is due to malformation of the generative organs, tumors or other diseased conditions. Very frequently it is a result of Contagious Abortion, and this should always be suspected. Cows bred at too early an age frequently produce calves which prove to be barren, due to constitutional weakness.

Treatment.—The true preventive of such conditions is to be found in sound hygiene. Use Pratts Dip and Disinfectant freely about the premises.

The breeding animal should be of adult age neither overfed nor underfed, but well fed and moderately exercised.

In proof of the beneficial results of exercise, it is of record that a cow pronounced barren, when driven to a new owner, living several miles distant, became fertile and for years thereafter produced healthy calves.

Vigorous health must be sought, not only that a strong race may be propagated but that the cow may breed with certainty.

For toning up the generative organs, so that they can perform their natural functions, Pratts Cow Remedy is safe and positive.

Thus for less than a cent a day, you can make sure of the cow enjoying health and being productive.

Symptoms.—Painful blisters which become sores on the lips and tongue. Occurs often in sucking calves.

Treatment.—Wash the mouth twice a day with one ounce of borax and one fluid ounce of myrrh mixed in one quart of water or a mild solution of Pratts Dip and Disinfectant. Give Pratts Cow Remedy daily. If the mouth is very sore give the remedies in gruel form. Feed animal on regular gruel feed. If it occurs in calves, give Pratts Cow Remedy with milk and use borax as mentioned above.

Symptoms.—While eating, or shortly afterward, a swelling appears on the left side, and as the swelling increases the animal appears to be in great distress, pants, strikes belly with its hind feet, the belching of gas is noticed and the animal does not chew its cud. Later the breathing becomes difficult, the animal moans, its back is arched, eyes protrude, the tongue hangs out and saliva runs from the mouth.

Cause.—Eating damp grass, succulent grass of early spring and second crop clover in autumn when wet with dew or rain. Also caused by a change of food or over filling the paunch of animal with indigestible food.

Treatment.—At this stage mix one ounce aromatic spirits of ammonia in one pint of water and give the mixture as a drench. Repeat in twenty minutes if necessary. In extreme cases a mechanical treatment can be successfully employed by the use of Pratts Cattle Trocar.

Apply Pratts Bag Ointment according to directions. It is very penetrating, and has great softening and cooling properties. Use also for chafing and inflammation.

Symptoms.—Heated forehead, sneezing, coughing, may have diarrhoea or be constipated, fever and loss of appetite. Urine deficient.

Treatment.—Give large doses of Pratts Cow Remedy in gruel form and gradually reduce quantity. Keep animal warm, bandage legs and rub throat and lungs with Pratts Liniment.

Walk the animal for a few minutes, then give one pint of Glauber Salts dissolved in a pint of warm water, and inject a quart of warm water, with two fluid ounces of laudanum, into the bowels. Give regularly Pratts Cow Remedy mixed with warm water as gruel until animal is relieved, then mix with the feed. In extreme cases give four drams of carbonate of ammonia, two drams of belladonna, mixed with one pint of water. Blankets wrung out of hot water and applied will help to relieve the pain. Another remedy is one ounce of sulphuric ether and one ounce tincture of opium in a pint of warm water. A pint of whiskey in a pint of warm water is also good.

Treatment.—Give Epsom salts or a pint of raw linseed oil and plenty of green food, linseed meal, bran mashes, roots and Pratts Cow Remedy daily. Exercise is necessary.

Symptoms.—Round inflamed spots appear upon the teats. They enlarge and form large scabs. The milk yield is always diminished. It is very contagious. This is the vaccine-virus used as a preventive for smallpox.

Treatment.—Separate the cows affected. Do not break the pox. Apply Pratts Healing Ointment to the sores and give Pratts Cow Remedy to all the cows, whether affected or not.

Treatment.—Give large doses of Pratts Cow Remedy at first, then reduce to regular quantity. Give starch gruel or flour and water. Another remedy is two fluid drams of tincture of kino three times daily.

Symptoms.—Sore feet and blisters form in and about the mouth and on udder. Animal shivers, has fever, becomes lame and teeth become loose. It is very contagious.

Treatment.—Separate all sick animals and wash mouths with one part Pratts Disinfectant to 100 parts water, or one-half teaspoonful of tincture of aloes and myrrh. Stand animals in a trough containing one part Pratts Dip and Disinfectant to 20 parts water. Repeat in five days. Disinfect all stables, litter, etc. Give daily Pratts Cow Remedy with the regular feed. Use Pratts Bag Ointment on teats and udder. When recovered, sponge all over with one part Pratts Dip and Disinfectant to 20 parts water.

Treatment.—Clean stalls and disinfect with one part Pratts Dip and Disinfectant to 100 parts water. Pare away all ragged portions of the foot and keep animal on clean floor until cured. Make a poultice of one part Disinfectant to five parts water and stir in a little flour to the proper constituency and apply to the foot.

Treatment.—Clean stable thoroughly and spray Pratts Dip and Disinfectant everywhere. Sprinkle a small quantity on an old blanket and tie it around the animal for two or three hours. Spray the legs and such places the blanket does not cover. Repeat if necessary.

If Pratts Powdered Lice Killer is used, dust the animals thoroughly with the powder, rubbing the hair the wrong way, then rub it thoroughly into the skin.

Treatment.—Remove the tumor by surgical means or paint daily with tincture of iodine. Give daily two drams of iodide of potash. Give nourishing feed with Pratts Cow Remedy daily. Disinfect stable with Pratts Dip and Disinfectant.

Cause.—By rupture of minute vessels in the udder due to injury, irritation or inflammation and derangement of the system.

Treatment.—Change the food and pasture. Give large doses of Pratts Cow Remedy at first, and gradually reduce to regular quantity. Give good nutritious feed with bran mashes and clean fresh, water. Rub udder twice daily with Pratts Bag Ointment. Four drams of hyposulphite of soda in feed twice a day has produced good results.

Treatment.—Keep stable perfectly clean, disinfect thoroughly with Pratts Disinfectant and treat same as for bloody milk. Sometimes blue milk is the sign of tuberculosis. If so, have the cow killed and burned or buried deep.

Symptoms.—There is a feverish condition and inflammation of the brain; a complete stoppage of milk, weakness in hind quarters, animal staggers and when down is unable to rise, throws head to one side and goes into a state of stupor.

Cause.—By trouble peculiar to calving or running into rich pasture during hot weather; by lack of exercise and from costiveness. Usually attacks fat cows.

Treatment.—(From Circular 45, Bureau of Animal Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture.) "Of all known methods of treating milk fever, the injection of sterile atmospheric air into the udder is by far the most simple and practicable as well as the most efficacious and harmless one at our disposal." Pratts Milk Fever Outfit for air treatment should always be kept on hand. The price is $3. This treatment has cured 97 per cent. of cases treated.

Prevention.—Feed pregnant cows with nutritious and laxative feed, give plenty of water and Pratts Cow Remedy daily. Keep stable clean, well ventilated and disinfected with Pratts Dip and Disinfectant.

Treatment.—To increase flow of milk give Pratts Cow Remedy daily with a good nutritious ration and plenty of water. These supply just what a cow needs to make her food appetizing, to regulate the blood, bowels and digestive organs, to turn all the nutriment of the feed given into flesh and milk without waste. Pratts Cow Remedy has been used for over 40 years by successful and conservative feeders, and wherever used, according to directions, has produced wonderful results.

Treatment.—Separate affected animals at once and put them in clean, well ventilated but dark stalls as this is contagious. Disinfect entire place with one part Pratts Dip and Disinfectant to 75 parts of water. Give physic of a pound and a half of Epsom salts, dissolve in a pint of warm water, to which add two ounces of powdered ginger. Give sloppy feed with one dram of powdered nitrate of potassia added and Pratts Cow Remedy daily.

Fasten a cloth over the eyes and keep it wet with a lotion of chloride of zinc, one dram; carbolic acid, two drams; water, one gallon. Apply to the cheek below each eye, to the space of about two inches, a small portion composed of Spanish fly, 2 drams; lard, two tablespoonfuls. Apply in the morning and wash off with soap suds and a sponge, six hours later. Apply lard. Keep separated from herd for a month after recovery.

Symptoms.—Hot, painful swellings at the joints, stiffness in walking and difficulty in rising.

Cause.—By exposure, badly ventilated and wet stables, damp, marshy pasture and impure food.

Treatment.—Bathe joints with Pratts Liniment. Give a physic of a pound of Epsom salts in warm water. Give two drams of salicylate of soda every three hours for two days. Keep animal warm and dry. Give nutritious feed of a laxative nature with Pratts Cow Remedy daily.

Treatment.—Place in dry, clean, well ventilated stable. Use nose bag. Rub throat with Pratts Liniment. Give physic of one pound of Epsom salts in warm water. Give one-half ounce of tincture of belladonna every six hours. Syringe throat three times a day with an ounce of following solution: one and one-half drams nitrate of silver and one pint of distilled water.

Treatment.—Wash off with one part Pratts Dip and Disinfectant and 50 parts of water. Use Pratts Teat Opener. Pratts Self-Retaining Milking Tube can then be inserted until teat is better. Rub teats with Pratts Bag Ointment.

Treatment.—All cattle infected with ticks should be sponged or dipped at once with one part Pratts Dip and Disinfectant to 20 parts water. Repeat in ten days. This will not only kill the ticks but cure mange, soften the hair and make the skin healthy.

Symptoms.—Not well marked in early stages. Disease develops slowly. There is a loss of flesh, a short dry cough, irregular appetite, rapid breathing, weakness, bloating, diarrhoea, the milk is lessened and is watery and blue in color. The coat is rough and back arched. Whenever an animal is suspected of having tuberculosis, have a competent person give the "Tuberculosis Test" at once.

Cause.—Poor feed and water, badly ventilated stables, dirty stables, from over-feeding and inoculation. It is hereditary. May also follow abortion and catarrhal trouble of the genital organs.

Treatment.—Disease is incurable. Kill and burn all animals affected at once and disinfect thoroughly stables, yards, etc., with one part Pratts Dip and Disinfectant to 50 parts of water. Disinfect every week until every germ is destroyed. Use Pratts Dip and Disinfectant in all whitewash and sponge or dip all the cattle in a solution of one part Disinfectant to 100 parts water.

Treatment.—Wash with one part Pratts Dip and Disinfectant and 50 parts water and apply Pratts Healing Ointment or Healing Powder three times a day.

Give Pratts Specially Prepared Worm Powder according to directions. It is quick in its action and has a strong tonic effect.

Many years ago the sheep industry of America flourished. Then came a period of depression in this line accompanied by a steady decrease in the number of sheep kept. But the tide turned again about 1914 and the sheep are rapidly coming back to American farms and ranges.

This change is doubtless due to the steadily increasing cost of grain and labor accompanied by correspondingly high prices of lamb, mutton and wool. Also to a general recognition of the economic value of sheep—both of the mutton and wool breeds—as quick producers of income, no little part of which should be profit. The latter point is due to the fact that sheep are inexpensive to maintain as they thrive upon the roughest of pastures and coarse feeds which will not sell to advantage, and their care consumes but little time. Low production costs—feed and labor—and high prices for the products make a most satisfactory combination.

Methods of successful sheep management vary in different sections of the country. The beginner may well consult the successful sheep-growers in his section and adopt the methods which give good results under the conditions existing in his locality. At the same time he should neglect no opportunity to secure more information from all sources, in order to know and use the most advanced methods and so make the maximum profits.

Sheep raising requires careful attention, but does not demand a great amount of heavy labor or expensive equipment.

The best time to make a start is in the early fall when good breeding stock may be selected.

While pure-bred breeders are best, a pure-bred ram and ewes of good grade will prove very satisfactory.

A start may be made in a small way, but it is best to have at least twenty to forty breeders for economy of time, labor and other expenses.

As a rule it is most profitable to push the lambs for growth and market them when they weigh 65 to 75 pounds.

If a very large pasture is available the flock will thrive on this. Otherwise fields must be fenced off and forage crops provided.

Breeding ewes must be exercised in the winter to insure strong lambs. But protect them from rain or wet snow as soaked fleeces cause colds and pneumonia.

Thrifty condition and vigorous health must be maintained at all costs. Otherwise the lambs will be small and weak and fleeces of inferior quality. The regular use of Pratts Animal Regulator will improve condition, insure health and vigor, increase number and quality of lambs, promote growth of flesh and wool. And in large measure, it keeps common diseases away because Pratt-fed sheep are in condition to resist disease.

Shearing should be done after lambing, usually in late spring or early summer. If lambing time is late, the shearing may be done before the lambs arrive. Tie up the fleeces separately, first sorting out dung locks and tags.

After lambing, the individual ewes should be carefully watched to see that they have plenty of milk and are in good condition. They should be kept in pens for about three days, when they may be permitted to run with the flock. Feed lightly for two or three days, then heavily to stimulate the milk flow so lambs will be well-nourished. They may profitably receive one to two pounds of grain per day during the nursing period.

Inferior ewes should be marketed as rapidly as they are identified. Get rid of the barren ones, producers of poor lambs, poor milkers, light shearers.

Sheep must be protected against blood-thirsty dogs and external and internal parasites. In many sections sheep growers have united to fight sheep-killing dogs and good results have been secured. United action against a common enemy is best, as public sentiment may thus be aroused.

Because of their thick fleeces and helplessness, sheep suffer greatly from the attacks of ticks, lice and other parasites. Ticks are particularly injurious. They annoy and weaken the adult animals, torture the lambs and check their growth. The result is always a money loss to the sheep owner.

Fortunately it is a simple matter to exterminate the ticks and lice and overcome the ordinary skin diseases of sheep. Merely dip the sheep in a solution of Pratts Disinfectant. It is non-poisonous, inexpensive—does the work!

July and August is the popular time for dipping, but the work can be done as soon after shearing as the shear cuts heal. Two dippings are necessary, about twenty-four days apart. The first treatment may not kill all the eggs, but the second will kill the young ticks, thus completing the job. For successful results, it is necessary to use a dipping tank or vat large enough to hold sufficient of the solution to immerse and thoroughly saturate each animal.

Intestinal parasites, of which the stomach worm is perhaps the most dreaded, cause great loss to sheep owners. These worms live in the fourth stomach. They are easily identified, being from one-half to one and a quarter inches long, marked with a red stripe. Their eggs are found in the droppings of the sheep, so infection is secured in the pasture.

No other class of animals kept upon the farm brings returns so quickly as swine, with the exception of fowls. Swine are specially valuable for utilizing food that would otherwise go to waste. They are an invaluable adjunct to the dairy, particularly when the whole milk is separated on the farm.

You can grow big, healthy, profit-paying hogs, if you will merely meet certain clearly defined hog requirements. If you do this, and it's easy, you need never worry about profits. You are sure to succeed.

The world needs and will pay you well for all the hogs you can produce. Aside from the pork products required for consumption in America, the hog growers of the United States must for years export to Europe more pork in various forms, and more lard, than ever before.

The European herds of hogs have been sadly depleted. Dr. Vernon Kellogg, of the United States Food Administration, has personally investigated the situation. He reports decreases in hogs in leading countries as follows: France, 49 per cent.; Great Britain, 25 per cent.; Italy, 12-1/2 per cent. And, of course, conditions are even worse in Germany, Austria and the Balkan Nations, all of which are big producers in normal times.

Properly handled, kept healthy and vigorous, the American hog is a money-maker. Many farmers know this from experience: others fail to realize how useful and profitable the hog really is.

The experts connected with the United States Department of Agriculture make the following assertions in Farmers' Bulletin 874:

"No branch of live-stock farming gives better results than the raising of well-bred swine when conducted with a reasonable amount of intelligence. The hog is one of the most important animals to raise on the farm, either for meat or for profit, and no farm is complete unless some hogs are kept to aid in the modern method of farming. The farmers of the South and West, awakening to the merits of the hog, are rapidly increasing their output of pork and their bank accounts. The hog requires less labor, less equipment, less capital, and makes greater gains per hundred pounds of concentrates than any other farm animal, and reproduces himself faster and in greater numbers; and returns the money invested more quickly than any other farm animal except poultry."

The University of Minnesota, in Extension Bulletin 7, sums up the matter as follows:

"From a business point of view, the hog is described as a great national resource, a farm mortgage lifter and debt-payer, and the most generally profitable domesticated animal in American agriculture."

And this summarizes the general opinion of progressive hog growers and the experts connected with the United States Department of Agriculture and the various State Agricultural Experiment Stations and Colleges.

Breeds of hogs are divided into two general classes—bacon type and lard type. Where milk is plentiful, and especially where such foods as barley and peas are grown, the bacon type will be the most profitable, as they furnish the largest litters and also make pork that brings the best price in the market. The lard type of swine are usually kept where corn is the cereal that is most grown.

The large Yorkshire and Tamworth are the leading bacon breeds. The Poland China, the Duroc Jersey, and the Chester White are leading lard types. The Berkshires, Cheshires, and Hampshires are intermediate between the bacon and lard types. When bacon sires are crossed upon sows of any of the other breeds, the progeny are excellent for pork.

The farmer who is about to adopt a breed should be sure to select one of the standard and common breeds of his own neighborhood. Many men make the mistake of introducing a breed new to the section, and when the time comes that a new boar must be secured much difficulty and expense are incurred before a satisfactory one can be found.

The bulletin quoted above further says: "To the production of pork, then, in the largest amount, in the shortest time, and with the minimum of money and labor, all the details of the hog-raising industry are directed." Here is the whole secret—pork in largest amount, in shortest time, at lowest production costs. And the very foundation is perfect health and vigorous condition of the hogs, both breeding animals and market stock.

Health and vigor are necessary in the breeding animals if they are to produce big litters of sturdy pigs—in the market animals if they are to consume large amounts of food and economically and quickly convert it into fat and muscle. Weak, sickly, run-down hogs are a constant source of trouble and are never profitable under any conditions. Disease is one of the greatest drawbacks in the hog industry.

When selecting brood sows of any breed, the preference should be given to those which have reasonably long sides and limbs of medium length. When selecting boars make sure that vigor is present in a marked degree and also strong limbs. Any weakness in the back of male or female is to be carefully shunned.

During pregnancy two facts must be borne in mind. The first is that the sow is doing double duty. She is keeping up her own bodily functions, as well as developing her fetal litter. Therefore, feeding should be liberal. The mistakes in feeding breeding animals are more frequently those which keep such stock thin. The importance of ample feeding at this time is a demonstrated fact, as well as one which appeals to common sense.

In the second place the sow is building new tissue. Hence the kind of feed is important. Bran, peas, oats and barley and such forage plants as clover, alfalfa, vetches and the like. Ordinary pasture grasses are of much value.

All breeders lay great emphasis on the condition of the bowels during pregnancy, and particularly at farrowing. The special danger to be avoided is constipation. It is right here that Pratts Hog Tonic shows its great worth to hog raiser. It puts the digestion organs into healthy condition and the result is safe farrowing and a healthy litter which is not apt to suffer from scours or thumps.

Good health is inherited from vigorous, healthy ancestors. It is intensified and preserved by proper management. "The time to begin fitting pigs for market is before they are farrowed. For this reason it is advisable to pay particular attention to the feed and care of the brood sow from breeding to farrowing time." And "It must be understood that it is much easier to continue an animal (hog) in a thrifty, hardy condition than to bring the animal back to his normal appetite and rate of growth, once he is out of order." (Circular 90, New Jersey Agr. Exp. Station.)

These common-sense statements must appeal to the reason of every thinking hog producer. And they make plain the wisdom of regularly supplying Pratts Hog Tonic to the entire herd, to breeding stock, growing pigs, fattening hogs.

This remarkable natural tonic and conditioners is not a specific for any single disease. It is a health-builder and health-preserver. In this connection we wish to particularly mention that most dreaded and destructive of all hog diseases—hog cholera. We do not claim that Pratts Hog Tonic will entirely prevent or cure this scourge. But it will put and keep your herd in such fine condition that the individuals will be more resistant and will not as readily contract cholera or other germ diseases. It will prevent and control such troubles as indigestion, diarrhoea, constipation and the like, which are such a source of trouble in the average herd.

You may not appreciate the value of using such a conditioner, but the Kentucky Agr. Exp. Station, in Bulletin 181, contains the following statement which deserves the careful consideration of every thoughtful hog raiser: "General conditioners have been found to be advantageous in the maintenance of healthy conditions in hogs."

Brood sows should not produce their first litter under twelve months. Whether they should produce one or two litters a year will depend largely upon the conditions, especially of climate. Sows should be kept for breeding as long as they will produce good, even litters. Well-chosen sows should rear an average of eight to the litter.

Brood sows should have ample exercise. They get it in good form when they are allowed to turn over litter in the barnyard on which a little grain, as corn, has previously been sprinkled. Two-thirds of the winter rations may consist of mangels or alfalfa hay—the other third being grain or swill. Alfalfa for hogs should be cut before blossoming.

When sows farrow they should be fed lightly for the first three days. Later give all they will eat of milk-making foods. A combination of ground oats, wheat shorts, and some corn is excellent. And Pratts Hog Tonic will be found especially valuable during the nursing period. Meal is fed ground and soaked. As soon as young pigs will take skim-milk they should get it in a trough apart from the sow. They are weaned at seven or eight weeks where two litters are grown in a year, and at twelve weeks where but one is grown.

When pigs are weaned, and previously, there is nothing better than shorts and skim milk. They should be grown subsequently to weaning on pasture, with one to two pounds of grain added daily. In season, winter or spring rye, clover, alfalfa, barley, and rape all make excellent pasture.

The fattening period with swine covers from six to eight weeks. Unground corn and water will fatten swine in good form. The same is true of barley and rye, ground and soaked. They may be fattened nicely while grazing on field peas. They may also be similarly fattened by hogging off corn or gathering it from the excrement of cattle that are being fattened on it. Swine well grown should make an average gain of a pound a day. Bacon swine may be best sold at 175 to 200 pounds in weight. Lard types are usually grown to greater weights.

Swine breeders have long recognized the value of Pratts Hog Tonic as a disease preventive and fattener. Progressive breeders now consider it a necessity in profitable hog raising.

If a second litter is wanted during a year the sows should be put to the boar during the first heat after weaning. Many breeders do not like to pass periods of heat for fear that the sows may become "shy," and there is little reason why a sow should not have two litters a year. In any case, the sows should be carried on comparatively light feed until time to breed again, gaining a little in weight; and their treatment after breeding should be as already detailed for pregnant sows.

When the boar arrives at the farm he should be dipped in a solution of Pratts Dip and Disinfectant, as a matter of ordinary precaution against the introduction of vermin. As an additional precaution, a quarantine pen should be ready for him, especially if epizootics are prevalent. His feed before change of owners should be known, and either adhered to or changed gradually to suit the new conditions. If he has come from a long distance it will be well to feed lightly until he is well acclimated.

Breeders generally advocate the practice of keeping a boar to himself during the entire year—out of sight and hearing of the sows. However, a boar is often allowed to run with the sows after they are safe in pig; but during the breeding season it is by far the best policy to keep him by himself, admitting a sow to his yard for mating, and allowing but one service. The litters will generally be larger and the pigs stronger.

The boar should not serve more than two sows daily, preferably one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and can serve 50 to 60 in a season without difficulty.

In order to keep the boar in vigorous physical condition, he should be given Pratts Hog Tonic regularly. The beneficial results will be seen in the way of larger litters and stronger pigs.

The greatest drawback to the hog industry which breeders in this country have to contend against is found in the losses which may be experienced through the infestation of the animals, especially young pigs, by parasites, through outbreaks of hog cholera or swine plague, or through the contraction of tuberculosis.

In dealing with the diseases of hogs, preventive measures must be most relied upon. The animals must be given dry and well-ventilated quarters, which must be kept clean. Contrary to common belief, hogs have some habits which raise them above other domestic animals from the standpoint of cleanliness. For example, unless compelled to do so, a hog will not sleep in its own filth. If part of the floor of the pen is raised and kept well bedded with straw, while the rest is not, all excrement will be left on the unbedded portion of the floor, and the bed itself will be always clean.

In addition to cleanliness, close attention should be given to the feed which is supplied, that nothing may be fed which will convey the germs of disease, especially tuberculosis, to the herd. If the hogs are fed milk in any form obtained from cows kept upon the same farm, the cows should be subjected to the tuberculin test, as by this means all tuberculous milk may be kept from the hogs. If they run with the cattle of the farm a tuberculin test of all the cattle is none the less desirable. Animals dead from any disease should not be fed to the hogs until the meat has been made safe by cooking. Skim milk or refuse from a public creamery should not be fed to hogs until it has been thoroughly sterilized.

Feeding and drinking places should be clean and the water supply pure. Unless the origin is known to be uncontaminated and there has been no possibility of infection during its course, hogs should not be allowed access to any stream. Wallows should be drained out or kept filled up as much as possible. At least once a month the quarters should be disinfected with a solution of Pratts Dip and Disinfectant. These precautions will be found valuable aids in the destruction of the various animal parasites, as well as a protection from some more serious troubles.

The methods of feeding and management outlined above have been successfully followed by hog growers for many years. They are conservative and safe. But during recent years a new method of feeding has been developed and is being generally adopted, especially by specialists who make hog growing a real business. This is known as the "self-fed" plan, under which system feed is kept before the hogs at all times and they are permitted to eat at will. In poultry feeding this is called "the dry mash system."

Just who deserves credit for originating or developing this plan cannot be stated. That it is a good one is evidenced by the fact that it has received the endorsement of the Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture; of many Agricultural Experiment Stations; of the specialty swine journals; of practical hog breeders in all sections of the country.

For this self-feed plan it is claimed that both feed and labor are saved, thus reducing production costs. That a 250-pound hog can be grown in thirty days less time than is possible where slop-feeding is practiced, thus getting the hogs to market earlier and avoiding danger of loss during this time. That it produces pork of highest quality, the meat being fine in flavor, firm, and with lean and fat well distributed.

Advocates of the self-feeding plan make the following comparison with the old-time slop-feeding method:

When dry food is supplied in automatic feeders, the attendant may fill the feeders at any convenient time of day and that at intervals of several days. In slop feeding, the meals must be prepared and fed twice daily, usually when other duties are pressing and time especially valuable.

When dry, ground grains are kept before the hogs at all times, they eat when they feel the need of food and are not liable to overeat at any time. Because of the dry character of the feed, they eat slowly, masticating the food thoroughly and mixing it with saliva. This means more thorough digestion and an absence of indigestion and bowel troubles. And, of course, quicker growth.

Slop-fed hogs, on the other hand, get very hungry between meals. At feeding time they pile up around the troughs, the stronger rushing and pushing away the weaker ones, those that really need the feed the most. Then they bolt the food without chewing it, taking all they can hold and leaving little for those that cannot find a place at the "first table."

The quality of the dry-fed pork has been mentioned. Equally important, from the standpoint of the butcher, is the loss in dressing of hogs. Tests have shown that slop-fed stock loses six to eight pounds more per hundredweight than does the dry-fed.

Another big advantage of dry-feeding lies in the fact that large numbers of swine, including those of various ages and sizes, can be safely kept in one herd. The writer has seen over two hundred head of swine, ranging in size from pigs just weaned to 250-pound porkers ready for market, living in peace and contentment in one building, eating and sleeping and sharing the forage pastures together. Of course this means a big saving in buildings and fencing and a great reduction in the amount of necessary labor.

The self-feeder may be used all through the life of the hog, beginning when the pigs are still nursing and continuing until they reach market weight. During all this time the ration should contain Pratts Hog Tonic, the guaranteed hog conditioner, in order that at all times the herd may be maintained in vigorous condition, be kept free from disease, may avoid wasting feed through imperfect or sluggish digestion, may earn for the farmer the maximum amount of profit. We suggest that you make a test of this results-insuring, profit-producing tonic. Watch results. If you are not satisfied the dealer from whom you purchased the goods will refund the full amount you paid for them.

The self-feeding plan of growing hogs gives best results when the animals are given access to growing forage crops. The feeders may be placed under cover out in the fields or kept in the hog house if the latter is reasonably near the pasture lots. An unlimited supply of fresh water must be available at all times because dry-fed stock drinks many times the amount of water that slop-fed hogs do. The reason is plain.

There are many different systems of handling hogs under this plan, varying according to local conditions. We will give in detail the method used most successfully for many years on a Penns

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