The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-08-26
FARM and OUSEHOLD.
Don't Sell the Best Calves

A really choice cow will readily bring
eighty to one hundred dollars. A COW that
will make one pound of butter per day dur
ing six months, and half a pound per day
during two or three months more, is cheaper
at one hundred dollars, than cow that
will do half as much, would be at fifty dol
lars. Poor cows are more plentiful than
good ones; and where little or no attention
is given to improving the stock, good cows
are fast becoming scarcer. If one wants
to find good cows, he has to follow the
track of drover, who is constantly raking
over the country places to supply the
demand of the large towns and great cities.
Thus the farming localities are being con-
stantly depleted. But this would be of no
damage, if the supply was kept up, and
this constant draft replaced with young
stock. Here lies the trouble. Not only
are COWS in demand but calves are equally
sought after. The farmer is constantly
tempted by drovers and butchers, from far
and near, to dispose of his calves. The
majority of them can not withstand the
tlutter of a greenback ornamented with n
large X The choicest calves are of course
selected, and these are generally from the
best cows. Ten dollars is Thought to be
good price for calf four weeks old, and
pays better than fifteen for year-old ami
NAL. So would five dollars bushel be a
high price for potato sets; but few farmers
would be tempted to tear them out of
newly planted hills for that money. But
does he not sell the seed of a valuable crop,
when he parts with his best calves? Many
men say it costs more to raise COW than
to buy one. This is palpably wrong, as
will be seen if they sit down and figure it
out. But if it were true now, it could not
long remain so; for cows must be raised;
and those who raise them must be paid
profitably, or they will not do it. We con-
fess that there is some ground for the idea
that it does not pay to raise COWS, wrong
as it may be, and it lies Just here: The
as it costs as much, and sometimes more,
to feed a poor calf from poor COW, until
maturity, when it probably is worth twenty
five or thirty dollars only, as it does to feed
a good calf, that would make a COW worth
double that money at two years old. There
is actually loss in the operation, and the
farmer is out of pocket, not only indirectly,
but directly, i'll having spent more than he
can get back again. A merchant doing
business thus, would soon find work for an
assignee or the bankrupt court; but such
are the advantages of the farmers occupa-
ton, that he is able to live, and often do
well, in spite of his unbusiness- like meth
DDS. Let him make farming business;
let him calculate and figure out results, as
other men are obliged to do; and it will be
found that there is no operation on the
farm. but pays fair interest over and above
a good remuneration for labor and atten-
ton, if such labor and attention are only
well directed; and most surely will he find
that there is more money in good heifer-
calf, than any butcher could afford to give
him, if he will only give the animal time to
show it. So with a bull calf; if one is to
be raised, select the best. 1t is by a course
of selection, that the present race of blood
ed stock have been built up; as it is by a
contrary course, that the native stock has
been run down. Our "native" stock has
sprung from good sources, and if the best
calves are retained on the farm, there will
soon be better supply of good COWS.
american Agrtculturist.