The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1875-02-05
Second Best are Very Good.

Second Best are Very Good.
A great many stock breeders go on
raising very inferior animals year after
year, because they have not The means
to purchase fancy animals at fancy prices
to breed from. They have not the
means to purchase $4,000 heifers or
$50. 200 bulls; aud so they buy nothing
and keep on using animals for breeding
purposes that cause their stock to dete-
riorate rather than improve. There is
no necessity, in raising cattle, for run
ming to either extreme. If farmer
cannot have the best stock, there is no
good reason why he should have only
the poorest. In many respects a sort
of middle course is the best and the
safest one.
If man wishes to make money as
breeder of fancy stock, and has the
means to do it, there is no doubt about
the way he should proceed. He should
purchase the best animals to be had,
whether in this country, Canada, or Eu-
rope. In this way he will produce finer
animals than have ever been produced,
and there seems to be no limit to the
prices that stock fanciers will pay for
superior animals. The breeding of
short horns, especially, has become a
sort of elegant pursuit, and men of
means have adopted it, not only as a
way of making money, but of crafty
ing their taste. In England, short
horn breeders from a class midway be-
tween those whose tastes lead them to
study literature, art and science, and
those who give themselves up to pleas
ure.
If, on the other hand, farmer wishes
to improve his stock with a view of get
ting more milk from his COWS and more
and better beef from his steers, it is not
necessary to purchase animals that CON-
mand the price stock fanciers are willing
to pay for them. They can accomplish
the ends they desire in much cheaper
way. In truth, the progeny of $4,000
bull will be too valuable to use for Civ
ing milk or making beef for the butcher.
The bull is too valuable to use on any
thing but thoroughbred amin els, and
for this purpose alone he should be
kept
Farmers can always obtain very good
bulls for the purpose Of improving their
stock at very reasonable prices. Some
times they can obtain them at an almost
nominal price. This is the case when
professional breeders have an ANNA!
that has some slight defect, which
would disqualify it in the eyes of those
locking for the best. Professional
breeders, whose establishments are
tied by buyers, DO not care to keep
such animals in their herds. and are
often glad to dispose of them at almost
any price. The slight defect might dis
appear in the next generation, and it
may not be of a nature to injure the
form of an animal either for giving milk
or for making superior beef.
During the past few years, color has
had much to do in determining the
value of fine stock. Fashion, which is
but another name fer folly, demanded
that a short horn should be rcd in
order to bring the highest price. Roam
| or spotted short horns were worth much
| less to sell to professional breeders,
while white animals of pure blood, fine
pedigiee, and faultless shape could not
be sold at all to breeders. In truth,
the breeders and owners of these white
cattIe did not want them on their es-
tates, for the reason that they gave the
impression that their stock Of fashion
able color we're likely to produce ami
mails whose color vas not fashionable.
They wanted herds of uniform red
color, or at last no further departure
from red than is roam.
Now white cow will give as much
milk as roam ones and white steers viii
bring as much as red ones will. They
are as likely to be good breeders, and
possibly after & few years white may be
the fashionable color for short horns.
Indeed, the prejudice against white as
color for short horns is fast disap-
pearing, and those who bought white
animals few years ago and fed them
properly are now receiving large div
idends on small investments. Some Of
them have very fair herds Of pure
bloods, and large numbers of cattle in
which short horn blood predominates.
We have mentioned these as a few Of
the ways by which farmers of small
means may. by little tact and small
expenditure CT money, improve their
stock. By changing the bull every
second or third year all the evils Of in
and-in breeding may be avoided, and
his change may often be made within
the circuit Of q few miles without the
expenditure Of any money. If one
farmer has not o sufficient number Of
COWS to Justify him IN buying q biooded
bull, then several farmers in the same
neighborhood should unite in the ell
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