The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-12-18
Stock Poor.

MANY farmer is kept poor by keep.
ing too much stock. He would be pros
porous if the stock was of the right
kind. 1t does not pay to keep cows
through the winter that are dry pretty
much all the time. 1t does not pay to
keep over a lot of lean and fractions
steers in the expectation that they will
make good working cattle by waiting
long enough. All such animals should
be sold to those who have more food in
store than their present poor owners. A
miserable and melancholy lot of no.
breed sheep constitutes no more desira-
BILE property, either. Their feeces are
not worth waiting for, and their mutton
is called such only by courtesy. They
are of no use to farmer but to help
keep him poor.
Good stock, superior stock, pays for
itself all the time. A herd of cows is
well worth wintering that will pay in
milk and butter many times more than
the cost of their keep. No other kind
ought therefore to be allowed on farm.
No business man ever expects to make
Roadway against competition by holding
a stock of goods that is of inferior value
and out of the fashion; and farmer
ought to observe the same rule, and
carry on his hands no stock that is not
of the very sort to give him good foot
ing in the produce market. He never
can get good milk, good butter, or good
beef from poor runts of creatures whose
existence comes under the head of acct
dent rather than design. Superior stock
is the only kind an enterprising and
thrifty farmer can afford to Keep.
When COWS show beyond a question
that they can not give milk enough nor
milk good enough to pay for their sup
port and yield liberal profit beside, it
is time they were disposed of on almost
any terms that will clear them off the
farm. 1t is the same with all creatures
that are an incumbrance on the farm
instead of profit; let them be put off
without delay, and let the so-called sem
timent in the case be eradicated by
healthier considerations of what consti-
tutes thrifty and profitable farming.
This should be the touchstone every
where of good farming. If it were
really made so, we should soon see an
end of dawdling, routine, traditional
farming, and the infusion of vigorous
element such as moves the world of
business and carries life and activity in
to every department.
There are, of course, many ways in
which farmer can trace the sources of
his unprosperous condition; but the
practice of keeping on hand, summer
and winter, a lot of practically worth
less cattle--for all cattle are worthless
that are not profitable-is the moth and
the canlzer that is surely eating out his
substance, 1t is simply a question of
time how soon he will succumb, for to
be acknowledged hopelessly poor is SUBJ
mission. We repeat, no farmer can af-
ford to keep inferior cattle; rich man
may afford it, and charge his indebted
ness to within or delusive benevolence;
but the farmer who has his living to
make off his farm can not afford it, nor
indeed can he afford to keep any kind
of cattle but the best. He owes it to
himself to clean out everything that is
trash and worthless, and begin and
build up on a sound basis. The more
poor stock he keeps, the poorer he is in
consequence himself. = Massachusetts
PIoughmGn. Ael