The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1881-11-18
Earnlers' Column.
Speed the PIOpU.o
Poor Stock.

Many farmer is kept poor by keeping too
much stock. He would be prosperous If the
stock was of the right kind. 1t does not paw
| to keep cows through the winterithat are dry
pretty much all the time. 1t does not pay to
| keep over 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 de-
| sirable property either. Their fleeces are not
worth waiting for, and their mutton is called
such only by courtesy. They are of mouse
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 allow
ed on farm. No business man ever expects
to make Roadway against competition by
holding stock of goods that is of inferior
value and out of fashion and q 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 footing in the produce mar
ket He never can get good milk, good but
ter or good beef from poor runts of creatures
whose existence comes under the head of &C.
cident rather than design. Superior stock is
the only kind an enterprising and thrifty far
mer can afford to keep.
when COWS show beyond q question that
they cannot give milk enough nor milk good
enough to pay for their support and yield q
liberal profit besides, it is time they were
disposed ofon almost any terms that will
clear them off the farm. 1t is the same
with all creatures that are an incumbrance OH
the farm instead of profit let them be put
OIL without delay. and let the so.called senti
ment in the case be eradicated by healthier
considerations ofwhat constitutes thrifty and
profitable farming. If it were really made
so, we should soon see an end of dawding,
routine, traditional, and listless farming, and
the infusion of q vigorous element such as
moves the world of business and carries life
and activity into every department.
There are, ofcourse, many ways in which
a farmer can trace the sources of his unpros-
porous condition; but the practice of keep
ing on hand, summer and winter, lot of
practically worthless cattle-for all cattle are
worthless that are rot profitable-ist the moth
and the canker that is surely eating out his
substance. 1t is simply question of time
how soon he will succumb, for to be acknowl-
edged hopelessly poor is submission. We
repeat, no farmer can afford to keep inferior
cattle; Il rich man may afford it, and charge
his Indebtedness to within or delusve bencyo-
lence but the farmer who has his living to
make OFT his farm cannot afford it, not indeed
can he afford to keep any kind of cattle but
the best He owes it to himself to clean out
that is trash and worthless, and
begin and build up on sound basis The
more poor stock he keeps, the poorer he is
in consequence himself.