Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1882-02-09
The Dairy and the Farmer.
Every observing man seas in tho


Every observing man sees, in the East
at least, that the future of FARMING
depends upon live stock. 1t is the one
great essential to success, and there are
many reasons that point to an ENLARGE
ment OF the livestock interest. One il
the constant increase in manufacture
ing. A class. of men with abundant
capital look upon manufacturing as the
pest road to speedy wealth and influ-
ence, and, in addition, like it as a busi-
ness, as 1t gives local and social promi-
nence TO be at the head of large num-
bers of dependent men and women. On
the other hand, very large class without
capital, and often without capacity to
save much, drift naturally into the
position OF operatives, because that
brings weekly stipend, and though it
may entail good deal of drudgery they
choose it in preference to farming, which
TO men and women of over-developed
gregarious insticts is about as bad as
prison life. Thousands of raw foreign
ers, also. go into factory life as the best
means for employment that presents
itself until they learn the language of
the country and understand better its
opportunities. Under these and manv
grow rapidly, and they must be fed. 1t
Is the fashion to eat meat in America
and a very good fashion, too, Graham
ism to the contrary Notwithstanding.
To the mass of INDECENT foreigners it
is a new thing to have meat as a COM
mon Or frequent diet. Milk and other
dairy products are also coming more
and more into use, and under this slim
illus and the constant filling up and
occupancy of the Western grazing lands
where, until recently, vast herds were
bred and drawn upon for market, stock
breeding must become more and more
a leading agricultural industry. Enter
prising capitalists with outdoor and
rural tastes see this, and hence it is no
wonder that every agricultural and
stock-breeding publication is freighted
with advertisements of fine stock. OF
course there is some humbug about it,
particularly in those departments where
there is the greatest chance to appeal to
and impose upon the non-practical
sentiments of buyers; but on the whole
it is the most hopeful feature connected
with agriculture. 1t stimulates the
attention OF laggard farmers, awakens
criticism, and educates to better posi-
bilities. 1t is a sort of missionary en-
terprise, by which the moving
farmer of the past is to be infused with
new life and worked over into something
better than q plodder with no other am
bition than to do just as his ancestors
have done before him.
There is also another influence at
work. Rapidly as the towns and cities
are growing, they are utterly inadequate
to supply farmers with the manure nee
essary to keep their farms in a high
state of cultivation. What they do sup
ply is all eagerly seized and appropriate
ed by nearby gardeners and truckers.
and at rates with which farmers can not
compete. With an efficient system OF
largely increased, but that period is as
yet some distance off. Commercialfe fer
tilizers have more or less value, but are
uncertain as to good results, and always
certain to cost heavily. They are evi.
IDENTIFY more valuable to their makers
than to anybody else, though under the
new system of State inspection the
chances for wholesale swindling are
hopefully diminishing. Nothing can be
predicted in advance as to the results OF
a special fertilizer, and hence thousands
of dollars spent in this way bring no
visible return. The common farmer,
then, is obliged to look ut home for his
fertilizers. He must have them or sink.
Stock is the best recourse, and dairy
animals in particular. There is an I'M.
failing demand for them and their
products at paying rates, dead or alive.
The drudgery of dairying is also
greatly relieved of its worst features by
the creameries now so widely established
in favorable localities. The farmer and
his family need only milk the cows and
deliver it promptly at the factory; the
wife and daughters at home are not
obliged to spend their energies and
strength at churning, butter-making, or
cheese making; the factories do 1t, and
at a profit to the farmer over the old
system The taste for blooded or grad
ed stock is spreading among those who
lately sneered at it, and farming is in
consequence invested with new inter-
est. The boy or the man who admires
the fine stock on the farm, and likes to
pet the animals and show them to visit
ors and callers, and is delighted when
he hears them praised, and repeats to
his friends what is said after they are
gone, is not in danger of dying because
of the ennui of farm life. He turns with
q pleasant interest from the cattle to do
something for them. He wants to plant
and cultivate so that he can keep them
well, secure more praise, or prizes at
fairs, or the prize from a good income
of milk, or butter, or cheese, or in sell
ing them at good prices to others who
want to embark in breeding, or even in
selling them to the butcher when that
shall become necessary. Interest boy
or a man in his work and it ceases to be
drudgery.
Even the making of compost, repul-
siye as that may seem to some, loses
most of it's disagreeable features when
we think of the Transforming power
there is in it, the beauty it will evolve
from the soil III fragrant flowers that
charm the senses, in the bright green OF
the verdure it brings, the luxuriance OF