The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-11-23
Live Stock and Prosperity.

lit i lilOnS III 1dlCN 0iAAS
for fancy live stock has some absurdities
about it, and yet it is, on the whole, ex-
erting an influence very welcome to all
t~icularly in the direction of pleasure and
oughly profitable unless they are loved
and enjoyed, and the breeding of i'm
proved stock generally calls out a mans
admiration and makes him something of
an enthusiast. He likes to handle, to
look at and to talk about his stock, and
when that is the case he doesn't see
quite as much of the dark side of farm
ing. An animal. or even a chicken, can
be petted more naturally than a field, a
fruit tree, or any other inanimate object.
A farmer may put up a house or a barn
that may be his pride, or lay out and
plant a lawn that always pleases, and
yet he cannot pet it as he would an ami
NAL beautiful in form and color and with
eyes of speaking intelligence. And the
more things one has to admire or love
about ones home the harder it is to
break from its associations.
On the contrary, poor stock rather
disgusts. We feel no pride in it. 1t re-
fleets no credit upon US, and so it tempts
to more neglect than admiration. 1t
brings neither profit nor pleasure. The
mind wanders off to other things, and
these may steal away ones interest in
his home and farm. This is the danger
with boys. If everything is humdrum,
if there is little to relieve the daily mo-
notony, lots of hard work, few holidays,
few or no pets, and no chance for boy
ish energy or ingenuity to be exerted, no
little ..nest-eggs" of money in view,
what more natural than for the boys to
get disconnected with farm life, to COM
pare it with other pursuits, and to vow,
perhaps, to go to the city as soon as pos
sible, 'swhere something is going on
to learn a trade, be a clerk, keep books,
be an editor, a professor, a preacher, or
a politicianp The farmer who thinks
these longings can be put down by any
word of command makes a mistake. He
had better study into the causes and
try to exercise them by %judicious treat
ment. And he will find improved stock
a great aid, and especially if he will
allow the boys to share in the profits
when they come.
More live stock on all farms is the need
of the hour. There is constantly in
creasing demand for meat, and also for
all the products that come from stock.
Horses are wanted for work and pleasure,
and their numbers will swell just as rap
idly as other stocks increase. No work
people in the world consume as much of
good living as those in the United States.
The working foreigners who come here,
though unused to much meat at home,
soon catch the infection, and improved
wages or incomes from farms of their
own enable them to enjoy the privilege.
The constant and rapid increase of manu-
features, in addition to other causes, in
creases the number of consumers in a
greater ratio than the stock increases.
The opening of new markets in foreign
countries for meat and other live stock
products is also increasing on the whole,
in spite of occasional set-backs. And,
lastly, the farms all need more stock for
their development through the use of
manures. Commercial manure are of
great value, butnothing can permanently
take the place of stable manure.
He is a wise farmer, then, who aims
to supply himself with live stock to the
fullest extent that his capital and his
acres will admit. He needs manure, and
as the mass of farmers cannot find it to
buy, they must make it or go wishout.
To go without, or make it only in the old
way Ga few animals to several hundred
acres,) means little or no increase of fer
tility, no increase of home comforts, no
better education for the children, no en-
HANGED attractions to farm life. Tho
burden that dairymen formerly brought
to the farmers wife and daughters ID
now relieved by the creamery; the farm
er's own burdens, if increasedin amount,
are relieved in part by a greater diffusion
of work through the seasons, greater
variety and greater profits. For his
crops machinery is rendering vast aid,
and, if properly and systematically
handled, his stock soiling points the
way. The wasteful and barbarous sys-
tenn of p%asturing must give way to the
necessity for more stock, and with that
farming becomes far more a strictly
business pursuit than before. Every
thing about farm work will be studied
with more care, and the large haphazard
or happy-go-lucky element eliminated.
When we can get farmers to think more,
to study and plan in advance, to rigidly
note cost and production, how to in
crease the latter and reduce the former,
though his hand work may be less his
head work will be more effective. The
nan who owns and runs a farm should
be manager rather than the head work
man merely.
The idea that the owner of a farm
must of necessity ''hold the pillow or
drive" ordo both, is a mistake natural
enough to be made, perhaps, in view OF
what farming has been, or even what ii
is and u be in many quarters; but
there is something better for the edu-
Gated farmer, or the man who, with a
good education, applies business princi
Piles and capital to farming. 1t is not
good business, for instance, 10 keep a
COW and not know what she is worth in
milk and butter, o what it costs to
keep her, o whether she is annually
improving or deteriorating. 1t is not
! good business to guess at the cost of a
crop, or to conclude that because your
great-grandfather raised it therefore YOU
can wisely raise it. 1t is not good bust.
ness not to know what are the annual
!, sales and expenses, nor to sheer at an
annual inventory as a s.foolish notion
So it is not good business to let ones
farm run down in fertility on the ground
that anu is lacking and that it cannot
be bought profitably. The way to do is
10 keep stock. If the necessary capital
is really wanting, it may be a lame,
wretched sort of farming which is fol
lowed, but it is not business farming by
any means. know very well that many
a man is unable to follow his ideal Of
what a business duty is, but in thou.
sands of cases this is not the reason a
all. 1t is the force of old habits, preju.
= dices, dislike of change, mental inertia
or conceit.-Cor. N. Y. San.
!. "A man of Berks County, Pa, while
! hunting, laid his gun upon the ground
; A rattlesnake crawled into one of the
barrels and refused to be dislodged unit
the weapon was discharged. After tina