The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-11-24
Live Stock and Prosneritr-

The Juror among rich fancy farmers
for fancy live stock has some absurJities
| about 1t, and yet it is, on the whole ex-
erting an influence very welcome To all
who would see farming advanced mar
ucularly IN the direction Of pleasure and
proht. Not many pursuits are thor
oughly profitable unless they are loved
and enjoyed, and the breeding of i'm
proved stock generally calls out man :
admiration and makes him sometime of
an enthusiast. He likes to handle TO
| look ut 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 inanimateobiect.
A farmer may put up-a house or a barn
that may be his pride, or Law out and
plant lawn that always pleases. and
! yet he cannot pet it rs he would an ami
NAL beautiful in form and colorand 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 il 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. Ii everything Is humdrum,
if there IS little to relieve the daily mo-
notony, lots of hard work, fewholidays,
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 10
get Discontinued with farm life. to com
pare it with other pursuits, and to vow,
perhaps, TO 90 to the city as soon rs pos
sible, ''where something Is going on
To learn a trade. be a clerk, keep books,
be an editor. a professor, preacher or
a politician? 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 iudicious treat
ment. And he will find improved stock
4 great aid, and especially if he viii
allow the boys 70 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 viii swell Just as rap
idly rs other stocks increase Nowork
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
telt +hars,
The constant and rapid increase Of manu-
features, in addition 10 other causes. in
creases the number of consumers in
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 manures are of
great value, butnothing can permanently
take the place of stable manure.
He is n 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
rs the mass of farmers cannot find it to
Duy, they must make it or 90 without
To 90 without, or make it only in the old
way Ga few animals to several hundred
acres, means little or no increase Of fer
tiiity, no increase of home comforts, no
better education for the children, no en-
HANGED attractions to farm life. The
burden that dairymen formerly brought
TO the farmers wife and daughters is
now relieved by the creamery; the farm
er's own burdens. if increased IN 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 pasturing must give way TO the
necessity for more stock, and with that
farming becomes far more 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
man who owns and runs a farm should
be a manager rather than the head work
man merely.
The idea that the owner of a farm
must of necessity 'shold the plow or
drive, p" ordo both, is a mistake natural
enough to be made, perhaps. in view of
what farming has been, or even what il
is and must 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-
pies and capital to farming. 1t is not
good business, for instance, 10 keep
COW and not know what she is worth in
milk and butter, nor what it costs to
keep her, nor 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
grandfather raised it therefore Won
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 foolish notion -
SO It is not good business to let ones
farm run down in fertility on the ground
that manure is lacking and that it cannot
be bought profitably. The way IN do is
TO keep stock. If the necessary capital
is really wanting, it may be a lame.
lowed, but it is not business farmino nv
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 at
all. 1t is the force of old habits. nreir-
dices, dislike of change, mental inertia,
or conceit.-C Cor. n T. 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 until
the weapon was discharged. After that
his snakeship offered no further OBJ
jections.
"A farmer who has tried it saws tur-
keys will lay on more fat in two weeks
when confined in a comfortable pen than
they viii in four when suffered to ram