Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1883-01-06
Stock Raising On Small Farms

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The owners Of small farms, or farm
ers engaged in a system Of mixed
husbandry, says an exchange, often
over-estimate the advantages of stock
raising possessed by those with large
farms who make this speciality. The
latter does possess important advantages
but there are some compensations to
the stock man on small scale.
The man with thousands acres,
herd of hundreds, etc., can have men
employed who will give their whole
attention to one branch of the work,
and learn to do this better than the
average laborer. The large farmer
has advantages in selling. He can
make up one to a dozen carloads of
stock ready for the market; can sort
them to make them sell to the best ad-
: vantage; can have buyers come 70 his
place, or can ship as he chooses. Full
: use at home for two or more stations,
bulls, etc., and the cost of keeping
them counts as little matter. But
the small farmel-he with one hundred
acres for instance-has also his advan-
tages. He can rear and feed few
colts, steers, pigs Or lambs with almost
no outlay for extra labor and very little
perceptible cost of food. He needs
horses for his farm work Often brood
mares serve his purpose equally well,
and the one, two or three colts dropped
each year costs comparatively little to
rear. Cows for home supply of
milk and butter, of course if well kept,
and often there is an abundance of grass
in the pasture for few "young things
and in winter the stalk fields, the straw
stacks, the soft corn, etc., can be eaten
by these, when it might otherwise be
mainly wasted. When feed fails the
large stock grower must have men
whose main business is to feed and care
for the stock. The small farmer car
add the little additional work as O
part of the necessary "chores" an(
scarcely notice the extra time of labor
Of two farmers of the class we ar,
speaking of the one with little extr,
stock" will usually do as much gooc
work during the summer in the field
as his neighbor who "Only keeps COY
or two and enough hogs for his owl
meat"
The small farmer has another advan
tage. 1t seems to be the law of anima
life that the fewer of any sort of an
mails that are kept within a given area
the more healthy they are. We ono
asked large and very successful swim
breeder this question: "What is tn
greatest number of hogs that can /
kept together with the highest percen
age of profit on each ?" To this /
promptly answered: One. The prof
on each hog decreases in proportion
the number were augmented I'll
greater economy in feeding and ma
agment which the larger farmer
feeder may practice may possibly mo
than compensate for this loss of heal
and thrift, but the illustration serv
to show that the advantages are not 9
on one side.
Even for "renter' if he can secu
lease of the land for three or fl
years, a fair degree ofattention to sto
growing will be much better THAI Il
exclusive grain growing, which is
often the rule with this class. v
have known instances in which tv
renters each seemed "to just abo
make a living" but at the end of f
years one would have a lot of live sto
worth few hundred dollars the 9th
has less than when he commenced.