Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-01-17

mers engaged In a system of mixed
husbandry, often over estimate the
advantages fer stock raising possessed
by those with large farms and who
make this speciality. The latter do
possess important advantages, but
there are some compcnsations To the
stockmen on IA small scale.
The man with q thousand acres, q
herd Of hundreds, etc, can have men
employed who will give their whole at
tention 20 one branch Of the work, and
learn 10 do this better than heaverage
laborcr The large farmer has adyan-
tages in selling. He can make up one
to dozen carloads Of stock ready for
the market can sort them to make
them sell to the best advantage can,
have buyers come TO his place or cant
ship 40 he chooses. Full use at home
is found for one or more stations, bulls.
etc, and the cost of keeping them
counts as little matter. But tile
small farmer he with one hundred
acres, for instance-has also his ad-
vantages. He can rear and feed few
colts, steers, pigs or lambs with almost
no outlay for his extra labor and very
little pcrceptible cost in food. He
needs horses for his farm work Often
brood mares serve his purpose equally
well, and the one or two colts dropped
every year cost comparatively little to
rear. Cows, for home supply OF
milk and butter, will OF course, be
kept, and often there Is abundance
OF grass in the pasture for a
lew young things and In the win
ter the stalk-ilelds, the straw-stacks,
the soft corn, etc, can he eaten by
,efI, "A
mainly wasted. When feed fails, the
large stock grower must have
men whose main business II IL to feed
and care for tho stock. The small
farmer can add the little additional
work as part OF the necessary
"chores" and scarcely notice the ex
ira time Of labor OF two farmers of
the class we are speaking of, the one
with n little extra stock will usu-
ally do as muck and as good work in
the fields during the summer as his
neighbor who 'only keeps COW or
two and enough hogs for his own
neat.
The small farmer has another adj
vantage, II seems to lac law of ami
maj life that the more are kept
within given area the
less healthy they are. We once
ssked n large and very successful
swine breeder this question; "What
IL the greatest number of hogs that
can hc kept together with the highest
percentage of profit on each ~ Tc
this he promptly answered "One. .
The profit on each hog decreases IN
proportion as you Increase the mum.
her. His idea was that the health
and thrltt of the herd decreased in
proportion as the numbers were aug.
mented. The greater economy of
feeding and management which the
large farmer or feeder may practice
may possibly more than compensate
for the loss of health and thrift, but
the illustration serves to show that the
advantages are not all on one sile.
IL IL not necessary to money making
and deserved success in fine stock
breeding that there should he n large
herd of stock. The late Mr.. Sharp
less, whose Jerseys had n reputation
all over the country, Is said TO have
rarely kept more than half dozen
cows; and ON the Channel Islands
nearly nil the herds are quito small.
In horse breeding, there Is no reason
why n man with three or four may
not takes high rank IA breeder.
Even for renter if he can secure =
lease OF the land for three to five wears,
fair degree of attention to stock
raising Will be much better than the
exclusive grain growing which Is SO
often the rule with this class. We
have known Instances In which tive
renters each seemed 'just about tc
make living,n but at the end OF fiv,
years one would have lot of live stock
worth some hundreds OF dollars; tn,
other have less than when he com,
mencod. -Spertsmdn aud Breeder.