Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-01-12
Stock Raising OH Small Farms.

The owners of small farms, or farm
ers engaged in system OF mixed hus.
bandry. says an exchange. often over.
estimate the advantages for stock rails
ing possessed by those with large farms
and who make this n specially. The
latter do possess imp rtant advantages.
but there are some compensations to the
stOckman on a small scale.
The man. with n thousand acres. q
herd of hundreds. etc, can have men
employed who will give their whole ut.
tcntiOn tO one branch of the work. and
learn to do this better than the average
laborcr. The large farmer has advan-
tages in selling. lie can make up one
To do en- 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 can
ship as he chooses. ut the small farm
cr-hc with one hundred acres, for in
stance-has also his advantages. He
can re1r amt feed n few colts, steers,
pigs or lambs with almost no outlay tor
extra labor and very little perceptible
cost in food. He needs horses for his
farm work. Often brood mares serve
his purpose equally we'll, and the one.
two or three colts born each year cost
comparatively little to rear Cows for n
home supply of milk and butter. of
course. will be kept and often there is
an abundance OF grass in the pasture
for cw ''yomg III ngs.' and in the
winter the stalls fields. the straw stacks.
the soft corn. etc. can be- eaten by
these. when il IN ght otherwise be main
" 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 can add
the little additional work rs n part of
the necessary chores and scarcely
notice the extra time or labor. OF two
farmers oi the class we are speali inc of.
the one with lit O extra stock" will
usually do a. much and as good work
during the summer i'm the fields as his
ncighbor who "only keeps n COW or
two. and enough hogs for his own
meat"
The small farmer has another ad-
vantage. IL seems tO be the law of
animal lie that the fewer of any sort of
animals that are kept within given
area. tho more healthy they are We
once asked large and very successful
swine breeder this question: What is
the greatest number OF hogs that can be
kept together with the highest percent
age OF profit ON each?'' To this he
promptly answered: Zone. The profit
on each decreases in proportion as YOU
increase .he number" His idea was
that the health and thrift of the herI
decreased in proportion as tho numbers
were an gmented The greatereconomy
of feeding and management which the
large iarmer or feeder may practice may
possibly more than compensate for tn s
loss OF health and thrift. bnt the illustra-
ton serves to show that the advantages
are not al on one side.
IL Is not necessary to money making
and deserves success in fine breeding
thatthere should be large herd of stock.
The late Mr.. Sharpless. whose .erseys
had reputation all over the country.
Is sa d to have rarely kept more than n
half-dozen cows; aud on the Channel
Islands nearly all the herds are quite
small In horse breeding. there is no
reason why the man with three or four
mares may not take a high rank as n
overwhelmingly Rural World