Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-01-17

and SucceSSIul Ihan Iley ever were UolOTe-
Fully as important as that the breeder
should educate himself, is the matter of
educating the masses to better opinion
of fine stock. In this work ne should lead,
both because it is his interest to do so,
and because he is in position to give his
lessons great force. He stands before the
public as champion of quality and blood,
and is naturally bristling with arguments
to sustain his position. If he is at all
thoughtful and observing. he is always
ready with why and wherefore with
which to convince the doubter. His life
is a series of practical lessons in stock
raising which, in these days of awakening
on this subject, he can impart to large
and eager school of farmers as no other
man can. His experience is practical
endorsement of improvement, and he
cannot, for the good of all concerned,
make the results of experience too public.
Let him talk stock everywhere-on the
farm. iu the market, at the fair, in the
institute, in the newspaper. Let him talk it
to the boys. as we'll as to their fathers,and
always with a traightforwardness which
must convince his hearers. The material
prosperity of the country lies back of all
this, and in thus educating the farming
population in the direction indicated he is
exerting an influence the full measure of
whose effects he can never know.
| But embracing the points referred to,
and many others of which mention might
be made, in one, we might say that all
these things mark the breeder as thor
oughbred in character himself. Without
probity, energy, pluck, patience, self-edu
| I'd faith in his hrlsi-
ness, he is hardly better than a scrub.
Classifying stOckmen in this way, it VIII
| be seen that there is abundant room for
improvement among them, as well as in
the stock which they are doing so much
to improve. There is model breeder, of
| fine stock, as well as a model horse or
sheep and it is genuine missionary work
to get stockmen to measure themselves
up to this high standard. The Belmont
| County Stock Breeders Association has a
liberal proportion, perhaps. of high class
membership; and while efforts are being
made to strengthen each other lndlVldu-
ally in the purpose to push the improve
ment of farm animals, why is it not
in place for the Society to foster the
cult vation of the points which goto make
up the highest type of stockmen? Acting
on this idea, why is it not legitimate for
every such body to have a scale OF char
acter points for its membership, in which
the business virtues shall have such prom
inence that certificate of membership
will be sufficient passport and introduce
ton for the breeder wherever his AsSoci
alton is known?
1t is probably true that no class of bu-
sineSs men are growing more rapidly IN
numbers, in inhuence,in financial standing,
and in the general effects of their work
upon the material progress Of the country,
than those of whom we have been speak
ing. A generation ago they were weak.
scattered and numerically insignificant
band, with no unity of purpose and con-
cert of action, and surrounded by people
who were yet to be taught that stock
raising was science. 1t has not been
great while since they were generally re-
garded as visionary and often as cranky,
while to be held up for ridicule was
very ordinary experience with them.
Their work was fight against blind
prejudice, with overwhelming odds against
them They bought sparingly and ven
tured cautiously, yet were not half as
gingerly in their operations as were those
upOl1 pNtluSo 1OA PotoIOAAta5O.
A herd of imported stock was nine days
wonder, and the man who had crossed
the ocean to buy it was regarded with
something akin to awe. In occasional
districts local pride in good stock was
cultivated, but these were SO rare as to
make no perceptible impression on the
general character of the stock of the
country. There are no doubt Stockmen
here to-day who can remember when in all
of Eastern Ohio there was hardly as much
well-bred stock as two or three counties
now contain.
From this condition of things gradual
change has taken place, though the i'm
provement has been as much matter of
necessity as of choice. A generation ago,
when, for lack Of shipping facilities, the
producers of meat and dairy products ca
tered almost wholly to local markets,
| there was little to stimulate the elevation
| of quality in aarm stock. A foreign de-
mand for our animal p0ducts was as
vet LnknowA: and, as far aS fresh meats
were concerned, the circuit of neigh
borhood or of an adjacent town furnished
the market for the producer. The wool
grower, of course, frequently saw his
fleeceS shipped to distant market, and
an occasional ventureSome drover deliv-
cred Western beef on the hOof in the cities
of the Atlantic seaboard. But the bulk
of the fruits of stock-raiSiug were con-
sumed where produced. This state of
things became modified somewhat as the
the country grew older, the railroad sys
TENS became more elaborate, and the hor-
izon of the markets thereby became wi.
dened A thoughtful man here and there
SAW what was coming, and felt impelled
to improve the quality of his domestic
animals. While the country was slowly
awakening in this matter, the war of the
rebellion came on, and for time over
shadowrd everything else. Its accompa-
/ nying imitation of prices, however. with
its opening of a still wider reach of mar
kets, gave immense profits to the stock
raiser The close of the war was followed
by, IA phenomenal period of railroad build
ing, so linking the East and the West as
to show the former that it was thereafter
to have the hottest of competition in
feeding IFS cities. In those later days of
the sixties any kind of stock could
be sold with profit, and the country rev.
elIed in the returns of the flock and herd.
Then came the great glut. Overproduc-
tion in the States and the opening UP of
stock business on the plains crowded the
markets with stuff which often sold be-
low the cost of production. Through all
this it was noticeable that the few who
produced something choice came out bet
ter than their fellows. The good, though
at that time not always remunerative,
could be sold at some price, while hardly
anything else was decently salable. In
the days of flush money many had begun
TO improve their stock simply because
they could afford to do So Now, when
they saw that they were losing money at
business which they could not afford
to abandon, others, from necessity turned
their attention in the same direction. In
those days of depression many a man.
thoroughly nauscated with stock raising,
parted with all he had. glad that he could