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

it is the first channel into which manu-
featuring capitalists turn their surplus
funds. 1t is the business of the farmer,
the merchant. the banker. the gentleman
of leisure Its possibilities, its scope, its
certain future. attract people of enterprise
aS little else attracts them.
And is it any wonder? Breeding is
giving US the finest domestic animals on
the globe Through it We obtain the nim-
ble-footed thoroughbred and the trotter,
the pride of anation which loves the sad
die and the carriage, and which turns to
the horse as its first source of recreation.
1t gives us the muScled mountains of
horSefleSh, whose strength is only eQualed
by its gentleneSS, and to which the heavl-
est draft work the worlds industries re-
quire is mere bagatelle. 1t has partial
ly furnished us, and many think, will yet
produce IN greater perfection, that half
mythical creation, the gensral-purpose
horse which the farmer is to one doy
have, which is to be equally at herne in
the carriage or in the plOw. To breeding
we owe such development of bovine rib
and quarter as produce the most luscious
of beef In what would once have been
considered.an incredibly short space of
time, and with minimum of cost and
waste. We owe to it a tactical develop
ment in our cattle which has made it
possible for COW to furnish her own
weight of milk in a month and of butter
in year. Breeding produces swine
which, at twelve months, outweigh the
rooters of our fathers day at twice that
age, and whose toothsome flesh causes
one to forget that pork has been consid-
cred the most unwholesome meat the
cuisine affords. From breeding We get
an excellence of clothing material sought
for by the best looms erywhere-the
golden fleece" which has given the Ohio
valley name wherever wool is spun
and fabrics woven. The fine stock
awakening Is converting the erewhile
worthless wild cattle of the plains Into
the most valuable beef animals, and
its influence is filling the desert wastes
of our old Biographies with a prosper
Gus, stock raising people. 1t is furnish
ing our railroads with large per cent
age of their traffic, is staple supporter
Of our steamship connection with the
Old World, is figuring largely in the
value of the exports from which such
handsome returns are derived, and is
piling up untold wealth in the individu
al cOmmonwealths which make up the
Nation we are all proud to know leads
The world in the products of the farm.
All this and much more has the i'm
provement of live stock done fer this
country but that still greater future
lies before fine stock breeding is doubt.
less the belief of every one present.
Much has been done. but much more
remains to be done. II the breeder has
heretofore been d useful citizen, his use.
fulDeSS hereafter must receive a great
impetus from the unprecedented stir
ring up of fine stock interests now going
on. If he who causes two blades of
grass to grow where one grew before is
d benefactor to his race, the man who
covers our farms with finely formed
domestic animals certainly deserves
popular commendatien.
The edict has gone forth that the
scrub must go. There is kind of in.
ternecine fight among breeds and breed.
ers, but the tendency of it all, even if
not explicitly directed against the scrub,
is toward its ultimate reduction to an
Insignificant showing in our stock rails.
ing totals. In these days of pampering,
record straihing and red-hot competi'
tion, attention is largely diverted from
the fact that, no matter how it al turns
out, native stock, though not mixing in
the quarrels, is the principal sufferer.
Would that all this meant the ultimate
extinction of the scrub. To believe that
it does, requires stretch of faith to
which none of US. perhaps. are equal.
But be that as it may, we can all accord
to the fine stock breeder the need he
has deserved and won as one of the most
important contributors to the material
prosperity of the United States of
America