The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1884-07-26
" Farm TAlks. y

The veteran journalist, Ben: Perley
Poore, writes thus pleasantly under the
head of Farm Talks" in the American
Cultivator:
Reading this morning the report OF
some eulogistic speeches made at cat
tie show, il occurred to me that the peo-
pie of New England do not appreciate
the many obligations to the farmers,
the pomologists, and the gardeners for
the additions they have made to the
comforts of social life.
Three hundred years ago the inhabit-
ants of this region subsisted by hunting
and fishing. Their meats were the
flesh of the moose, the deer, the wood
chuck, and the squirrel. Fish, includ-
ing salmon, was then more abundant
than it now is, as dams had not barred
our streams, or the waste of factories
poisoned their waters. There was no
fruit, unless it may have been very
tart crab-apple. Nuts of different kinds
were abundant. Indian corn, which
was about the only agricultural product,
was not indigenous, but had been
brought from the South, and with diff
Guilty coaXed to rlpen III a northern lat
itude The aboriginees plucked the
earliest ears with the husks and braided
several of them together for the next
years crop. The soil was scraped to-
gether with the shoulder blade of a
moose, forming a hill in which the corn
was planted on an elwive or some other
small fish as fertilizer.
Cattle, which were known to the In
dams, now exist here in every variety,
and the best of all varieties. We have
the Short Horn Durhams, which COM
bine the qualities of abundant milk, of
easy fattening, of early maturity, and of
docility In the yoke we have the Dew
ons, an ancient race, brought by the
first settlers of the New England coast,
and fitted by their milking qualities
for the dairy, by their delicate flesh for
the slaughter-house, and by their quick
ness, for farm work we have the Ayr
shires, copious givers of milk, strongly
inclined to butter, with forms fitted for
the butcher; we have the Attorneys and
the Jersies, charming pets for fancy
farmers, with their rich milk, itself a
cream and then we have the Dutch or
Holstein cattle, the Her efords, the Gal
loways, and half-a-dozen other fancy
breeds, while some of the good qualities
of every breed have gradually impreg-
mated the old fashioned native stock.
The excellence of our cattle is due to
the farmers. By judicious crossing ami
mails are created who convert into milk
or beef whatever we may give them !;
who give an abundance of milk if milk
is wanted, an abundance of fat if beef
is desired, and who, coming earlier into
the dairy or the market, save whole
years expense of feeding.
When we come to hogs we wonder
how the Indians ever existed without
them, although our Hebrew friends do
not eat any portion or product of the
aunclean" animal. They also have been
greatly improved by careful breeding,
and Col. Worcester, of Lincoln, has rem
dered them immortal by his reports on
them at cattle-sbows. He has estab-
lished the fact that pigs are happy
people. City folks may talk dlsparag
ingly about living like pig. To live
like pig is to live like gentleman.
Although it is not permitted by the or
der of Nature that pig should laugh, or
even smile, he enjoys the next blessing
of humanity-the disposition to grow
fat. How easily he goes through the
world He has no fancy stocks to buy,
no bank-notes to pay, no indignation
meetings to attend, no political assem-
blies to hold He has no occasion to
take the benefit of the bankrupt act, or
TO have his estates confiscated to defray
the expenses of the settlement. Free
from all the troubles that disturb the
busy world, he is as unconcerned among