Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-01-17
Tri-County Farmers Institute.
rcoNTINUFp FROM FOURTH PAGE.I

90 dlaTh. All lBlS llu1c lOuI Buiuo udo
been quietly getting up steam, and as be
cow Degins TO catch the animals and
manipulate them for personal inspec-
tiOn. he keeps up running comment
throughout which shows that his
thoughts are wool gathering with ven-
geance AS his enthusiasm increases,
and favorite after favOrite is seized and
its points shown, he gradually becomes
oblivious of everything else but his
flock and his appreciative listener. Then,
with tire in his eye and earneStnesS in
his voice, he asks you if these sheep are
not the first you have ever seen; when,
without waiting for your reply, and
taking it for granted that it will be sat
isfactory, he agrees with you heartily
You can thus, in hundreds of places
find 1.-The very best sheep in the State,
no matter what breeds have been offer
ed for your inspection. Now there can
be no doubt that at least nine-tenths of
these shepherds believe just what theY
claim. and you will find similar faith
among the breeders of every strain OF
stock on the market. Of course, some
body is mistaken, but in such mix of
contradictory beliefs it is by no means
easy to say who is right. We take it,
however, that there is no breed OF
straightly-bred stock now before the
public which is not better than the
scrub, and that the effects of breeding
up in almost any special line must be
beneficial. The breeder has a right to
glory in his entb usiastic preference for
his own stock, and his doing so is mat
lnA cd nfG N FRI q
at large.
1t is hardly necessary to emphasize
the point that the breeder must be act
i've and energetic, and that no business
is carried to the highest success in these
days which is not steadily aud earnestly
pushed. A traffic whicn is justifying
the importation of millions of dollars
worth of breeding animals every year is
not thing in which lOafer or drone
can prottably or even safely engage. To
be up with the times is absolutely neceS-
sary to avoid failure, and nothing but
constant attention to his business will
Keep one there. Active industry supple
mented by courage is most emphaticalli
the price of success in bresding fine stock
and the faint-hearted should keep out of
the competition which is sure to be met
with in any line of fine stock operations
The pluck OF the breeder should be
practically lmitless, If defeated to day,
in the market or in the show ring, he
must be up and at it again tomorrow.
He must learn to wear second or third
honors as serenely as first,and to feel that
life without red ribbons is not necessari-
iy unbearable. If he has a special need
in his flock or herd, no reasonable difficult
ty should be allowed to stand in the way
of securing it. If breeding animal is
wanted which cannot be discovered at
first search.a second and third should be
made, until it is found. The breeder usu-
ally has a model in his eye, for which he
is, consciously or unconsciously, looking,
and if he have the pluck to stick to his
idea he will usually, in the course of time,
by breeding or purchase, reach its frul-
ton. To this indomitable determination
to in some way secure the best, we owe
the perfect animals which annually as
tonish the people who attend the fairs.
Nor should the breeder be in too great a
hurry to obtain results. There is posi-
lively no such thing as rushing the de-
velopment of ALI idea in breeding. All
our choice strains of stock have been
evolved by patient processes OF mating.
and crossing, and experiment, extending
through long years, and sometimes through
the lifetime of the eXperimenter. Indeed
MANY a breeder at death has left his half
developed idea to be mstured by his sue
cessor. FixedneSs of type, which is the
fundamental principle of breeding, can
not be secured with one or two spaSmodic
efforts, but its establishing is a slow and
not unfrequently an unsatisfactory pro
cess. Years may be wasted on some idea
which in the end may prove to have been
a mistaken one; or the idea may have
been all right, and the plan of working 1t
out may have been ill-advised. In either
case the work has to be abandoned, for
an effort in some other direction. There
is no business, perhaps. which calls for
a greater exercise of patience, and none
to which undue haste is more detrimental.
The use of money will of course be re-
cognized as one of the most potent
agencies for the advancement of breeding.
4 good, long, bank account renders the
range of possibilities immense to the man
who is disposed to use the cash to the
limit of its power. And yet money will
not make good flock or herd. Vast sums
are sqandered every year in the vain at
tempt, by the use of money alone, to make
breeding a success. Money becomes a
tremendous power, however. for the
breeding interest when handled by the
breeder of experience, guided by sound
Judgment. 1t is here as fully as any
where else that we get the full force Of
the saying, placing money where it will
do the most good There are plenty of
such places within the reach of the ave
rage breeder, if he can only sufficiently
cultivate his judgment as to enable him
to unerringly find them. 1t is not abSo-
luteIy necessary, though, that means
should be abandoned in order to secure
desirable results. There are plenty of
men in this Institute to-day who have ac-
complished comparatively good things on
very slender capital. The willingness to
use money, and the knowledge h0l0 to use
it, are far more effective agencies than
the handling of large sums in miScellane-
Gus and unstudied purchases. There are
times when it is judicious to pay highly
for choice breeder, and times when such
a policy would be sheer folly. To tell just
when and how to strike with the pocket
book is a study to which too much atten-
ton cannot be given.
1t should be the aim of the breeder to
be thoroughly practical, and as near as
may be clear of visionary and impractical
ble notions. He cannot avoid having his
whims and fancieS, and they are legiti-
mate part of his business as long as they
do not contravene any principle of impor-
tance. Indeed they can often be indulged
to reasonable extent with profit-but it
requires no little discretion to properly set
their limits. Those who make everything
subserve a notion of no real consequence,
not only run the risk of deteriorating their
stock, but of obtaining most unenviable
reputation. 1t is a serious calamity to a
breeder to become known as flighty or
impractical, and he is in danger of get
ting just such name if it is believed
that he is ready at any time to sacrifice
merit for fancy. For every man who buys
1. fpr-