Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-11-27
RAISING LIVE srocx-

SVSON /
s'pae'on That Should be Conducted
strict Business Principles.
All farms that are devoted to live
s'ocS OF some kind have not onlv i'm.
Proved but, as a rule, a profit is "a.
cured 1t the stock on the majority Of
.".'''s as now managed can be made to
.e'utn a fair income above expenses.
now much greater the profits NAV be-
when the stock is strictly fi~rst-class, is
uo' easily estimated. A few months
g special attention was called to alot
OF sheep that had averaged one hun
afed and twenty-five pounds when thew
reached the market, and yet such weight
Is really a light one. But the BUYERS
were sc accustomed to receiving sheen
weighing less than one hundred bounds
each that the special lot referred TO was
oeemed worthy of mention in all the
agricultural journals. The secret; If
success, therefore, in raising live stock.
as a business, is in keeping only the
pest, dlscarding all thatd do not come I'M
TO a certain standard.
With swine the farmers have done
we'll. To their credit it NAV be said
that the best breeds have been general.
ly used, and but few old-fashioned
scrubs are now seen as WIN
twenty years ago; but, although hun
dreds of improved cattle and sheen
nave been introduced into this country.
the progress of Improvement ON the
farms IS slow i'll comparison to what it
should be. though the general average
Is somewhat better than formerly.
The difficulty may be due to the
fact that farmers 10 not look upon
their calling us q business; yet it is a
business as much as the selling of
merchandise or any other vocation.
But few merchants would venture
their capital in an enterprise and ex-
pect to succeed without first c%onsultino
al the conditions necessary to sue
cess, and the first and most import
ant duty they would perform would be
that Of dealing in the newest, latest
and best articles. A merchant who
should endeavor to compete with
Others by %endeavoling to realize a
profit on inferior goods, while en-
failing upon himself the same expense
that would be incurred in buying and
selling goods of q better quality, woulG
be looked upon as being deficient in
business capacity and lacking in en-.
terprise, while time would soon see him
plunged into bankruptcy. Yet. 40
compared with the unenterprisine
merchant, the farmers are doing the
same thing every year, being content
with 81 nominal profit, when by only
changing their system of management
they could easily derive double the
amount. Farming is much safer than
investing in merchandise. as is demon
strated by the fact that they usually
manage to hold on to their farms,
while hundreds of merchants fail an
nually. The farmer contents himself
with raising a steer that does not
weigh as much when four years old as
an improved animal would at half that
age, aud yet he invests as much capital
for labor and food, to say nothing of
quarters and room, on the inferior ami
NAL as he would have to do on the bet
ter n It is not d business method,
and shows q carelessness which is not
necessary. An investment in any class
of live stock should not be for numbers,
but for quality. 1t is much better tc
secure a profit of fifty dollars from one
animal than from two, as the capacity
of the farm is increased by doing as
much business as possible on the small
est possible area. thereby lcssening ex-
penses. If the same results can be at
tanned in two years as in four the cap
ital is %reinvested and can be used to a
greater advantage, A sheen weighino
one hundred and fifty pounds wlen
one year old is worth twice us much as
a sheep of the same weight at w years
of age, for the reason that a years time
is gained. and another animal can be
quartered and fed on the same space.
Live stock are profitable in a great
many ways, but when stock-raising as
a business is conducted strictly on busi-
ness principles our farms will produces
more than double the quantity OF meat
now secured, while the profits will he
trebled. Philadelphia Record