Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1886-02-19
Farm and Household.
sTOcx-sstEuIxG VS.. sHAIH RAISING.

A farmer VINO lOf u lOuS OVAh "a
wears has good paying crop four
seasons out of five may consider
himself in average luck, and this
fact has induced many to turn their
attention from grain-growing to
dairy farming. Though the prices
of butter and cheese are subject TO
very wide fluctuations, it is not
often that a farmer, having once
embarked in dairy-farming, ever
goes back to the growing OF grain
for market. In view OF the present
demand for beef cattle, however, 1t
seems somewhat surprising that a
great number of farmers do not
turn their attention to stOck-breed'
ing. Beef is a commodity with
which it would seem impossible to
elut the market. AS the quality
improves the consumption increas-
es, and if its prices decline percept-
IDLY, it straightway begins to take
the place of some other staple artl'
Gle of food, so that its consistency
is Immediately and in most cases
permanently rendered broader.
Why is it that farmers will year
after year 60 on cropping their
farms to death and reaping very
meagre returns till they or their
children are driven into other lines
of business, while the Old home
stead is reduced to all but q desert,
is difficult to determine. The es-
tablishment of cheese factories has
done much to correct or rather les
sen the tendency TO OvercrOpplng,
but even dairy farming is not so
well calculated to restore land to a
state of fertility as is stOck-raising'
The manure from a herd OF cattle
amply compensates the land for all
that the cattle can by an possible
means take from it, while experience
has always shown that those farms
whose only marketed product Is
live stock steadily increase in fer
tility.
The result of grain.farming and
stock.farming may be summed up
as follows: The grain iarmerspends
his energies in getting all he can
out of his land during the short
space intervening between the be-
ginning of springs work and the
end of harvest, or perhaps he may
have a few acres Of wheat, which he
sows in the fall, and after sprout-
ing waits till the advent Of spring
to renew its growth. In any event,
his farm lies unproductive during
the greater portion of the year,
while his taxes, the interest on his
investment and his family and
household expenses are going on
all the time. And with all this his
farm is every day becoming less
productive.
The stock. breeder has his work
at his hand the whole year around.
Some fields must be cropped with
coarse grains for winter feed, and
these are more than fertilized by
the product of manure every year.
These fields have to be cultivated
by farmers, but his pasture land
only requires cultivation at long
intervals, while, as for the rest Of
the work, the herd manures the
land, reaps the crop, ana carries 1t
to market. The crop of the intelli-
gent and thrifty stOckiarmer Is
growing from the LIST Of January to
the 3lst Of December, night and
day, hour by hour increasing IN
value, while every year sees his
farm more productive and his breed
ing herd more richly bred and val
liable.
1t Is not necessary, for the farm
or of small means who would turn
attention to daiGyirg to have herd
Of Jerseys, Holsteins or Friesians
to start with. Let him who wOuld
breed beef cattle make a beginning
with what he happens to have, and
improve his herd just as rapidly as
his means allow him to do so. In
The far Northwestern Territories
some full bIOoded and pretty thor
oughly nncivilized Indians are
wealthy stOck-Owners, and there
are certainly few Canadian farmers
who are not in a position to make
as extensive beginning as they did.
-EEchGRge.