The Arizona sentinel., 1888-07-28
IMPROVED LIVESTOCK.
Some Timely Suggestions on the Impor
 tance of Raising Good Cattle.

Some Timely Suggestions on the Impor-
 tance of Raising Good Cattle.
 l do not wish to be understood that
 the general farmer must be breeder
 of thoroughbred stock, but in my opinion he must improve the stock he
 already has, for it is an undisputed fact that the scrub will always bring its breeder and feeder out in debt.
 With our low prices of produce, we must make the land produce all that is possible, and so dispose of the prod uce that it will bring the most money, and know of no better way to accom- plish this than to combine the raising of improved stock with our farming. As proof of this, let us look back to our mother country, old England, with her high rents and taxes, and we find that they were obliged to improve their stock, and with this they have brought their soil up to the highest state of cultivation. In Holland, too, we find them improving their stock in certain lines for untold years. We are told that the people of Holland are slow to adopt new methods, but yet. we find them with improved stock as neces- sity to profitable agriculture. On the little island of Jersey, with her i'm mense population and small area of land from whence to draw her support, they were obliged to improve their stock so that it should subsist on the least possible food and yet produce large amount of butter, hence we have the little Jersey, an animal of very small stature, but yet great butter producer. Our best farmers find it profitable to procure full complement of the latest improved implements and to invest in suitable buildings to shel- ter them when not in use, and why will it not pay to apply the same rule to our stock? If 8 scrub COW per week pays for her keep, and, by the use of thoroughbred sire from some of the dairy breeds, her offspring can be made to produce eight or ten pounds of butter per week, the cross has given us large margin of profit where before we had no profit. The keeper of a dairy herd should thor oughly test his COWS and know whether they are paying him or not, and im- mediately beef the unproftable ones.  January 31 good mixed butchers stock, fat COWS, heifers and light steers, were quoted at $3.40 to 3.75 per hundred weight, that being the best class mar keted from the common stock of our country, and on the same day we found extra good steers, weighing 1900 to 1,450 pounds, quoted at $4.5O to 500 per hundred weight. Here we have difference of about $1 per hundred in favor of the improved stock, and this is not half the story, for the general average weight of the first class is only 800 or 900 pounds. At the heaviest weight and best price they would bring $33.75 apiece, while the grade, at 1,300 pounds and $5 per hundred, would bring $65, or almost double the price of the scrub-a good return for the use of thoroughbred sire. While the price of cattle per pound may and will fuctuate, yet the difference per pound between good and poor cattle will remain unchanged; the same may be said of all other kinds of stock. Generous feeding and care will be found very advantageous in dealing with all animals. find it much more profitable to keep only as much stock as can be fed and cared for well, hav- ing this motto always in view: 'An honest profit for all food consumed" To accomplish this, only finely-bred males should be used. The breeds of stock kept should be those most suit able for the locality and the purpose required. These are considerations which have not received the attention they deserve from our farmers Farmers AdUocGte.