The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-01-07
Make a Start.

The Breeders Gazette makes use of
the old fable of the man who was
condemned to roll stone up hill
all his life, to illustrate the discOur
aging situation so many farmers find
themselves in, and adds: But we
need not go far in these days to find
real. lille, breathing men who seem
doomed all their natural lives to
rolling stones up hill to no profit or
purpose. A good many of them, it
is sad to say, are farmers of seeming
They rise early, work faithfully and
late, and toll and save every day of
their lives, They would rapidly i'm
prove in worldly condition but that
they kept lot of scrub stock around
them to consume, without due COM
pensation. the surplus product of
their labor and self-denial, AS soon
as anything is produced or saved it is
eaten by animals which neither grow
as they ought to grow, get fat as they
ought to get fat, nor give milk as
they ought to give milk. AS soon as
they have eaten out, without profit.
one seasons crops, the blind stone.
rolling farmer bends his back and
tortures his muscles to raise another
crop to 60 in the same profitless way;
and so it goes on as long as he lives
the same dreary round of labor each
year, the same hungry mouths al
ways at his elbow, and the same
striving for food with which to salts
fly their ravenous demands.
H0drd'S Dairynean says if farmers
would only stop to think and figure
up their yearly losses in this wasting
food and hard labor on such cattle,
they could easily see that the only
way to stop this constant leak is to
start at once and buy thoroughbred
sire of the line that suits them best,
either milk, butter, or beef. 1t is
every farmers duty to make the
most money he can. To go along in
an unthinking manner or without
the pluck to make even small start
out of the mire, is crime against
his family and the honor of the pro-
fession he belongs to. If he is MAX
ing cream for sale, or butter in pri-
vate way, it will cost him but little
to buy a thoroughbred Jersey or
Guernsey bull. If he is taking milk
to the cheese factory he can purchase
an Ayrshire or Holstein, If he wants
to gradually turn his herd into beef
production, he can easily buy Short
horn, Hereford, Polled Angus or
Galloway. No matter what he is
trying to make his herd of scrub
cows do, he can easily make their
daughters and grand daughters worth
double what their mothers were.
A clear illustration of this was Civ.
en- US the other day by Hiram
Smith, the veteran dairyman. He
said he had some old grade Ayrshire
cows that had been in his herd for
years. These cows were giving a
beautiful mess of milk and paid their
way. making about a pound and a
quarter of butter a day. He put a
thoroughbred Jersey bull at the head
of his herd and now has grade Jer-
sey heifers from these same cows
that are yielding him pound and
three quarters of butter day. These
heifers, by virtue of the improved
butter qualities they had received
from their sire, were turning out a
half pound more butter day and
consumed less food to do 1t aOith.
Simply because it requires little
outlay at first to buy good sire,
farmers will delay year after year to
make start. This is nearly always
due to lack of business courage. it
takes little pluck, nearly always,
to do that we know should be done,
IN order to save ourselves from loss,