The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1891-11-06

and if you have plenty Of this all
through the season you can have
them ready for early fail market al
most wholly without grain. You can
make them weigh 200 pounds at eight
months in this way, aud it will be the
cheapest pork that you can possibly
produce, much more profitable than
heavy grain fed hogs for the winte
market ever are. One point toward
re aching this end in good shape is to
have a good boar. Do not mind g
few extra dollars if they are'necessary
to procure. the best.
At the Southern Minnesota fair,
held in September last, was shown 3
nerd of HOlsteinS that was right in
line with what this paper has Away
advocated for show cattle; that is
they were not pampered and made
over fat and smooth on purpose fol
exhibition, but were in condition for
farm stock, showing that they were
cared for just as every good farmer
can and should care for his stock all
the time. This is the only condition
in which farm animals should ever
be admitted as competitors for prizes
at our fairs. 1t is perhaps needless
to say that these were shown as dairy
stock. One heifer in the herd gave
40 pounds of milk per day when &c
months old, and one cow had u record
of rs pounds OF milk per day, while
another had a record of 1719 pounds
of butter in four days. This shows
the fact that the omission of "frilS''
did not interfere with their being
good cattle. The purpose of our ex-
hibitions of live stock should be only
to show the same in good practical
working condition.
During a recent walk in the coun-
| try it occurred to us to stop at every
farm house where we saw a flock OF
fowls and ask two questions: One
was as to the cost of keeping one hen
one year the other was as to how
many eggs the hen would produce in
| that time. 1t is perhaps needless to
say that we did not get satisfactory
| ans Wer to either question. 1t IL
| probably not too broad an assertion
| TO say that not one farmer in one
| thousand knows how much it costs
him to keep his entire flock OF poul-
! try, much less the expense for sin
| gle fowl. y slight percentage keep q
record of the eggs, but not often suf-
! ficiently definite 10 show the average
yield of each hen. Conducting the
! business in this fashion, they have,
of course, no very clear idea whether
! it is profitable or not. The average
estim ate of the cost of keeping a full
grown hen is 81 per year for the grain
! feed, no estimate being made OF the
value of pasture, sc APPS, expense oil
! housing aud labor of caring for them
| At this estimate it would require al
least 10 dozen eggs at an average
price of ID cents per dozen to give any
satisfactory profit from any ordinary
flock. Farm flocks do not average
such production as this, and where
grain is given without IN assuring or
being accounted for in any way, the
cost is probably much more than that
given in the foregoing. Especially
Is this true in the North, where they
have no outdoor range for several
months, and the easiest way to feed
them is by throwing out a liberal
quantity OF grain from the grain bins
three times a day. We would strong
Iv advise a more careful accounting
i'm this matter, both as to cost OF feed
ing and production. We believe II
would generally result in reform OF
methods, procuring better stock, or in
reducing the flock to such dimen
sions as would suffice for home use.
Fruit growing upon a large scale,
aud as distinctive commercial en-
terprise, is beginning to attract much
attention. The use OF fruits of all
kinds is Increasing SO rapidly that
the fear of over-productiou-o the
bug-bear of any who contemplated
planting on a large scale--has almost
wholly passed away. In the place
of that we have come to see that the
fruit producer who operates on a
large scale, and who applies business
methods to the work of marketing, is
IN q better position to sell his crops to
advantage than Is the small grower