Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-04-25
TaTt4 4#trfsets,
Incentive to Live Stock Breeding.

w law tS0ONA
Cor. COUNTRY GENTLEMEN: With
those farmers who have depended
mainly upon the growing of grain
for sale, the past year or two has tried
their fortitude pretty thoroughly. 1t
matters not how much skill they
bring to bear in growing crop of
wheat or oats, the grain is self-limited
as to any power within itself to inn
prove itself. The grain-grower is al
so powerless, no matter how high a
rate of skill he possesses, to bring the
quality of his product to a higher
standard than that possessed by the
grain grown by the most ignorant
Dane or Pole who farms similar land.
He may fatter himself that his care
full study of the subject of grain-grow-
ing for market, his special effort to
procure good seed, his care in har-
vesting at the right time, in taking
the crop through the sweating pro-
cess, and in every other way treating
it with the most jealous care, will
naturally insure at least crop some
what superior to the average. He
thinks that skill and intelligence
entitle him to this reward. But, after
he has loaded a car, let him examine
half a dozen cars, made ready to go
forward by the same train, and he
may find carloads, grown by ignor-
ant, plodding men, that are fully the
equal of his own.
Grain.growing has always been
somewhat of a game of chance, the
outcome depending in SO large de-
gree upon the elements. This un-
avoidable feature so greatly governs
success, that all large cities quite
regularly, and insignificant cities to
quite a degree, have-shall we say
Observation-Disclosures" who put up
stakes, not on the probable outcome
of intelligence and skill, as these are
brought to bear upon a given crop,
but upon those climate changes and
vicissitudes that are altogether be.
You'd human skill to affect. AS
grain.growing for use off the farm
where grown pays but a meagre profit
after you charge up everything that
, rightfully belongs in the category of
necessary expenses, adding the
dlain upon soil substance to these,
there is hardly warrant for the eX-
penditure of much study or brain
work by those who incline to study,
and have more than very moderate
amount of brain force to eXpend upon
any enterprise.
How can farmers do better? The
answer is not difficult to find. Study,
and the intelligent brain force that
stands at the head of many farm,
where now no profit is made, will, il
expended upon the breeding and de-
velopment of some one or more of the
better classes of farm stock, bring d
satisfactory return. In this field there
is ample scope for the best intellect
and judgment, and the man who
finds himself competent to eliminate
defects from a collection of improved
domestic animals, implanting in
stead distinctive features of a high
order, will get rewarded for his work
Under these circumstances he is il
sense in competition with the class o
minds that are entirely competent Il
send forward a careload Of wheat TIT
equal of any that his most painstak
ing efforts may enable him to pro
duce. 1t may be answered to thi
that improved farm stock is slow o
sale. This with suitable qualifica
tons, is true; but note the fact tina
the best are usually wanted at good
figures, even when the times are dull
and business in general depressed
This is especially true of horses hav
ing superior merit, regardless of tn
line of usefulness in which they ar
wanted. 1t is none the less true G
the better qualities OF meat-producin
animals, and as these are "the powe
behind the throne" as a means {
sustaining our best breeding flock
and herds, it is clear that we cannC
have the one without maintainin
the other as the fountain head.
A good many men have hesitate
to act upon the very wisest of a
plans, namely, to curtail the CROWN
of grains, seeding to grass instead
under the delusion that the apparent
ly high prices asked for certain classe
of breeding animals were based upo
something that would not last an