Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1891-12-19

many NhAtiS Ou NiiN NhiSdEO lIdi hCbo
that a bunch Of second-rate, three
year-old steers averaging 1900 pounds
and upwards, sent forward from this
county, brought bat 3bc. pound live
weight, AS for hogs, the best do not
command over 3Ic. at the farm, and
as for horses, the average specimen of
common stock, though sound, sells
for little more than Fat steer of
the same weight. Now consider
that this market stock has been fed
and fatted on soc. to zoe. corn, and
the horses on clover and timothy hay
worth $40 TO So ton, and it is plain
there is little or no profit in stock
raising, feeding and tattening. Such
are the main causes why so many
stockmen are shifting from stock
farming to the cereals.
The above, however, does not tell
the whole story, and many, no
doubt, think | ought not to tell it.
For the past three or four years, and
especially this and the year before,
the blue grassland timothy-pastured,
mOderately.fed, corn-fed cattle sent
forward from the Illinois prairies to
Chicago, have not been equal in fat
and flesh to the best grass-fed steers
Of the western aud southwestern
ranches. 1t is common complaint
with aged and experienced sock
feeders, that the grass of these later
days, though not at all deficient in
quantity, has no such capacity for
tieshing up and fattening as it had
thirty years ago; nor does any crop
cattle can be fed or grazed upon equal
a wide range of good upland prairie
grass, for bringing them into high
condition at rapid rate. These
changes are mysterious ones to the
average stockman, and will be until
he apprehends the truth that cOntinu-
ed cropping, even of grass, lessons
the fertility of the land, and that
lands less fertile produce crops less
nutritive and lay on less fat and
flesh, and therefore comprehends that
restoration by the use Of fertilizers Is
essential for the growing Of the fast
Notwithstanding grasses.
And by the way, while on the sub
ject of the failure Of the grasses, l am
reminded of a certain kind relation
which appears to exist between
timothy and common red clover, and
I illustrate it in this way: Choose
two fields of equal crop fertility, SOW
the one with the usual amount O
timothy seed and the other field with
the same quantity, with five to ter
per cent. ofred clover added; the
yield of timothy sown with thu
clover will be considerably larger Cir
addition to the clover in growth
and amount, and heavier in weigh
than where the timothy has the
: monopoly of the land. 1t seems
from this that the germs developed
. on the clover roots assist the timothy
and thus endorse the new doctrine 0
l plant nutrition.
l The local market for native pro
I ducts exhibits some anomalous fea
l lures. Thus, Irish potatoes, though
4 a partial failure hereabout, come il
D on the cars so abundantly that cal
= load lots sell for 80 to 50 cents bush
ell, and apples, scarce for homegrown
can be had for 81 (. o. b. barrel, b
= the hundred barrels. Chicago is flu
g of apples, the best coming from Per
h nsylvania, and the Blue Ridge i
g Virginia, Missouri and Kansas frui
:. not sustaining the reputation of las
r year, nor Michigan and New YOr
: that of former seasons. Good countr
!, butter is in demand at 80 and 8
r cents the pound, and the supply {
q milk and eggs is so far below the ca
o for them that new-laid of the latte
o are worth 80 to IS cents a dozen, an
the best of the former sells for
Il cents quart.
10 The crop of poultry is short on
n and its condition far below the ave
J, age of former years. In all my life
z l have never seen as many blue, thu
r is, thin fat-and-heshed turkeys 6
e this autumn. The fall weather hi
% been dry and pleasant and there
: no end of corn fields for turkeys
feed and run and riot on, wide rang
and unlimited corn being the asser
tials for large fat fowls. PerhaI
the uprightness of the cor
stalks and therefore the difficulty (
getting at the grain, may account fC
the blue color in the dressed bird