The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-12-02
FOR THE FARM AND FIELD.
USEFUL INFORMATION REGARD
ING FARM TOPICS.
What Is q Crade7--Take Care Of the
Tools--Llmin9 the Stables--
Sheltering the Stock Pays--
Sowing Rye for Pasture--
Short Items.
What Is a Grader

| What Is a Grader
1t is always good plan in making
an argument to begin by defining your
terms. The rule is equally good when
making classification of animals.
1t is especially important that this
should be done when premiums are
to be awarded, for q wrong definition
may give one competitor an unfair ad-
vantage over another. For example,
as an exchange points out, when a
county or State agricultural society
offers a premium for grade COWS and
heifers it is essential that the exhibits
should be graded, and not unregister-
ed, thoroughbreds in order to make
the competition a just one.
The term to be defined is, therefore,
what is a grade? Some stockmen
class all unregistered cattle as grades,
whether thoroughbred or not. And
one case is mentioned in which a we'll
know exhibitor of cattle refused to
have his COWS registered because he
found that he could do better with
them in the grade classes.
This is sharp practice; but it is
more than that-lt is downright de-
ception. A grade is a grade, and q
| thoroughbred does not become grade
simply by failure to register. 1t is a
thoroughbred, not by virtue of regis
tration, but by descent from pure
stock. The simple neglect to keep a
cows record does not make her grade
any more than it makes Jersey a
Devonshire. She may not be eligible
to the pure bred class on account of
loss of record; but neither is she eli
gible to the grade class. She is simply,
through the carelessness or indiffer-
ence OF her owner, outside the pale.
The following definitions, from the
Maine Farmer, very happily state the
limitations of the three classes into
which animals above the scrub class
are properly divided.
A pure bred or thoroughbred ami
NAL is one whose breeding runs back
unbroken on both side, to animals
recorded in the herd book OF the breed
to which it belongs.
A grade is one whose breeding runs
back, or either one side or both, to
the common stock of the country.
"a cross-bred" animal is the Off
spring of a pure-bred sire OF one breed,
coupled with a pure-bred dam OF an
other breed.
Fairness demands that these defni-
tions should be kept in mind and
honestly observed in the awarding Of
premiums at fairs. For if an exhibit
or have the right to put a pure bred
animal in competition with grades, it
may though does not always-give
him very important advantage over
! his rivals. The element of fairness is
Of the first Importance in such
matters. Take that away, and there
is no longer any real value in the COM
petition, and all interest in the con-
test will soon die out. For it is, Of
course, the comparison and not the
premium that gives the competition
it's value. 49,.
| Take Care Of the Tools.
We need make no apology for re-
CURING 5o this subject, for it is one
which Zine upon line, precept upon
precept" is required. The neglect of
farm tools is one of the biggest leaks
next perhaps to the teaching manure
pile-that depletes the resources OF
the farmer. And yet it is one Of the
most difficult habits for farmer to
break himself Of when once it has
settled itself upon him.
There is nothing that so clearly
marks the difference between tidy,
forehanded, thrifty man and one OF
opposite character than this OF the
care of his tools. 1t runs through
every line of business. Some men are
everlastingly mislaying things. A
careless merchant will spend half his
time rummaging for papers he has
failed to put in the proper pigeonhole
A needless carpenter will leave his
saw here and his hammer yonder
and never knows just where his jack
plane orscrewdriver is. And like unto
these is the unthrifty farmer who
negects to bring his pillow from thu
field and abandons his mower o.
. reaper to the tender mercies, like thos'
, of the wicked, are "cruel."
If he wants hoe, he has to spene
an hour or so hunting for it, running
it down at last in the middle Of GOV
field. And the spade-where in tn
dickens is it, anyway? The last tim
he had it was-well, he doesn't right.
remember when or where, but tinall.
| RECEIVERS it, we'll rusted, by the side o
a ditch he was digging last spring
And so it goes. No place for any
thing, and, Of course, nothing ever Il
Now isn't this poor business? It i
} wasetful of time and money, and tn
men who are most addicted to sue
:. folly are the very ones who canno
afford it. Men who are prosperou
3 don't indulge in such extravaganza
for it is by carefully avoiding leaks
}, every kind that they have, in lare
measure, attained prosperity. On
Of he.most economical institutions
t farmer can have is n good tool hous
We described not long ag
), what tool house should be; but
it can be no more than q weath'
b proof shed, in which the tools an
implements of all kinds can be store
# when not in use, so that they will
safe from the corroding elements,