The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-09-13

fnd West Chester, Orange and above
ali Pullman county, holding all the cat
tie they can support, q even 3
plus which is provided Q 0y a I'M
nortation of food from other districts.
There the soil is rich, q the crops
large and constantly increasing. In
New England, Central New York, and
the Southern States we meet with ex-
actly the opposite condlClons. Live
stock ii scarce, the land is becoming
increasingly exhausted, and the crops
less year by year.
four Of the most advanced nations or
Europe. and the United States IN this
respect. The farm quadrupeds OF the
l United States by the census OF 1880
were18O, 500, sci. The farm ~quadrupeds
of Germany, France, Holland and Bel
GUM are 119, 572, 1923, or about two
| thirds those of the United States. Now
let us glance at the req available Tor
the sunport of this stock. The United
States Excluding Alaska) has S,025, 900
square miles. while Germany, France,
Belgium and Holland have together
but 436 251 square miles, or one seventh
of the United States g On not
more than one-seventh of the land they
support two thirds of the live stock.
All the better parts of Europe contrlve
to maintain and even increase the Ter
tility of the soil, whereas most OF our
soil that is kept under cultivation Is
constantly deteriorating. In America,
therefore, the dangerof 0 exhaustion
is much more iminent, and but for the
great stretches of as yet unused virgin
soil, this process would go on With
- - I~r%-aY~0As-n NraNrrscaz
It is not to be inferred that stock
take nothing from the soil, it is only
claimed that they return in manure
most of what they take, and it is only
the milk, the wool and finally after
years of life, the carcass which is lost
to the land. The vegetable crop, car
ried off to market, leaves scarcely q
trace of compromising advantage for
the excessive drain IN the soil.
But valuable as stock is, we cannot
keep stock for manure alone. Our AMI
mails must be of a breed that will bring
q profit in themselves, and in addition
leave the manure as a NEAR of a
further profit from the vegetable yield.
If we keep horses, we must discard the
poor race that will bring $50 to $40,
and secure that which viii return 500
and upward per head. If cattle, we
must drive out the unimproved scrub
which after four or five years keep at
tains a weight of 900 pounds or 1,00C
pounds, and sells at II to 2 cents pei
pound, and introduce those which al
two years old will weigh 1 600 pounds
to 1900 pounds and bring 4 to 5 cents
per pound in the market. So with the
milking breeds. We must abjure the
COW that demands much for her bodily
support and yields little milk or butter
We must select the one whose frame
is easily and cheaply maintained anC
which gives a generous flow of mill
when fed with a hberal}and iudicioul
hand. So with sheep, swine and poul
try. It is only the good that it Is profit
able to keep.
; But improved stock means the neces
sity for increased care in its manage
ment. The farm quadrupeds of tn,
: United States were estimated 10 thu
census of 1880 at 81, 500, 600 900. 1
, this were all improved stock, the est
mate might well be doubled Then i
this stock were increased as it ought
| for the benefit of our soil, what an en-
ormous capital it would represent.
Even as it is, the loss from prevent
able diseases is very great. To nam,
one or two: IN horses roaring is not I'm
commonly seen in the sire, and thu
foals have their value destroyed by in
, heritance of the same infirmity. Tn
. shallow, weak chest that predisposei
to heaves is constantly devoted to breed
ing; practically to breeding heaves
The faulty forms of the limb that give
rise to sprains, splints, spavins, ring
bones, sidebones, n~avicular disease anC
a host of others should equally be de
barred from the stud.
In many ~preventible diseases, the
restriction and extinctiono of the diseasc
is no less for the benefit of man than 81
the animal, of this tuberculosis is
prominent example. In Europe anC
In our Northern States about every
seventh person dies of tuberculosis
And tuberculosis in man is largely de
, rived from the bovine domestic animal
It has been well said that we have be
come virtual parasites of the cow. We
drink her milk, eat her butter anC
cheese, wear her hide use her hair liz
~plRstering ourhouses, devoted her bowels
to musicaland surgical uses, and finally
eat her carcass bodily. In this unmitI
gated devotion to the COW we afford
her ample means Of conveying to uE
her all too prevalent germ of tubercu
losis. This germ-the bacillus tubercu
losis-is the one essential cause of the
disease, without which the disease can
not appear any more than wheat car
grow without a seed. Tt has been agar
and again conveyed experimentaIly
through the infected meat and milk,
and this even where these were SUP.
posed to have been sufficiently cooked.
This bacillus is unusually resistant oil
heatandother causes of its destruction.