The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1894-03-10

What In known as the "Average
Farmer' Chemical DehOrning -
Teaching Calves to D~rink-Notes.
1t is curious to note the varying est
mates that seem to be placed by the
other professions on what is known
as the average farmer" Just prior
to election he is a. patriot. the bone and
sinew of the country, the great conser-
vative force that keeps the government
from going to wreck and ruin. The
rest of the season he is regarded as a
GROWER, whom nothing seems to suit.
The weather is too hot O. too cold,
the season too wet or too dry: either
the prices are too low or the crops too
small. and so ON until the next cam
paign opens.
1t is always safe, however, to judge
a class of men by the work which it
performs, and judged from this stand
point the average farmer averages up
quite well. In the last fifty years the
average farmer has transformed an
empire of waste land into a moderate
ly well titled country. He has made
railroads possible and done much to-
ward building them. for which contri-
buttons. voluntary or Involuntary, he
has never vet received a cent of pay
nor even thanks. He has, in fact,
In many cases, been paying dividends
on interest on his own benefactions to
these public enterprises.
In the last fifty years the average
farmer has furnished more than four
f1fths OF the exports of the United
States. While the manufacturing and
mining interests combined have fur
nished less than one-fifth. The aver
age farmer has made the great cities
Of the West possible. Were it not for
hin the village would have no exist
ence, the county seat would have no
excuse for its being, and the cities
would be what they were before the
settlement of the Great West-merely
trading posts or government p%arrisons.
The average farmer has made his
impression on his t1ocks and ferds-
made. in fact. more than an im pres
sion. These fiOcks and herds are Who'll
ly what he has made them.
They are the measure n expression
of his actual efforts. They do not
by any means show what the average
farmer can do. but what he has done
so far. Some of them furnish an ad-
mirable object lesson of what he can
do when he tries. The average farmer
has taken the average hog. as he ex-
listed fifty years ago, and made him
so entirely different from what he
was that he does LOT ven recognize
the picture of his ancestor as any near
relation and scarcely recognizes his
species.
What the average farmer has done
for the average hog he can do for all
the other breeds of live stock when
he sets himself to do it. which he will
whenever he sees clearly that it will
pay him to do it. In certain sections
of the West the farmer who is above
the average has taken the average
COW and doubled her dairy capacity,
making her for this purpose about
three times as good a COW as before.
In other sections the farmer above
h average has taken the beef cow and
madc such an improvement that the
two cows are scarcely on visiting terlns
in the same pasture.
The average farmer looks on the
farmer above the average awhile and
predicts failure in his breeding opera
items. then tries it and fails, perhaps,
and finally says to himself: II sec
it now, it is only by being more than
an average farmer that I can grow
stock above the average" When the
average farmer sees this point clearly
the average will advance very rapidly,
and bring with it inevitably an ad-
vance in the average COW. horse, pig,
sheep, in h average crop in the aver
age of home comfort. society, intelli-
onn0n 0n1 SrA,,Nyoo 81 ~
abroad.
The average farmer has done we'll in
the past. He is the peer of the average
in him to do far better bv advancing
the average standard. What is need
ed is not ability. but the stern and res
olute II will" In point of fact the
standard CT the average farmer is adj
vancing all the time. There is scarcely
a farm neighborhood in the West in
which there is not a very apparent ad-
vance in farming as compared with
past years, the result of advancing
intelligence among farmers. The aver
age farmer is reading more papers and
better, n doing more experimenting
in a small way himself. He is devel-
Oping a leadership Of which he may be
proud.
His judgment on national affairs is
given greater weight than at any time
in the past, is, in fact, regarded as
mor valuable than the average .judg-
ment of any other class of men. The
average farmer is to-day the great
conservative force in society, the bal
ance wheel, so to speak. of the social
and political system. If all this be
true of the average farmer, what or
who can measure the possibilities of
the farm when the average farmer be-
comes the equal of what is now regard
ed as the best class of farmers ?--From
the Homestead.
Very Satisfactory.
This is the winter when the dairy
man who has a winter dairy and
abundance Of good food is taking more
Ill., -