The Republican journal., 1898-07-28
Waldo County Crop Reports.

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From the Board of Agriculture Bulletin.
WALDO STATION. 1t is no use II, ING
to farm without stock, and good stock
must be kept in order to get pay for feed
and care This locality grows very little
hay that sells for the highest price in the
market; but a good quality for feeding
purposes is easily grown. The raising of
COWS for the western market has been
good business for several years. Dairy
ing has also been, and is now, good
business. Selling cream is the best way
OF disposing of the product for us. Our
pastures are not good enough to carry
beet cattle enough for business, and we
could hardly afford to feed eight or ten
months from the barn, as We do our dairy
stock, unless the price of beef goes above
present prices. IL. q. Harding,
MONROE. To the average farmer, there
is no question Of more Importance than
that OF how best to convert the raw prod
ucts of the farm into cash or its equi-
vaient. Some form of stock keeping must
be adopted by most farmers in Maine, who
wish TO be successful in their business.
The kind Of stock to keep must depend
on circumstances and can only be decided
by each individual for himself 1t seems
to me that dai1ying has been pushed to
the neglect of other lines of work. Net
returns are what count, and a large i'll
come from cows, that is mostly sent West
tor feed, is no measure OF man success.
The man who grows beef wool and mutton,
may not get 50 large gross returns, but he
is very apt to come out on top in the long
run. 1t would seem as though the hills
and valleys of Maine should be made TO
support more sheep and steers, as well as
COWS, than they are now doing. Sheep
are good scavengers and every pasture
will be better if it is pastured in part with
them. Enoch c. Dow.
SEARsMoNT. The large amount of hay
from last year crop yet in farmers hands,
and the bounteous yield promised the
present season, taken together with the
limited outlet and low prices, bring stock
husbandry of some kind to the front, as
one of the most important questions that
a Maine farmer has to consider. Although
70 class OF stock seems to present to the
average farmer chance for large re-
Enumeration for the raising, still, after
deducting the expense and waste of
marketing, and the value of the manure,
when fed on the farm, from the price re-
ceved in the market, it leaves the net
value of his hay in the barn or stable SO
small that it would leave a question in my
mind whether or not almost any class of
stock, handled with reasonable intelli-
gence, might not pay better. | am not in
a position to speak with authority in
regard to the best paying stock to raise;
but should judge that it would largely
depend upon the knowledge, taste and
situation of the different persons. One
important thing to take into consideration
when deciding upon the variety of stock
to raise, is to select such as always have
a ready market, and in that class come
cows as there always seems to be ready
sale for the right class of cows, to be
shipped out of the State; but in order to
prosper in this enterprise, one must be so
situated that he can do certain amount
of dairying i'll some of its forms. Sheep,
when one is properly situated, is another
class that, in my Judgment, it would pay
better to feed than to sell hay at present
prices. and lambs and wool are always
saleable. Otis D. Wilson.
MORRILL,. There are specialties in farm
ing by which men attain good degree of
success financially, without any attempt
to keep stock for profit OF to keep up the
fertility of their farms. Yet when we
come to consider the State as whole, the
crops we raise, and the methods employed
in producing them, it seems to me that
stock husbandry must ever be in the mind
of the farmer who hopes for success. In
this section of the country there are some
very nice steers, which have matured into
profitable beef at two and three years of
age, which shows what can be done in the
line of beef raising. Sheep, just now,
are in favor with many farmers, and there
is no doubt but that raising lambs and
mutton and wool for market is better
than selling hay. But l believe that,
discouraging as the dairy outlook often
is, there is nothing like good butter
COW, when handled rightly, to put money
into the farmers pocket and fertility into
his acres, improve his pasturage, and,
what is better still, make the farmer him
self kind hearted citizen. Daniel o.
Bowen.
FREEDOM. Stock raising is very import
ant to farmers, and should be more care
fully locked after. 1t is the only way
farmer can keep up his farm and make it
pay. l do not know what branches are
best adapted to Maine, but l think in the
next few years beef will pay the best, as
we have good pastures for young cattle.
For wintering cattle we should raise corn
and mixed feeds. re. S. johnson.