The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1899-09-22

A noticeable change from the old
! days-it is along the economic law Of
consolidation-is the fact that the in
dividual farmer with his "crack" cow
or heavy hog cuts no figure at the
modern fair. When we were boys the
whole town went to the station to see
the beast shipped for the fair. The
COW or the pig was the glory of the
community.
But nowadays the prizes are taken
by somebody's herd or STABLE" of
ten millionaire, who presses an cleo
trio bell and writing a blank check for
thousands of dollars. tells his secre-
tary to build up the finest herd of Jer-
seys or speed horses in the land. The
millionaire some times rides out on
pleasant Sundays to see his aristocrat-
ic brutes but his real pleasure is in
reading in the newspaper about the
prizes they have won.
1t is noble diversion and as the eff
feet is to raise the standard of animals
in the country round. there is only
praise for wealthy men who do it. Per
haps the most useful thing Jim Hill.
the Great Northern railroad masnate
ever did was to import a lot of blooded
bulls and glorify the barnyards from
st. Paul to the Pacific ocean.
But oh. those old days when we
went to the train to meet the honest
farmer who had won a blue ribbon,
and the whole town fell in behind the
latest hog in all Kennebec county and
got out the band to lead the procession.
At the fair the brewer, Pabst, occu-
pied the first barn with representatives
of his 100 blooded horses. The
Uihleins. also brewers, whose horse
! ranch one sees on the Milwaukee road,
near Kenosha, had a stable full.
Briggs, of Elkhorn, the we'll known
professional horse breeder, had
bunch Of eighteen from his eighty
observation-disclosures horses. weighing
from 1900 to 2,100 pounds, kindly
horses from the south of France.
whittier he goes occasionally to recruit
his stock. One of them had some
white fecks on his neck. and Mr..
Briggs could not account for it except
the groupings out of Arabian blood
perhaps a century back. What per-
sistent, eternal law, that of nature.
It is a little area of not more than
twenty miles square south Of Paris,
where these king animals are reared.
'Who buys them?" I asked, 'for
farmers cannot afford to pay 81 200 for
a horse" and edo they eat twice as
much as a 1,000-pOund horse?'
'NOt so,' the owner replied, as he
caressed the pink legion of honor at
the ears of one Of his pets. "They eat
no more than smaller horses. The
sales are mostly for breeding purposes.
A man buys a stallion and takes him
perhaps to the western part of the
state whereby the farmers of that sec
ton raise colts from him by their ma
tive and grade mothers. Then, too,
we do a large breeding business in our
own sectiOn"-and it was not neces-
sary for Mr.. Briggs to speak of famous
WalWOrth county, whose fair is said
to crowd the state fair for merit and
whose farmers bask in the excellence
of bloOded stock.
The McLay Brothers of GAINESVILLE
showed Clydesdales from Scotland-al-
so heavy, draft horses for mining log
ging and city work.
GAINESVILLE is a horse CENTER and the
brothers have farms of 800 and $50
acres respectively. HOrsemen speak
of the crash in values in 1893 as silver
men do of the year 1873 but things are
picking up in the business. AleXan-
der Galbraith, Of GAINESVILLE, also eX-
hibited q fine stable.
The UihleinS run to speed horses
| smaller, finer-limbed, delicate Great
ures with gay ribbons woven in tail
and name. A half brother of Star
Pointer-whOse mile was made in
1:59A-pleased the ladies. AstronO-
| mer, called "Axtel's" father-2:12 his
record, and $105,000 his price. From
st. Cloud, Mimi, came fourteen horses
leaving about $50 behind-the Clydes-
dale stables Of N. p. Clarke and these
splendid creatures had fancy red,
! white and green roses to decorate
them.
The cattle stables contained herd
after herd of fancy stOck-cows with
milk-giving records deer-like animals
with eyes that a court beauty might
envy. These were the "dairy FORM"
as different from the stout, plump
stocky shapes of the "beef FORM as
Dom Paul is from a refined spirituelle
sprig of gentility.
A Chat with Ex- Gov. Upham
AS I was sitting watching the horses
trot around the circle, a stout-chested
man climbed up the steps to take
SCdIS. II WAS 0A-dONGIuOI w. II. Up
ham, of Marshfield, accompanied by
his friend Tibbits, of Milwaukee. The
governor was looking well; still pos
sessed of that rugged, buoyant temper
ament, and CHEEKY. hearty manner,
which enable a man to be at his best
all the time and contribute to success.
He says it's activity and profits in the
lumber business, like all the lucky peo-
pie in that craft at present. He
bought 10000 acres. mostly just before
the rush to get timber properties This
means a stretch of land that would re-
Quire a wall of thirty miles to circum-
vent it. He is busy taking care Of
that, which, however, is a small part
of his activities. He employs some
400 men. His big store in Marshfield,
which did a business Of 100000, he
has disposed of but his lumber mills,
furniture factory, etc, are running at
full capacity.
Speaking of the ''Trust Conference
b0