The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1908-01-16

The third annual : ,titute of the
Brookings County ,smers' Institute
association, which : lie to close Sat
urday afternoon sSas the best yet
given, not only I'm the point of at
tendance and interest displayed, but
from practical value to the farmers by
the various lectures and addressestgiv-
en-. The attendance was excellent at
every session be estimated conserv-
atively at 1900 for the four days.
The weather was delightful during the
entire week, which, of course, helped
the attendance.
The State Institute corps was here
during the last two days, the program
Of the first two days being filled by
local people, with the exception of an
address by Prof NJ. L. Wilson of Ames,
Iowa.
The Institute opened Wednesday
afternoon, the first number being an
address Of welcome by Mayor II. b.
Mathews on behalf of the city of
Brookings. President Sherwin then
gave his annual address, and the rest
of the afternoon was devoted to ad-
dresses on corn by Prof. NJ. l.. Wilson,
of Ames, Iowa, and Prof John S. Cole,
head of the agronomy department of
the State college. Both speakers
urged upon the farmers the necessity
of planting good seed and explained a
simple method of testing seed for ger
minating power. The question of pure
seed is a serious one in this section,
and much failure of corn crops in the
past are attributed to the poor quality
planted OF course, last year was an
unusually poor corn year the poorest
probably that Brookings county has
ever experienced and no matter how
good the seed was the crop would
never have been a good one. Both
speakers urged the farmrs not to be
discouraged by last years results but
to try again.
Thursday mornings program was
opened by the boys essay contest the
essay being on some farm topic and
prizes were awarded as follows: First
Geo. Kennard, Jr, aged IA years,
Brookings, "Teaching Calves to Drink. y
Second prize, Elmer Gilbertson, Au-
rora, Corn" Third prize, A. II. Cul-
hane, Elkton, Glover" Three dollars
in cash was awarded to the winner
of the first prize, two dollars and fifty
cents to the second and two dollars
to third. The essays were excellent,
both in thought and composition, and
would do credit to older people than
the little farmers whose work tney are.
The productions are SO good in fact,
that we reprint them below:
Teaching Calves to Drink
A great saying of my papa is:
Learn to do by doing If there is
anything in this surely | ought to be
the boss calf raiser in this county, for
| have fed very many calves since |
was knee high to a grasshopper up to
tie present time. ] am feeding fifteen
right now. l do not mean you folks,
but genuine four-legged calves at home
on the farm.
Somehow we never have any trouble
in teaching our calves to drink. Papa
says, we'll he uses a long word | forget
what it is, anyhow he means that it is
in the blood, or in other words he
means that it is bred in them. | sup
pose it is, for he never buys anybody S
cows or calves. | never knew him to
buy but one COW and that was from
the college last year. She comes in
next week, and from such an educated
COW as she is, surely | can expect no
trouble with her calf.
Now I must tell you how to go to
work. Do not let your calf suck but
once or twice unless the cows bag is
hard and caked badly. The longer a
COW suckles her calf the more she
cares for it, Some of our old cows do
not seem to know they ever had a
calf and will run into their places with
out looking for a calf This must be
in the blood too, | guess. And then
the calves do not get in the habit of
drinking with their heads up.
Perhaps someone here can remem'
ber being hit in the nose while slOpp'
ing calf or has at least got shower
bath then pity the poor calf. Take
the calf out of sight of the COW, tie
him up pretty short get nice clean
shallow pail and put in it a pint or
two of the mothers milk, then let
him take two of your fingers in his
mouth and when he sucks good and
hard lead his head down into the pail
use two fingers because by spreading
them little the milk passes between
them quicker than it would UP one
finger.
Now, meal number two; If the calf
is well and strong repeat the lesson,
but do not give him too much, about
two pints.
Lesson number three: The calf
should begin to drink by this time, If
not don't give him any, only what he
gets by nosing around in the pail. 1t
pays to be careful to watch your
chance and put the pail under his nose
at the right time.
Lesson number four: Because he