Philip weekly review. [volume] (Philip, Stanley County, S.D.) 1907-1912, 1909-04-06

South Dakota Farmers Progressive.
If the farmers of South Dakota
continue TO buy pure-bred stock
as they have done during the last
few years, it will not be long before
that state will be known as one Of
the foremost live stock states in
the union. By the average person
not residing in that state, South
Dakota is still thought of as a pi-
oneer state where farming is con-
Quoted in 4 primitive way. The
average person thinks that farmers
in South Dakota are not yet in po-
sition to do much in the way Of
improving their live stock; or of
beautifying their homes, but this
il great mistake.
South Dakota is populated with
progressive farmers-farmers who
know the value of good stock and
who apparently realize that moth
ing but the best will give them
the most profitable returns. South
Dakota breeders who have recently
held public sales have themselves
been greatly surprised at the way
the farmers take hold of their
stock, and in their willingness to
pay the price necessary to get what
they want. Breeders from other
states who have held public sales
in South Dakota have been equally
surprised. Men who doubted the
advisability of holding public sales
in so new a state az South Dakota
have been overwhelmed at the en-
thusissm manifested by its farmers
in pure-bred stock. Nor is that
all; these supposed South Dakota
pioneers pay cash for what they
buy. They are not asking the sell
or to take notes; they don't need
to, they have money In the bank.
This is not idle talk; what we
say is based on facts. A South
Dakota breeder of Angus cattle
held q public sale a few days ago
on his farm and sold 81 head for
Sl7,025, or an average of $207 per
head. The bulls brought 1926,
and the females $l75 per head.
Ninety-tive per cent, or more, of
the cattle sold went to South Dako-
ta men, and those South Dakotans,
as they have done 1t other sales,
paid cash for 80 per cent of what
they bought. A breeder of horses
in northwestern Iowa a short time
ago decided TO hold a public sale
of pure-bred Percherons at Nit
chell, though he was somewhat
doubtful as to the outcome. He
feared, as others have done, that
the farmers Of South Dakota would
not be willing to pay the price that
pure-bred horses are now bringing,
but he was mistaken. He sold 38
head and all but three went to South
Dakota farmers at their own price
an average of $463. For Is stall
lions they paid an average of S452,
and for % mares and average of
$471; here again when settlement
was made 80 per cent was cash,
and 10 per cent notes negotiable
in the West.
Another evidence of the pro-
gressivs attitude of South Dakota
farmers toward pure-bred stock
was manifested at one of the largest
public sales Of pure-bred horses
that was held at Sioux City during
the latter part OF February when
l2l head sold for an average of
$523. A very large number of
these horses went to South Dako-
Is. Others went to northeastern
Nebraska, to northern Iowa, to
southern Minnesota and to North
Dakota. A Hereford sale held in
Sioux City in February brought
the owner of the cattle an average
of $126. so for 80 head. Many of
the finest cattle in this sale went
to South Dakota, and again for
cash.
South Dakots farmers are to he
congratulated upon the confidence
they have in their state and upon
the confidence they have in the flu
ture of good stock. They are
surely on the right track. All
they need to do is to keep up the
pace they have already set and in .
few years South Dakota will be up
to, if not ahead of, any state in
the Union in the number Of and
quality of the purs-bred stock
within its borders. Sioux City
Farmers Trih une.