Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1914-06-23
Building q Dairy Herd.

his farm paper and asks how to make
money out of chickens, hogs, alfalfa,
butter, or what not. In many cases the
inquirer wants to 60 into the new ven-
ture heavily. He has the capital; why
not buy fifty good cows and make the
dairy hustle for all it is worth?
Go slow. Don't plunge. ltis better
to be safe than sorry. Work up from
small beginnings. Grow up with your
business. These will prove anchors to
windward. :.
To illustrate this point, let me tell
what young structural iron worker
once said TO the writer. It was bis job
to walk the beams and girders OF lofty
steel skeletons which grew ilp sky
scrapers. He would ride derr load
Of heavy beams to a height Of $50 feet
from the ground, step of on a slender
thread of steel with as much assurance
and absence Of fear as any Of US coun
try fellows follow the plow.
"How do you do it?" / asked my
friend.
"It's nothing when you 60 at it right" ("
he responded "You must wo"k up
from the bottom. First you do one and
two story work and you get so used to
il that soon you can run around the
girders at twenty stories without think
ing about it. / have seen brave men
who tried to 20 too fast or they tried to
begin at the top. Nearly always they
would get fear struck and after becom-
ing scared stiff they never would tackle
another job on steel work."
START sMALL-GRow BIG
For anyone to tackle q new job is
fairly safe proceeding provided he is
willing to start with small beginnings
and work up. He thus learns his new
business with a small Investment and
any mistakes be makes are not serious
nor fatal.
have seen men who wanted to 60
into the COW business. They had money
and enthusiasm. Up went several thou.
sand dollars worth of fancy buildings!
Here comes q carload Of pedigreed
stock, Order a blue-ribbon bnll to give
style to the barn yard! "a good COW
will give five gallons OF milk q day. 1t
ia worth s cents a quart. That's what
we have been paying. At 80 cents gal
Ion, each COW will bring in 81 60 day.
Twenty cows will produce S32 a day
That makes sll $50 a year. Not a bad
income, eh?" That's about the way
some Of these disciples Of Col. Sellers
estimate.
Unless he has had lot of practical
experience, the man who starts out on
that line is headed for trouble.
That the reader may not feel that be
is reading an article written by some
high brow dreamer or biled-shirt clerk
| would like to say right here that the
writer made his living for q number of
years as a practical dairyman. He has
been up against every slant OF the COW
question and has now arrived at that in
stage where he knows that In
spite of all that is past, he has whole
lot vet to learn. II he lived to be as old
as Methusaleh, be could never acquire it
all. Besides, the art and science OF
is changing every year.
The dairy business can be made prof
liable or it can be made very much
otherwise. On the whole 1t 10 a good
thing for the average farmer in the corn
belt to slowly increase the size OF his
milking herd and steadily extend the
market for bis dairy products. In no
other way, probably, can he make his
high priced land earn its proper percent
of interest; in no other way can he 80
keep up the soils fertility; in no
other way can he 80 readily and quickly
turn his raw products of field and pas
ture into cash.
Granting all this, the first question he
will ask is "How can l best acquire
bunch Of good milkers?" The answer
is, buy them or raise them.
In most cases il will be found more
to raise cows than to buy
them. The man who will sell you cows
holds back his best and you
get the culls. Culls do not make good
fou ndation stock. Occasionally you can
pick up some good cows at fair prices at
public sales or from the fellow who Is
hard up aud must sell quick.
BY buying at what you would proba-
bly, consider fancy price ('ay 500 to
5000 q young, pedigreed, dairy bull. you
can rapidly improve your herd. II be is
Of an established milking breed and
strain, and happens to be well-bred
and prepotent animal, he will gradually
make even grade herd virtually thor
oughbred. Whereas, IL he is OF that
lowly type known as scrub, be will in
few years make yard full Of fine cows
look like 80 cents worth OF caunery
stuff. With good bull farmer can in
time build up profitable herd of milk
ing cows. They will not be eligible to
registry however, unless both parents
were pedigreed.
To more quickly develop a herd OF
choice mixers which also are eligible to
registry-hencs salable at fancy prices
for breeding purposes-the farmer
should purchase one or more OF the thor
oughbred cows or young stock in sddi-
tion to the pedigreed sire. 1t costs no
more to raise pure bred animal than 1t
does scrub. Then you have first
class animal worth more as pspducer
and much more when you come to sell
him. This is one of the solutions OF
makipo hiu N -priced land nav