Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1914-07-14

A Boy, an Idea, . Cow.
Chuckery Corners is not on the map.
A year ago nobody outside Oneida Coun.
ty, New York, had ever heard Of it. In
twelve months Chuckery Corners has
become place Of worldwide note. Men
from all states of the union have jour.
neyed thither. Foreign countries have
sent their representatives over seas to
toll up the hill to this ordinary country
four. corners. A visitor has come from
even so far distant q land as South
Africa.
There is nothing outwardly to distin-
guish Chuckery from any other cross
roads. So far as appearances 60, 1t
might be situated in Maine or out in
Iowa. There is a white school house, a
flag pole. a creamery, few farm houses,
and a couctete watering trough with the
letters, C-H-U-C-K-ER-Y 10 bold relief
ON its front. That's all, absolutely all
/ you can see.
The fame of Chuckery Corners is tri-
butte TO one man, modest boy, in fact. He
| is Francis NJ. Jones, who developed the
COW that beat the world for butter-fat
production. A COW that he sold for $40,
600. He is the man who bought back a
calf that he sold for $3.50 for just Sl5,-
900
IL came about this way. Francis,
from his earliest years, had been inter
ested in farming. After he left the Clin-
ton high school, where they tried 20
persuade him to go to college and be-
come preacher or a lawyer, he went to
work with his father He was then a
strappipg boy of seventeen. he looked
like the other boys of the neighborhood,
but he was different. They were con-
tent, either to plod along in the way
their fathers had plodded on the ada
cent farms for century, or to leave the
farm and try for an easy living else
where.
MONEY ON THE HOME FARM
Francis Jones did neither. He did
some thinking. He figured out there
was only hard work and littls profit In
farming as they had done. Hs did not
propose to plod along, neither did he
propose to abandon the land. He was
convinced there would be money right
Cd the home farm in raising blooded
cattle.
"You better be careful, Mr.. Jones"
warned the old banker in the little vii
lage where Jones the elder did his busi-
ness. "You know there's been lots of
money lost on these fancy cows" He
| made the speech when the elder Jones
went to draw out the first $3.50 the boy
invested in blooded Holsteins.
Do not suppose that $3.50 came easily.
| 1t took lots of talk to persuade his father
TO separate himself from that money.
The neighbors say it took something be-
sides talk. They say the elder Jones
| told his headstrong SOD, then just turn
ed his majority, "rhis farm isn't big
enough for you and me, too"
"All right, dad; you get out" the boy
is said to have replied.
| Whether this be true or not, the father
and mother moved to the village and
sat back to see the boy do it.
He did it.
The first pair of blooded Holstein heif-
ers the son bought from a dealer for
$3.50 was followed by others until, with
money borrowed from his father, he had
81, 400 tied up in the stock. That was
wild amount of money to invest in cows
in a region where calves sell for 81 to
Sl4 and COW fetches $50, ii she's
good one, The neighbors learned of the
investment and predicted dire results.
Francis Jones' wife says that for five
wears her husband lived with those cows.
He appeared at the house occasionally
for his meals, but he mostly stayed
about the barn caring for the precious
stock.
From the time he left school he had
been reading books on breeding. Before
he bought his first pure bred stock he
could tell you by heart the names, rec
ords, and pedigrees of all the best HOl-
stems in the country. He took farm
papers; he went 70 Holstein shows; he
talked Holstein, dreamed Holstein, lived
lHolstein. He learned the theories OF
the breeding experts; be already knew
practical stock raising, for it had been
practiced on his fathers farm for years.
Jones fgursd this way: The ordinary
scrub COW in the neighborhood gave
from twelve to twenty quarts day. He
had read of blooded cows giving forty
quarts of milk in twenty four hours.
lie concluded that q COW that would
lgive forty quarts was worth many times
as much a. one that gave twenty. He
read the signs Of the times. The de-
mand for milk in the New York market
was steadily increasing. He lived 10 the
milk district Of the metropolis. The de-
mand for cows that would give large
Quantities of high-testing milk was in
creasirg. He couldn't see where he'd
lose.
DAYS of toll followed. Few cows have
better care than he gave those in his
barn. One of the original heifers had
calf a short time after her arrival. The
calf had such distinguished ancestry
that Jones believed il would make rec
ord. He fed II, cared for it during it's
calfhood, and In its maturity it made
good it's early promise, for that calf
is now Spring Farm Pontiac Lass, the
"world- beater'' for butter-fst.
FoRrY-FoUR POUNDS OF BUTTER IN
IL was in the spring of 1918 that she
made her record of A Is pounds of but
ter for seven days. The Lass was i've
wears old when she went under test. The
official figures of the champion COW
show that she beat the world for seven
days, thirty days, sixty days, ninety
days, and 100 days.
In a day the unknown country boy
lleaped to fame. His name became
known wherever Holstein cattle are
raised. Dealers sought his farm. They
overw helmed him with praise. They
. tried to buy his COW.
, COW BRINGS $4,000
The days of toll and the nights oi
anxiety were then forgotten. Too poor
> to hire u uuch help, the young fellow had
been doing a large part Of the usua
farm work besides giving attention to
his herd. Not one young man 10 thou
sand would have stuck to his task witt
the pluck he displayed.
= But it paid.
While she was still under test, having
beaten the world for seven and thirty
ldays. the Lass was sold with brother
for SIG, 900, the COW fetching the ever
$4,000.
BULL BRINGS $4,000
The boy was on bis feet financially al
, lin a minute. He was independent. H
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