The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-03-22
WI. MAN ORGANIZING
RUSSELL CATTLEMtN
Ono Demonstration Agent Shows PEG
pie How to DO Vital
Things.
NEED OF pURE-BRED BULLS
Only Eight I'm the Entire County, the
Rest Being Scrubs or Near-scrubs.
Association Formed.

Blacksburg. March 21.--The dem
agcn is of Virginia are in
structed to make an effort to suit the
work to conditions in each county. TO
take hold of one or more vital things
that the farmers can make a success
of and To- push that and not to try
to teach the men OF the mountain
section how to grow cotton or those
of the trucking section how to raise
beeves.
w. q. Wysor. the agent in Russell,
has grasped one phase of the situation
ar he finds it there and his plan seems
so feasible that he has been asked to
make it public, with the hope that
the cattlemen OF other counties may
form such an association as he has
there. Mr.. Wysor is a graduate in
agriculture of the V. +. /. class of
1914, was raised on farm, was an
honor man in mis- class, ranking cap
tain of the battalion in his college
days. and president OF the cadet corps.
the highest office in the gift Of the
students. He writes about his work
in Russell:
Writes of His Work
when j took up the demonstra-
ton work in this county, January /,
of this year, ii was at once cy!dent
that there was great need of better
live stock. especially cattle. in our ter
ritory. This Is grazing county, one
OF the. best in the State. yet our live
STOCK are OF "A surprisingly inferior
type and quality Our chief income
IS from cattle. the county shipping
from five to six thousand steers an
nually. and this is evidently the vital
interest of our farme rs
practically every farmer complains
that 1t is impossible to buy good calves
or feeders. The reason Is not hard
tn-dnd--we have almost no good bulls.
OF the seventy or eighty bulls in the
county there are only eight pure
hreds, the balance are scrubs or near
scrubs. IL We had every hull in the
county a pure bred 1t would be worth
thousands OF dollars to the farmers
each year Right there is the object
of the association I am organizing.
We are going To place a pure bred
shorthorn bull within the reach OF
every farmer in this county
Farmers have not been keeping
bulls for the simple reason that Ii is
TO do so; they have been
running IA charity organization. Many
men who have been keeping bulls tell
me that they have not realized one
dollar ON the animal. though fifty or
sixty dollars was due. The custom
has grown up not TO pay. A farmer
owning a bull individually can hardly
force payment in advance; 1t brings
about unpleasantness with his friends
and neighbors. However IL he was
keeping a bull for the association and
had orders to COLI ct in advance, 1t
would be an easy matter TO do so. We
o. fttJii I'm
addition. require payment in advance.
to show that this can be done / cite
the following instance: A bull owned
by a club tseven men) in this county
returned forty per cent interest on
the investment in one year. Every
dollar was collected when the cows
were turned in
Wants Hundred More.
II hope to have a hundred or more
farmers in the association. which is
to be known as the Russell County
Live Stock Association. Each farmer
puts in $50 and owns one share in the
association. ! might mention here
that this is true OF every man, except
Governor II. C. Stuart, who is very
much interested and will take about
worth of stock in the associa-
ton. We will have about $4,000 to
invest III DOils.
THE animals are to be purchased
by q COMMITTEES of stockmen and
placed with reliable farmers on such
terms that the farmer keeping the
bulls gets three-fourths OF the income
from him and also the breeding Of his
own cows. The association gets the
other quarter. which will pay interest
and expenses at = or 10 per cent
counting for reasonable losses. In ad-
dition. each member of the associa-
ton may breed two cows free of
charge. The fee is to be 81 so, so that
insures him $500 or S per cent on his
5000. Every two or three years the
bulls are to be exchanged from farm
to farm to avoid iubreeding. When
an individual owns a bull he must sell
at that time or inbreed. After Ave or
six years we can sell at cost and pur-
chase young animals. Later on I hope
that we can give attention to the
Improvement of sheep. hogs. etc. and
be of great mutual benefit in other
ways. We are going to standardize
our breed and work up reputation
for that one breed-the Shorthorn. I
have now about eighty men in the as
sociation and will soon cali the initial
meeting for election OF officers, etc"