The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1915-04-15
STATE TAKING LEAD
IN STOCK RAISING
A. & M. BULLETIN SHOWS WORK
DURING LAST TWO
YEARS.

That Mississippi is fast becoming
one of the leading livestock states OF
the Union is shown in the results OF
the work done by the Agricultural and
Mechanical College during the past
two years or more. An interest In this
type of farming had been growing
some time, but no systematic effort
was made to push the work until the
summer of 1912. During this summer
the college took up the matter of or
ganizing county live stock associa-
tions. For many years previous to
this time the college had been advo-
eating more and better live stock"
to the farmers of the state, and the
interest had been gradually growing.
The organization of the county as
ISOLATION met a long felt need in the
state. Il was seen that in the counties
where organization had been perfect
ed, that the industry took on new life.
The first object of the association was
to enable the farmers to utilize hither-
to waste farm products and lands, and
to have a money crop to supplement
the cotton heretofore grown almost ex-
clusively. Another important object
of these associations was to assist in
the work of tick eradication. AS to
how well this succeeded may be shown
by the statement that almost every
county winning prize for progress in
the work had live working county
association.
The counties being practically freed
Of the tick, the associations took up
the We of grading up the type Of
stock grown in the county by import
ing pure bred sires. 1t was shown by
experiments carried on at the college
that the use of pure bred beef type
bulls on the native COWS would produce
market topping beef animals. This
may be shown by the fact that in the
year 1914 the College was offered $35
per head for a herd of &c ten-months
old calves out of native COWS and. beef
type sires. These calves had no feed
other than pasture. Another illustra-
ton of grading up a herd may be
shown by the results obtained by Mr..
Cary Cooke, of Columbus. In the win
ter of 1894 Mr.. Cooke fed car of
grade calves in cooperation with the
college. They were fed on silage and
cotton seed meal and brought an aver
age price of s62 per head at one year
old. AS more sires were brought into
the counties the demand for breeding
stock grew and this led to the estab-
Hshment of pure bred breeding farms
In many places in the state. This
work is now taking on an Importance
hardly dreamed of only a short time
ago. 1t has come to be a common
sight to see pastures dotted with An
gus, Herefords and Shorthorns.
The question of getting pure bred
animals to grade up the native cattle
became so important that one county
association, Clay, put on sale of pure
bred Herefords, Angus, and Short
horns. This sale was held in the
spring of 1914 and was a success in
every sense, though the association
had put on the sale thinking it would
lose money. This sale was for the
sole purpose of giving the people of the
county an opportunity to get pure bred
animals at moderate price.
As production grew, the question of
feeding and marketing became of first
importance. The county associations
took up this work and are doing won
derful good for the members. The
shipping of stock from Mississippi be-
came so important that two trunk