Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1916-03-31
NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN.
Farmer 76 Years Old Sees Possibilities
in Pure Bred Cattle.

~ man must live once before he
knows how to live was what farmer
told me few days ago. We have all
seen farmers who could not anticipate
more than a dozen years of active SER
vice, bewail the ignorance of the past;
and many others the helplessness of
the future.
l know a dairy farmer who is trying
to get out of this class and here is about
what he says: "When the first pure
breds came into the county we had an
interesting session at the crossroads
store. Most of the farmers in the little
community camped about the big wood
stove, toasted their feet, and roasted
the farmer who was going in on Jer-
seys. Pure-breds got the laugh so bad
in the neighborhood not one of the far
mers would have dared buying one. On
account of our foolish jokes not one of
the neighbors has made the move al
though thirty years have passed. l see
where l am at. / am telling the yonug
fellow to be mighty careful whom he
roasts, for the chances are he will be
roasting his best interests in the end.
l could have bought good pure-bred
stock for around $75 and 800. Now,
on my farm, the old barns tumbling
down because my only income is cheese
factory checks and cash from veal
calves, my herd of twenty cows might
have been pure-breds. You can easily
estimate what they might be worth.
eff a herd of twenty well kept pure
breds is not worth "a 1000 of any man g
money, l am badly mistaken. One of
he fol in hn hn ci paoc
less than eight years ago tells me he is
better than $4,000 to the good on an
investment of 81 900. When he handed
me this information, | went home and
spent sleepless night. l saw how |
had been robbing my family, not of
uxuries but of necessities. l saw how,
after the taxes and interest were paid,
many times / did not have one cent to
rub against another. | had to pay n
note last fall, and sold seven head of
the best heifers that 1 had for this
amount. Had l gone in the breeding
game twenty years ago, | would have
been in on the ground floor, and with
the work that / have put in, would
have been out of debt long ago Had
l wanted $500, two heifers, or perhaps
one, might have brought me the cash.
- nave Just ABOUT cOHcluueu Jndt
most of us fellows who shy at new
things wear boys size hats. I know
one case where man bought three or
four head of pure-breds, and his neigh
bors roasted him so that he quit.
Nov | am siXty-fve years old, and
it will be harder for me than it was a
quarter of a century ago. but L am not
too late. | know man who established
a large orchard at seventy years, and
now he is eighty-four years old. The
orchard has paid him well for several
years, and he was recently offered $40,-
600 dollars for it. | have MIXED cows
for 80 cents a hundred pounds, and |
said then if l could get dollar hun
dred we could get rich. Now we are
just entering the greatest period in the
dairy business. l feel it in my bones,
and that feeling will, no doubt, add at
least ten years to my life. A neigh
Dor is rebuilding his barn. l am not
roasting him, but I am telling him
where | made my mistakes, and advis-
ing him to equip and do it right.
have got to round the corners, will
have to make haste slowly, yet l know
l can realize my ambition more quick
ly in the dairy business than in some
other line Of agriculture.
81 do not have many years left and
it is up to me to make the most of
them, yet | am not too old. Do you
think sO2' - "HOpeful Farmer in
Hoard's Dairyman.