Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1916-03-28
SOUTH PARIS, MAINE, TUESDAY, MARCH 49, 1916.
what He Sees In Pure-breds.

"A man must liv6 once before be
knows how to live, Was what farmer
told me . few days ago. We have oil
seen farmers who could not anticipate
more than dozen years OF active scr
vice, bewail the ignorance OF the past;
and many others the helplessness Of
their future.
I know dairy farmer who 10 trying
to get ont 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 Jerseys.
Pure-breds got the laugh 30 bad In the
neighborhood not ono Of the farmers
would have dared buying one. On &C.
count Of our fool Jokes not one Of the
neighbors has made the move although
thirty years have passed. Isee where I
am at. am telling the young fellow to
be mighty careful whom he roasts, for
the chances are he will be roasting his
best interests In the end. I could have
bought good pure.bred stock for around
$75 and 800. Now, instead Of having
mortgage plastered on my farm, the old
barns tumbling down because my only
income is cheese factory checks and
cash from veal calves, my herd Of twen.
~ COWS might have been pure.breds.
You can easily estimate what they
might be worth.
"If herd OF twenty we'll kept pure
breds is not worth $4,000 of any mans
money, am badly mistaken. One of
tho fellows who went In the business
less than eight years ago tells me be 10
better than $s. 900 to the good on an in
vestmept OF $1,000. When he handed
me this information, went homo and
spent sleepless night. saw how l
had been robbing my family, not OF lux.
uries, but of necessities. saw how,
after the taxes and interest were paid,
many times did not have one cent to
rub against another. I had to pay note
last fall and sold seven head Of the
best heifers that ! had for this amount.
Had gone In the breeding game twenty |
years ago, I would have been In on the
ground floor, and with the work that / |
have put ip, would have been out of |
debt long ago. Had wanted $500, two
heifers, or perhaps one, might have
brought me the cash.
81 have just about concluded that
most of rs fellows who shy at new
things wear boys size hats. know
one case whore man bought three or
four head of pure -breds, and his neigh |
bors roasted him so that he quit.
SNOW l am sixty. five years old, and It
will be harder for me than It was Q
quarter Of century ago, but I am not
too late. know o man who established
a large orchard at 10 years, and now he
is "a years old. The orchard has paid
him we'll for several years, and he was
recently offered $40,0O0 for It. have
MIXED COWS for 30 cents hundred
pounds, and said then II could get
dollar hundred We could get rich.
Now we are just entering the greatest
period In the dairy business. feel 1t 10
my bones, and that feeling will add ten
years TO my life. A neigbbor is rebuild
ing his barn, am not roasting him, but
/ am telling him where I made my mis-
takes. and advising him to equip and do
1t right. I have got to round the cor
ners, will have to make haste slowly, yet
I know I can realize my ambition more
quickly In the dairy business than In
some other line of agriculture.
81 do not have many years left and 1t
is up to me to make the most of them,
yet am not too old. Do you think SOP"
Hopeful Farmer, In Hoard's Dairy.
man.