The log cabin Democrat., 1916-06-22
LOCAL BANKS WILL
 PURCHASE BULLS FOR FAULKNER FARMERS Dean J. H. Miller Arranges Plan Here for Financing Purchase of
 Thoroughbred Stock.

An agreement to finance the pur- chase of 30 thoroughbred bulls, 10 by each of the three local banks was ar ranged yesterday afternoon by Dean J. H. Miller, head of the government and University agricultural extension forces in Arkansas, with the Bank of Conway, Faulkner County Bank and Farmers State Bank. Details of the plan are yet to be worked out, but the general plan agreed upon is that the banks will loan sufficient sums of money to Faulkner county farmers at reasonable rate of interest for the purchase of the breeding stock These loans will be made to farmers recommended by County Agent J. L. Phillips of the United States demon stration work. It is probable in some cases, Dean Miller stated, that two or more farmers living neighbors will join together in the purchase of bull, but in each case the care and maintenance of the animal will be assigned to single farmer, as the government does not think it best to dlVlde thlS responsibility.
 Special Agent J. W. Mcleod of the division of animal husbandry will as sist in selecting and buying the bulls and will be accompanied by com mittee from the farmers selected to keep the stock. Immune Texas cat tie will be selected, as Dean Miller thinks It unwlse to bring in northern stock until the cattle tick is extermi- mated from the county, on account of the danger of Texas fever. All Tex as stock undergo this fever in a more or less mild form when young calves, Dean Miller says, and are thereafter immune from it.
 Dean Miller says the active en- forcement of the tick eradication law will probably be reached in this coun- ty next year. He is very much pleased with the manner in which Faulkner county farmers are already taking hold of the enterprise and are building vats and dipping their cattle. The immediate benefit to the health of the cattle and increase in flesh and milk production, he says, will well repay them for their present work, but as long as single farmer Tn community is permitted to al- low cattle to run at large without having dipped them it will be inn possible to eXterminate the ticks When the work is actively taken up next year, Dean Miller states, gov | ernment agents will be put in the county to enforce the dipping regu- lations and to arrest cattle owners who refuse to comply with the law. ] The county can be made tick-free in two years from now, he states, and after that time thorough bred cattle may be imported without danger of loss from any northern state, while the cattle being out of quarantine district will find sale at much bet ter prices than those in tick ter ritory.
 The cost of the bulls to be bought in this county, Dean Miller states, will run from $100 to $l50 each. A lot of 30 bought in similar manner recently by Miller county farmers averaged $133 each, he said. The total investment will thus represent between $3000 and $4,00O and will be shared equally by the three local banks.
 The introduction of better stock into the county is one of the plans being worked out by Dean Miller to better the condition of the average Arkansas farmer. "Our ultimate aim," he said today, ''Is to get the farmers of this state in a position where they will be out of debt when October rolls around. If the farmer doesn't owe anyone on the first of October, he is independent, whether he makes one or 20 bales of cotton. He can sell his cotton when he wants to and to whom he pleases. The only way in which this can be done is for the farmer to start out the first of March with plenty of meat and feed d-stuff to run him through his crop, to have a good garden and plenty of chickens and eggs with which to supply his table and to have something to sell when he comes to town through the spring and summer "a yearling, colt, eggs, butter and other produce, on which ke can re- alze the necessary cash to finance his crop. Once this condition is re- alized, the farm problems of the south will have been solved and farm CTS will enjoy a prosperity that will also be shared by the merchant and the banker"
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