The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1917-09-07
COL. Nj. A. FUGATE

COL. M. A. FUGATE
An Auctioneer Cries for Sheep. Says
= Hay Seed is Good, but Mutton an6
Wool are Better. Suggests a Slo.
gan for Aberdeenos. Gives Basic
Principles of Farming and Men
lions Characters Both Ancient and
Modern.
Colonel M. A. Fugate, the presi-
dent of the Aberdeen bank. owner
of farm that he operates, and an
auctioneer who has cried the sales
of many people who were selling out
and quitting the farm, says the best
things that have come to the Aber-
deem tract are the crops, crops every
year. AS to which crops are the
best, he thinks alfalfa seed leads.
Potatoes never helped much I'M
till 1916 because the Aberdeen
farmers organized and raised pota-
toes during the years when potatoes
were cheap. The crop that has
brought the most losses is potatoes.
The next largest loss was due to
raising wheat every year until the
land was run down, instead of rails
ing some kind of legumes, (clovers)
to build it up.
Zone of the important industries
that is helping the whole country
about Aberdeen is sheep raising and
everybody should do his bit to en-
courage the sheep man to stay with
us. The farmer who has watched
with jealous care and raised a "hol.
Ter" every time a sheep got on his
place, should forget his crouch and
train himself to give the sheepman
and his herder a glad greeting.
These little courtesies don't cost any
thing and the sheepman receives so
few of them and would notice it and
all but fall down with joy if all the
Aberdeen country should begin at
once to treat him like comrade and
a benefactor. If l were to suggest
an emblem for all of my fellow
countrymen here about Aberdeen to
hail with a wave of the hand,
should suggest, The sign of the
Fleece, and l do not hesitate to say
that it would be the best advertise
ment the people could adopt, and
certainly it would be the cheapest
and most effective, unless, perhaps
it is the endless amount of work
The Idaho Republican is doing to J
find out what is for our best inter-
est and telling it to all of us thru |
the paper.
"Why just think of it, Trego, the
sheep is the worlds greatest staple. |
1t furnishes food, clothing and cat
gut to our benighted world, and has
for thousands of years. You know
it. From the days of David, the
sweet singer of Israel, down to Moses
and the l. w. W., people
have eaten lamb chops and mutton,
have worn wooden clothing and
sheep skins and have been comforted
in their sorrows and cheered in their
joys by stringed instruments fitted
with strings of catgut taken from
The entrails of sheep. And all this
time the cat has had the credit, but
the obliging sheep has been giving
up his-his entrails. People have
they ought to have been taking off
heir hats to him. The United States
has been using all the wool it pro-
1uced and importing as much more.
World conditions have changed so
that America is called upon to fur
nish wool for foreign countries and
she hasn't got it. The price of wool
has jumped from 10 cents a few
years ago to so cents now. People
who raised livestock have always
Deen noted for the sweetness Of their
larps, their bagpipes and their piety.
It is only when booze gets into the {
crowd that they take the name of {
sheep herders. When the owners be- {
come rich and powerful we call them
when they are pious
md industrious they are herdsmen,
md when they are mustling to pay {
he enormous grocery bills contract {
I'd in supplying the camps of waste
ul herders and camp-tenders they {
IRE just plain sheepmen. {
1--WE need more settlers and more |
,apital in the Aberdeen country and '
We are getting them. We need more
'eople raising alfalfa seed, but am
lot prepared to say whether it Is a
,ood commercial crop for the dry +
armer. 1t might be and 1t might 7
lot. 1t has been done at the ex- s
'erimental station, but not all dry
armers are willing to dry farm like
he station does. The real sure
nough dry farmers are succeeding
With their crops, but there are q 7
ood many failing to follow the for q
nula for storing the moisture and \
nen saving Il for crnn food n