The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-01-22
WHEN STATE
 RAISED OWN SUPPLY OF BEEF
Now Connecticut Dealers Are Afraid to Buy Home
 Grown Reeves.


 was in Bristol recently to talk to a meeting of the Farmers Associa- ton, he intimated that his venture into the business of fattening catt1s for the home market had not been 6 success, and he also said that he had to sell his Texas steers to Jewish dealers, as he could not find a mar ketman in Hartford who would sel! beef fattened for market in Connec- tcut, because they were afraid that they would be unable to get beef from the packing houses in Chicago and Kansas City. He had to sell his beeves for less money than the quot ed prices on the market because of the customers to whom he had to sell in order to find a market.
 A carload of cattle was brought in- to Avon last spring and another car load was brought into Granby, by L. s. Korper to be fattened the first on the hillsides of Talcott Mountain and the other on the hills of West Gran by and Hartford. At that time there was much talk about conservation of food and of doing everything pos sible to increase the food supplies raised in Connecticut. The address brought back to the mind Of Bristol people, conditions as they existed in this state fifty years ago, when prac- tically all that was consumed in the state, whether meats or vegetables, was raised within It's confines. It all so brought to mind what was done by the beef combine of that time. Ar,,o e. T@ 14h cerns comparatively infants, but big enough to strangle the beef indus try of the East which they did. How many cattle were fattened on the hills of Connecticut back in 1870 is not known, but the number must have been 10000 at least, and now not an animal Is regularly fattened in the state. Occasionally an old COW which has outlived Its usefulness is sold for beef. Many calves are kill ed for veal when. they are from six to nine weeks old.
 Going back to 1865 and from that time on until about 1884 was the best time that farmers of Connecticut ever knew in raising and fattening cattle for market. In some small
 
 thrifty, fattened each year from eight to thirty head of cattle that were from two to three years old.
 New Milford Is a big town, and contains more acres of land than any town in the state. In this town more than a thousand head of cattle were fattened each year. Newtown in a rich town in every way. The farmers were then and are today wealthy for agri- culturists, and their land is good and big herds of cattle were fattened each year for market and in the case of that town most of the cattle went towards New York for a market. Bridgewater and Roxbury sent their cattle to Waterbury to be distributed down the Naugatuck Valley to the manufacturing towns and the greater droves passed on through Water town and Thomaston and finally found their way to Hartford for a market. Commencing in September each year. and continuing until De
 cember droves of cattle on the way to market, passed the home where the writer lived, daily. There were
 in that town a number of men who made 1t their business to go late ill the winter to Vermont and northern New York, where they bought big droves of young cattle which were driven in and were ready to be sold
 to farmers in May and early June. In addition to cattle bought each 1 spring to be fattened each farmer raised from three to five calves and | when they were two and one-half years-old they were sold for beef The farmer who had raised five calves usually bought four or five head of cattle from the drover and had nine or ten to turn in for beef in the fall. In those days a good beef animal two years old would bring in l the fall $40 and this was a satisfac- tory price for the farmer. In those days all work on farms was done with oxen and when they were nine or ten years old, they were given the Cbest of feed in the pastures and
 meadows and then were fed some corn, grown on the farm and 1t was no unusual thing for a farmer who had paid S250 for the oxen when they were five years old to sell them as fat cattle to be butchered for $500 and the writer knew of a case where q pair that had cost s250 in 1896 were sold in the winter of 1871 for S340 and were butchered to furnish beef to a gang of men that were
 building the Shepaug, Litchfield & Northern Railroad Fifteen years la ter a pair of cattle that had been worked on this farm, and fattened under the same conditions were sold in the early winter for s60 and this was the last pair of oxen ever kept on this farm. The writer was inter ested in a farm in 1894, and that spzng eight head of young cattle were bought and were given the run of hundred acre farm. They were sold in the fall for SPA per head and had cost s22 in the spring. He concluded that it was better to allow the farm to grow up to brush and that is just what has been done all ! over Connecticut Land that fifty years ago furnished grazing for many thousand head of cattle is today grown up to brush and 1t is was ts land not worth paying taxes on. When the infant meat packers of the | West had cast off their swaddling | clothes they looked to the East for a
 market and they saw that it would
 be possible to stamp out the cattle
 industry in this section. Most cattle
 as stated were ready for market in | this state from September 1 on into