The Republican journal., 1919-01-16
Ezs'|aZs|'S
eOc.. 60c., $1.2O
Maine Raised Beef Can
Beat Western Range.

One of the most important events IN
the livestock of Maine is the recent ar
rival in jefferson, Maine, of lot of A
head of pedigreed Polled Angus cattle.
This represents the choicest selection
from the leading herds of the West and
includes many prize winners, among
which are the first prize and grand cham
pion bull at Denver, Colorado, and the
first prize heifer calf, also winners at
Oklahoma City and Tennessee State fairs,
Memphis and Knoxville, Indiana and
Kentucky State fairs, Southwest Amerl-
can Livestock Show and Illinois State
fair in 1918. All this stock is out of
prize winners for years back.
A large portion of these were purchas-
ed from ex- president Sutton of the Kan
sas Board of Agriculture, who has been
breeding them for the past 20 years. The
two-year drouth that has stricken west
ern Kansas and reduced the feedsto prac-
tically nothing, ruined the pastures and
almost caused starvation in large num-
Der of herds, is the only reason that in
duced MIR. Sutton to part with the cream
of his herd and prize winners.
maine, and particularly the district
surrounding Jefferson, are to be congrat-
ulated upon the acquisition of herd of
such size and merit, for it means much to
the farmers of the entire State" 10 the
opinion of men largely interested in agri-
culture.
| The Angus cattle for the past 20 years
have demonstrated their superiority over
all beef breeds by winning over 90 per
cent. OF the single steer, steer, herd, CAL
load and carcass prizes at the Interna-
tlonal Livestock Exposition at Chicago.
| This tact, together with their quiet dis
position tbeing hornless), and their ability
to rustic a living off almost anything,
some think, will make them the most
popular breed in the east within a short
time.
eff anyone should ask you today why
New England pays millions and millions
of dollars every year for beef, pork, NUT
ton, poultry and dairy products when she
has so many idle farms and waste land,
what would be your answer2' ,
This question is asked by the owner of
the herd and he goes on:
"a few years ago when beef was SELL
ing for cents per pound and pork for 5
cents to cents per pound, the answer
might have been that they could not COM
pete with the western cheap land range,
etc, but that is not true today and strange
as it may seem, and is no higher in New
England today than when the above
quoted prices prevailed.
Today New England offers more live
stock inducements than the balance of
the country. We have the finest pas
lures, with the best of water, cheap till
age land, and buildings all in good order,
selling at one half the price of the build
ing alone, and The land at one-tenth the
trtr1 100 l. L
is raising the provisions that we are eat
ing.
New England is not using one-tenth
of her land today. The average farmer
is not farming one fifth of his land There
are hundreds of vacant farms, and farms
owned by men and women too old to Gull
tivate them longer, that are rapidly 'go-
ing back" to state of nature-pasture
growing up to brush wood and timber,
fields running out, the moving coming
into weeds, and why2
ct seems to me that the answer is
lack of livestock and confession that
20 year-ago conditions ruled them out
temporarily, and no thought given the
matter since to study conditions here and
in the West.
lit costs no more to pasture COW,
hog or sheep today than when prices
were at one-quarter their present levels,
and as most of the profit is represented
by the growth made on pasture, the win
ter season, or between pasturage season,
is the marking time or maintenance of
the herd time, and no great profit can be
realized, perhaps, during these months,
but it's all in the years work and the
winter herd should be as large as the
summer pasture will support if sufficient
fodder is cut to care for them; if not, the
herd should be cut down in the fall, or
the winter forage increased through silage
and improved methods of handling the
fodder
Every possible foot of land should be
producing something that will turn into
money in short time, and with the
ridiculously low prices at which good
farming land can be purchased in New
England, it looks like a crime to pay out
the millions that are going West every
year when the State of Maine alone could
raise enough beef, pork, poultry and dairy
products TO feed all New England
1.-The answer as the writer sees it, is
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