Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-09-10
GOOD STOCK NEEDS
BEST OF ATTENTION
Business Methods on the Farm
Succeed Where Slackness
FaiIs-Make A Steady
Improvement

There are exceptions, of course, but
when you think Of the one it is very
likely that you think of the other also.
Even if you are making no effort to
grow high-grade stock or purebreds
you are apt, after taking more pride
in your home and your buildings, to
take better care of the ordinary stock
on your farm An expert can get
better results with less fuel from an
old and poor heating plant than a
slipshod person will get from high
grade outfit The most money is not
always made with the highest grade
or purebred animals. There are some
men who make really good returns
by handling good grade animals in an
intelligent, practical way.
The thoughtful farmer knows that the
only profitable animal is the well-cared
for animal Many a man who is not at
heart very kind has learned the les
son-so far as cattle are concerned
that the exercise of consideration and
SGnblOnSO0 1AOcl1S LAC ocLf AAA6O VI WI
lars. Very few men are mean enough
to be mean when they know it hurts
their pocketbooks Anyone who gets
the notion that it pays to give the best
possible attention to the animals he
has, even if poor, will not need much
argument to convince him that better
bred stock will yield him still better
results.
In some of the older-settled regions
of the United States there men who
have stock that is bred well enough
but has been handled in so shiftless a
way that the animals might just as
well be scrubs. In some of these cases
the advent of an "up-and-coming"
neighbor has worked a change of
conditions.
In the more progressive commun-
tiles organizations county breeders
associations,ex extension workers of I'M
iversities and county agents have
worked wonders and produced splen-
did results. Boys and girls livestock
clubs have been able to bring reforms
that no other agency could reach.
Occasionally the older men who have
never had very good ways and have
become set in them are reached only
through the kiddies.
About the first thing that may be
done toward getting better stock and
;o ~ aI,o aI1
ditions as they are and see the many
ways in which they may be improved.
But most people are not able to make
the best of what they have. A man
who let's his buildings and fences fall
down, pays no attention to rotation of
crops, let's his manure leach away into
the creeks, forgets or neglects to feed
and care for his stock regularly, and
lets his wife go out to pump water
and split wood is apt to instill into
the minds of his children the idea
that nobody is ever a farmer who is
smart enough to be anything else
On the other hand, one who maps out
his course and let's no season go by
without making some improvements
in his way of doing things will surely
find himself getting better animals
and gaining in self-respect and i'm
portance, not only to himself but to
the community as we'll
The one who thinks all he needs
to do to acquire fame and wealth is
to buy lot of purebred cattle, hogs,
horses, or sheep, and then proceed
to let them shift for themselves will
soon earn the reputation of "the man
with the undesirable purebreds" He
will find that his wealth is not the
kind the banker will recognize
Gradual continuous livestock i'm
provement has been practiced for ma
ny years by the most successful live
stock farmers everywhere. Improv-
ing live grading up, elimina-
ting the scrub, etc.-is merely follow
ing the practice of these successful
men who for years have been keeping
the best and breeding the best to the
S3OOA1
COW, for example, bred to good pure
bred bull will usually produce a good
calf 1t is also well known that a
better bull bred to a better cow will
produce better calf, and this applies
to other kinds IF live stock. l. was to
to emphasize this important practice
that the United States Department of
Agriculture, in cooperation with the
different state agricultural colleges
inaugurated the Better Sires-Bet-
ter Stock" crusade to raise the gen
eral quality and usefulness of our an,
imals. Not only the scrub sire is to
be eliminated but the undesirable sire
as well, even though he is purebred