Good and Bad Farm Stock
There is no fact in agriculture more fully established than that it will not pay to keep poor stock, when it is possible to secure that of a better quality. A few years since the rage for Durham, Alderney, Devon and other choice breed of cattle prevailed very extensively throughout the country. Fabulous price were paid for superior animals of these breeds, and there appeared to be a fair prospect of something like a reform in the matter of stock raising. Like so many other movements in agriculture, this spirit of improvement has subsided, and we find our farmer relapsing into then ill company should this be? The cost of keeping an inferior cow is precisely the same as that of a better one. A good horse will always command a better price I the market, or is more valuable to its owner for his own purposes than a poor one. The cost of keeping is the same. Why not then raise the best horse? There are breeds of swine that grow rapidly and fatten upon much less food, and in a sorter time that others. Why not procure these improved kinds? The same may be said of sheep. poultry and . In fact. Every kind of farm stock, and yet e find thousands of farmers, in the face of these incontrovertible facts, array themselves in steady hostility to all movements having for the object the improvement of domestic farm animals.
They cling to the inferior stock with a pertinacity that is surprising. In many cases the secret of the matter is their unwillingness to make the first investment. Fifteen dollars seems to be a large price to pay for a two months’ old chestier county white pig, when commoner animals can be had at one-fifth the price. But all experience proves that in the long run the best are the cheapest Were it the first outlay, there would be room for the indulgence of the hope that our farm- stock generally would improve in character. This will be accomplished only when farmer realize fully the fact that it does not pay to keep poor stock.
Title: Good and Bad Farm Stock
Author: Unknown
Location: Unknown
Year: Unknown
Media: Newspaper article, glued to Page 172 to the Ledger of Captain W. B.
Blair
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