644 " ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



different order of men. They talked on an upward grade. Here 

 was another association. One good sire at registered prices, suc- 

 ceeded another. That was more association. Their minds began 

 to expand; they could see more in this business of dairy farming. 

 Their farms are selling for ,|10U to |150 an acre. They sell annually 

 a half million dollars' worth of cattle. Their sons are going ahead, 

 making more intelligent dairy farmers than did the fathers. They 

 are attending the short course at the College of Agriculture. Several 

 of them have branched out into breeding registered cattle. In 20 

 vears there will be hundreds of such breeders in Jefferson countv. 

 Who can measure the influence and effect upon a farmer when he 

 commences to associate with pure-bred cattle. 



Yes, Hiram Smith was right "A registered sire is a great edu- 

 cator." "A man is known by the company he keeps." Scrub cattle 

 will hold a man down to scrub ideas on general farming. There can 

 be no "upward step." The influence is retroactive on both the 

 farmer and his cattle. Better ideas lie at the bottom of all better- 

 ment. 



There are a hundred copies of dairy and agricultural papers read 

 by our Jefferson county farmers today ^^here there was one 20 

 years ago. The barns, the fences, the fields of alfalfa, clover and 

 corn, all show an upward trend in thought as well as in the methods 

 they practice. How powerful has been the reflex effect of this law 

 of association. Let us be careful of the company we keep. "Birds 

 of a feather flock together." When a man buys a registered sire 

 he gives notice to the world that he is on an up grade himself in 

 his ideas of cattle. It will not be long before he will think towards 

 miprovement in other things. 



• 



KEEP THE CALVES DRY AND CLEAN. 



Every human mother, that is fit to be a mother, knows that if her 

 baby is allowed to remain wet and uncleanly, it will soon grow 

 sickly. The bovine baby is strictly amenable to the same law. 

 Every calf raiser must have seen the ill effects of allowing calves 

 to lie in their own voidings and urine. A farmer was once showing 

 us his stock. His horses were bedded down with an abundance of 

 straw. His calves were lying in filth and moisture that made us 

 indignant to behold. '"What are you raising those calves for?" 

 we asked. "To make cows of them." he replied. "Oh, no, you are 

 not. You are raising them to be weak sickly failures," was our 

 answer. He confessed to us that he had lost a good many calves, 

 but he never had thought that the way he kept them was the 

 cause. 



Turn a calf or a pig out in tlie woods and it will find for itself 

 a bed of dry leaves in a clean place, and they will keep healthy, if 

 they have food enough. 



In my own calf stable every winter are from 25 to 30 calves. 

 Around the outside, next to the wall, is a feeding alley. Then comes 

 a row of stanchions, the only place on the premises where I use a 

 stanchion. Then comes the open ample room with a dirt floor. 

 This is covered every day, and if necessary, twice a day, either with 

 bright dry straw or shavings. This floor is sprinkled night and 

 morning with a good disinfectant. The calves are fed in these 



