California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



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Pure Breeds. 



ANY farmers make a great mistake by 



alwaj's beiug anxious to change or 



^.. cross their breeds. It they would first 



C\^» determine what they consider to be the 



if^"^ best breed of cattle or horses, sheep or 

 Bwiue, and then make every movement in im- 

 proving and perfecting that breed and keep- 

 ing it iu the highest state of purity -it would 

 be far better. Every farmer knows whether 

 he keeps cattle for beef or butter or cheese. 

 If for beef — if that is the main object — the 

 Short-horn is unsurpassed. If beef is the 

 main object and milk a secondry oliject, still 

 the Sh<n't-horn stands first, and every ettort 

 should lie made to keep it pure, and to im- 

 prove it, for the purposes for which it is kept. 

 If a high quality of butter is wanted — if this 

 is the main object — Jersey butter eomuiauds 

 the highest price in market; and Jersey cows 

 will make more on the same feed than any 

 other breed. The Jersey, then, should be 

 bred pure, and be improved instead of cross- 

 ing other breeds upon it. The Devon makes 

 good butter and beef, though small for beef 

 purposes; but in hilly countries, where a great 

 deal of traveling is done to obtain subsist- 

 ence, and where there is considerable expos- 

 ure, and especially for working cattle also — 

 the Devon stand high. The man who has 

 the Devons should keep them pure, and al- 

 low no other crosses. The Ayrshires are 

 highly recommended for cheese purposes. 

 Farmers keeping any of these lireeds should 

 get them pure as soon as possible, and keep 

 them so. 



The same may be said of all kinds of stock. 

 If you have Berkshire swine don't cross 

 other br-'eds on them, but add pure, fresh 

 blood to them. When you buy. let it be more 

 Berkshires, if you like that breed; and none 

 seems to lie healthier, hardier, better gi-azers, 

 or coming up nearer to tlae wants of the far- 

 mer. If you have the Peplaud-Chiua, and are 

 jileased with as large a hog as this, and if you 

 are in a fine corn ceuintry, you should not 

 cross another breed on them, but liuy more 

 of the best breeding stock, to keep fresh 

 blood in it. The same may be said of poul- 

 try. Instead of keejiing two or three or 

 half a dozen varieties of poultry, keep one, 

 and keep it jiure, and try to have the best of 

 anybody. It is always disadvantageous to be 

 obliged to shut uii poultry in yards. Thej' 

 want exercise, fresh air, a variety of food. 

 They can secure these better, if allowed to go 

 whithersoever they choose, than to be shut up 

 iu close yards. 



One of the advantages in keeping stock 

 pure is, you can sell it for five times as much, 

 when kept ]iiire, as you can, if constantly 

 ciMssing, so you can't tell what you have got. 

 This is the course breeders are pursuing, and 

 one farmer can become a breeder of ]iure tine 

 stock, as well as another. It is admitted that 

 skillful breeders are making money. Let 

 every reader become a skillful breeder of some 

 kind of stock. It is no more trouble than to 

 be always crossing. Aim at excellence as a 

 breeder, and you can reach it with the proper 

 eft'ort. — Uitral Wurkl. 



The above advice is correct inasmuch ns it 

 ajiplies to the lireeding of pure stock of any 

 kind. But while it jiays to breed pure stock 

 alone, it also pays to mix pure blood with 

 common stock and grade it up as fast as pos- 

 sible. 



i^iZ^ 



Here is another definition of a thorough- 

 bred, which is worthy of remembering. "A 

 thoroughbred animal is the offspring r)f a dam 

 and sire, each of five^lnl•olltaminated crosses, 

 and a half-thoroughbred must have a d.ani er 

 sire that is full thoroughbred. A full blood 

 anim.al is one of which the sire and dam 

 have e;ich uncontamiuated blood of the same 

 strain." 



To Fatten Cattle. — We clip the following, 

 by E. A. Steele, a prominent stock raiser of 

 Kansas, from the Drover's Journal. If stock 

 raisers could and would be guided by it, the 

 quality of cattle sent to miirket would be rap- 

 idly changed: 



The price of cattle fattened for market de- 

 pends on the symmetry of the animal, as well 

 as the fat style, as shippers term it. I want 

 here to state that good blood is important, but 

 not absolutely necessary to make what is 

 termed a good seller. In order to fatten a 

 steer to bring the highest market price, he 

 must be kept in a growing condition from a 

 calf, and in no case allowed to go hungry. It 

 is the starving the first and second years that 

 \vilts and shrivels up a steer, that causes him 

 to be sold at a reduced price. No amount of 

 feeding will make him a first class seller, no 

 dift'erence what his color or blood. An ani- 

 mal well fed (I care not what the blood — Tex- 

 as or not) from a calf until he is three years 

 old, will be smooth, with bones well covered, 

 and will sell at a profit; while a half starved 

 animal becomes crooked in the back, bones 

 projecting and shriveled up, takes the best 

 part of the Summer to get in a condition to 

 live, and will not be in a condition for market 

 until he is four years old, and then will bring 

 a price which is unsatisfactory to the produc- 

 er, and to every one that handles him. This 

 is no theory, but a fact, deduced from close 

 observation, as I have tested the plan for sev- 

 eral years. 



It will, and does pay to feed corn to calves 

 and yearlings. They start out on grass in the 

 Spring strong and vigorous. You are then 

 able to market yofir cattle the Spring they are 

 three years old, weighing 1,400 pounds, which 

 is heavy enough to bring the first price. The 

 best steer I sold in 1S72 was a common native. 

 He had all he could eat from a calf, and was 

 never hungry. He was a handsome animal, 

 and worth more per pound than anything I 

 shipped in 187'2. He weighed in Chicago 

 1,350 pounds; age, three years. I have a 

 steer calf eleven months old. from a very or- 

 dinary cow. The calf in May weighed 060 

 pounds. I think it will weigh, when three 

 years old. 1,-500 pounds. I do not wish it un- 

 derstood that I am not in favor of improving 

 the blood as well as feed. 



I shipped two Texas steers this Spring, 

 which were three years old. They were 

 smooth and nice, and I sold them with a lot 

 of Durhams four years old at the same price, 

 and they were worth as much per pound and 

 weighed better according to age. They were 

 raised and fed by dilTereut parties. 



Mammoth, overgrown steers have had their 

 day, and we now tome down to the neat, com- 

 pact, well fattened animal, both in hogs and 

 cattle. To accomplish this in cattle, good 

 feeding from a calf is necessary. 



Docs AND Sheep. — One might ask, why 

 don't you kill off the dogs? The reason is a 

 simple one; a farmer's dog often saves him 

 his crop. Dogs have been used so much for 

 the protection of grain from stock that csjie- 

 cially iu the past they have seemed indispen- 

 sable. As a solution of this question, how- 

 ever, an exchange suggests the following: It 

 is a well established fact that bells on a flock 

 of sheep is a preventive against the ravages of 

 dogs. A half-dozen or dozen small, clear- 

 toned bells to fifty sheep would be sufficient. 

 Added, kill every dog suspected of depredat- 

 ing uiion them. 



SnauB Stock. — "What is ' scrub stock?' " 

 aslcs a correspmident of the Ihiral jVoc Yorhrr. 

 Whether this (]iiesliou is asked in good faith 

 or not — whether it is sent in "just to see 

 what we will say," or not, we propose to an- 

 swer it; and our answer is that it is any kind 

 of stock which does not pay maximum profits 

 for keeping and feeding. In other words it 

 is that kind of stock which is not Ihc bed for 

 th(! purjiose for which it is kept. 



Stock Pats Axl the Time. — The heading 

 of this article, says the Vall&y Fanner, was 

 the remark of an old farmer the other day, 

 while deploring the failure of his wheat crop. 

 "One year the wheat fails, another year the 

 corn; but," says he, "stock l»ys all the 

 time." He, moreover, remarked that the far- 

 mers who early gave their attention to stock 

 raising, had gone right along without set- 

 backs, and had outstripped the grain growers. 



There is, no doubt, much truth in the old 

 man's remarks. Stuck is the surest and most 

 remunerative. But in thickly settled regions 

 it is better and safer to divide the interest be- 

 tween the two. The two assist each ether 

 and improve the farm. Waste straw and of- 

 fal of the stock go far in fertilizing the soil 

 and improving its capacity for productiveness. 

 The strength of the soil is a great desideratum 

 with the farmer. The soil is the mine of 

 wealth — his treasury — his bank of deposit. 

 He must keeii it good, or his paper is protest- 

 ed; his reputation as a farmer is dishonored. 



It is well to keep a variety of stock as well 

 as to raise a variety of grain crops. The gen- 

 eral profits of each year are thus kept nearly 

 equal. Farming may be done closer, less 

 wasted and more made. 



In Southwestern Texas, there is a cattle 

 raiser who has lived there twenty years. On 

 going there he picked up a dozen cows and 

 bi-anded them. He had no laud, but was the 

 jiossessor of a wife, two or three children, and 

 a few do^s and two or three horses. He kept 

 watch on his cows and lived in a hand-to- 

 mouth way several years, sustaining his fam- 

 ily by the capture of game and the sale of 

 skius. In May, 1873, he owned 30,000 head 

 of cattle, duly branded, and ranging over the 

 plains. He has a family of nine children, 

 five of whom are boys. 



His eldest child is a girl, nineteen years of 

 age. She can rope a steer, kill a wolf with a 

 rifle, or strangle a dog at arm's length. In 

 the man's house is a nail keg, nearly filled 

 with gold coins, while in the pantry is a flour 

 barrel almost filled with silver pieces. When 

 he sells cattle it is for coin which is dumped 

 on the premises. He will not take paper 

 money at any rate, but is always ready to sell 

 steers for gold or silver. The house occupied 

 by this prosperous family is low, built of logs 

 and contains three rooms. The father and 

 mother sleep in the dining-room, the girl 

 sleeps in the spare room, while the boys sleep 

 iu the addition. 



. ■ ^1 1^ < 



Those who are giving their attention to the 

 breeding of pure blooded Norman Pereherou 

 horses are on the road to weidth. Perhaps 

 no subject has been spoken of so often as the 

 matter of choice of animals for breeding pur- 

 poses. At the same time there is no doubt 

 but that the mass of our farmers to-day are 

 heedless of this important matter. Why is 

 it that the cry is made to-day that 

 there is no money iu raising horses? Simply 

 because our farmers do not accept as a fact 

 that "blood will tell" and that it costs but a 

 trifle more to raise a horse that will be worth 

 from $200 to I^IOO when he is four years old 

 than one that it is hai'd work to sell for $75. 

 — Fine Stock Gazelle. 



Says the Fine Slock Oazelle : Ponder over 

 this showing, you wheat-growers who have 

 mortgaged your farms tor machinery. Four 

 thousand seven hundred and fifty hogs, 

 weighing 1,440,400 pounds, were shipped 

 from Iowa City, Iowa, during the month of 

 January, averaging S^fi 30 pi'r cwt. Thus u 

 nice little $84,445 is brought right into one 

 community in cash, and of course cannot fail 

 to put that community, financially, in much 

 better circumstances than its neighbors who 

 have had no faith in swine-growing. 



When an animal has been gi-own upon cor- 

 rect principles, it is at all times merchantable, 

 and the addition of flesh to ahnost any re- 

 quired aiuiumt is very simple. 



