448 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



lodging were so unsuitable as to entirely suspend growth for five 

 months in the year, and this continued from year to year the 

 consequences would be ruinous. Protection from the rigors of 

 winter, ample provision of suitable food, strict care and atten- 

 tion that this is given them regularly and with economy, is an 

 absolute necessity, A good authority on the subject has said, 

 4 Be diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well 

 to thy herds.' All this is a condition of success. 



"In farming, especially if stock growing is included, as in 

 every other business or profession, a man who has a taste and love 

 for it, who takes into his business some degree of enthusiasm 

 and a purpose, if possible, to excel, is the man most likely to 

 succeed. 



"Let us congratulate ourselves that ours is a mixed hus- 

 bandry. Favored with a great variety of soil and climate, we can 

 successfully cultivate a great variety of crops, and breed and 

 rear all the domestic animals necessary for our use and comfort. 

 Our occupation, thus varied, is far more attractive, and makes 

 necessary a higher degree of intelligence, and is relieved of the 

 monotony and irksome drudgery that attach to farm life in less 

 favored countries." 



Stock on the farm, intelligently managed, gives a home mar- 

 ket for its bulky products, thus making of the farmer a manufac- 

 turer, and furnishes the means of enriching the soil and improv- 

 ing and greatly increasing its productions. 



The breeding, rearing, feeding, and care of stock will be 

 treated in these pages from a practical stand-point, and I shall 

 avail myself of all the help I can get from practical farmers, be- 

 lieving that a record of successful management will be of greater 

 benefit to our readers than histories of breeds, long pedigrees, 

 or fine-spun theories. 



