Vol. LXV. No. 2960. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 20, 1906. 
WEKKTA*. ,fl.00 PER YEAR. 
ABERDEEN ANGUS CATTLE IN DELAWARE . 
Why Do We Breed Them? 
First, for breeding purebred stock to supply the de¬ 
mand of ranchmen or farmers wanting to grade up the 
common stock to a higher standard. Second, as a 
manure manufactory to improve our soil. Third, be¬ 
cause we believe the Angus the best baby beef breed 
in tlie world. Fourth, because less labor 
is required to raise beef than dairy cat¬ 
tle. Fifth, because we can keep about 
double the number on same acreage in 
better condition. Sixth, because the time 
is close at hand when our beef must be 
raised on small farms at higher prices 
and with better quality. We first began 
cattle breeding with registered Holsteins, 
but at the same time we put in the pas¬ 
ture one Angus bull and heifer, and 
through the grass season gave no grain 
or feed of any kind. When we took 
them in for Winter our Holsteins were 
thin and poor, while the two Angus were 
fat and in fine shape for beef. We did 
not desire to go in the dairy business, as 
the extra work would interfere with our 
other work, but we did desire to keep 
cattle, for we must have manure to im¬ 
prove the soil. We found we could keep 
about two Angus to one Holstein on the 
same acreage, and have them in good 
beef shape almost any time in the year. 
We decided this was the breed we needed, 
disposed of our Holsteins, and settled 
down on the Aberdeen Angus, the best 
breed of baby beef cattle in the world, 
we believe. We are breeding them for 
stock to sell for breeding purposes to be 
used either in purebred herds or for 
grading up to a high standard the com¬ 
mon cattle. We also find many dairymen 
who sell their calves for veal find it profit¬ 
able to use an Angus bull, as it will add 
about five dollars’ profit on every veal 
calf at eight weeks old, no matter how 
small or common the cow. The smallest 
Jersey cow will bring a calf worth five 
dollars more if sired by an Angus bull. 
Another point why we are breeding 
Angus cattle is the fact that the great 
ranches of the Far West are fast disap¬ 
pearing, and being cut up into small 
farms, so that cheap pasture lands and 
cheap cattle will soon be a thing of the 
past, and our beef will have to be raised 
on the farms and at higher prices. This 
will necessitate first-class stock only, as 
it does not cost as much to raise a pure¬ 
bred beef animal as it does to raise a 
scrub, and the scrub will only sell for 
scrub price in the market, about two- 
thirds of what a good first-class beef 
animal will bring. This brings us to the 
point where we decided the best bred 
stock was the cheapest in the end to use 
for breeding purposes. 
The large ranches in Texas and the 
West are using purebred bulls as much 
as they can with their common cattle. This is pro¬ 
ducing a better class of feeders every year. The price 
for this class ranged from four to 4^2 cents on the hoof 
in Chicago all last season, while the price for common 
feeders was two to 3J4 cents. November 2, 1905, Mc- 
Pherrin Bros. & Co., of Oakland, Iowa, marketed in 
Chicago 55 head of prime Angus yearlings averaging 
1,118 pounds, which were sold to the United States 
Dressed Beef Co. at $6.30 per hundred pounds. It ap¬ 
pears to us that $70.40 per head for yearling steers 
is not bad, and we think in a short time this class of 
beef will sell for seven or eight cents per pound on the 
hoof in any of our markets. While it takes a purebred 
foundation to get these prices, will it not pay the east¬ 
ern farmers to grow this beef and at the same time 
enrich the soil? In some of our Eastern and South¬ 
ern States the scarcity and inefficiency of farm labor 
makes it undesirable to keep dairy cattle for profit, 
while these same people do desire to keep cattle for 
the manure if they can find a breed which will be 
profitable. We are being continually asked why we 
cannot sell an Angus bull at the prices of dairy bred 
cattle. This should be plain enough to anyone who 
will give it a thought. We keep the cow only for the 
increase, realizing not one cent of profit except from 
the calf in a whole year. The cow is worth from $150 
to $500 as the case may be; we must keep one or two 
bulls to use with them worth not less than $500 to 
$2,000 each. It does not take a expert to figure out the 
cost of a beef-bred calf five to 10 months old. 
Delaware. ___ myer & son. 
THE WORK OF POULTRY KEEPING. 
Mr. Mapes, on page 705, commenting on the article 
by F. C. C., page 642, asks “What about 
that dead lift of 60 tons made by Mr. 
Cosgrove?” It so happened that I had 
not read F. C. C.’s article, and did not 
know where Mr. Mapes got the figures, 
but I thought, “Whew! That’s not a bad 
lift for a man near 70, and whose fighting 
weight is only 125 pounds.” But I pre¬ 
serve my R. N.-Y., so I looked up F. 
C. C.’s article, and found his estimate of 
the amount of grain lifted in a year was 
not far wrong, but it is only handled once 
by me, instead of three times as F. C. C. 
had figured. The grain dealer puts it in 
the wagon, I take it out and carry it 
about 10 feet to the bins. It is about as 
far as I -want to carry it, however, and 
when I was 13 years younger and had 
just come out here from New York I 
could not carry 100 of grain at all. So 
country life and air must be credited with 
an increase of strength, even with the 
handicap of 13 added years. I think F. 
C. C. rather exaggerates the amount of 
lifting necessary. My henhouses are 
cleaned out only once a week, and my 
13-year-old boy cleans them all out and 
sifts fresh earth on the droppings boards, 
and sometimes has it all done in two 
hours. The ‘‘200 or 300 bushels of man¬ 
gels” I do not use at all. putting in 500 
head of cabbage in pits instead, and these 
pits are in the henyard, close to the 
houses, so as to save labor. In fact, there 
is no work about it that a boy a dozen 
years old cannot do except the lifting of* 
the grain; and as Mr. Mapes suggests, 
the dealer would probably separate it 
into 50-pound lots for a small additional 
price. But while the work is not so ex¬ 
ceedingly heavy, yet it is constant, and no 
detail can be neglected for long without 
bad results. A man or woman needs 
plenty of “stick-to-itiveness” to succeed 
in the hen business. 
The “killing and dressing of 600 cock¬ 
erels and hens,” mentioned by F. C. C., 
is not necessary. I sell all my broilers 
alive in the Hartford market, and all old 
hens in New York, where live fowls are 
always quoted as much as and sometimes 
more than dressed ones. We never spend 
any time dressing fowls except occasion¬ 
ally one for a neighbor, and what we 
want for our own use. 
Mr. Mapes thinks “rent would cost $10 
to $15 a month, because houses cost as 
much to build in the country as in the city.” 
But around here the houses were built 50 
to 100 years ago, and a good comfortable 
house of six to 10 rooms “fit for a self-respecting 
American family” to dwell in, with plenty of land at¬ 
tached can be hired for $5 to $6 a month. It is the 
demand for the houses, not what the house cost, that 
regulates the price of rent. I agree with Mr. Mapes 
that a man could not make many mistakes to have 300 
hens average him an income of $400 to $500 per year, 
though mine have done it or better year after year. 
I agree also that a “self-respeciing American family” 
A BUNCH OF BLACK YOUNGSTERS AT PASTURE. Fig. 329. 
