RURAL NEW-YORKER 
1251 
The Good Breeder Holds His Own 
C ONTRASTED METHODS.—It is interesting to 
observe that the corn belt farmer who dicl not 
follow the clamor of the grain seller, but rather 
held firmly to his live-stock breeding operations, is 
not seriously embarrassed by existing discourage¬ 
ments. The farmer who had pigs coming on. and who 
could slip a load or two to market now and then, was 
able to keep his credit good without borrowing from 
the banks every time he went to town. The same 
thing holds true in beef production. During the 
period of greatest depression it was pointed out. that 
the stock farmer who depended upon the Western 
ranchman for his feeders and who bought long year¬ 
lings or two-year-olds and endeavored to feed them 
out and ripen them for the Chicago market lost 
money. lie paid too much for his Stockers and 
feeders, especially if he attempted to pick a bunch 
with some quality and uniformity. If he was con¬ 
tent with a selection of nondescript steers, varying 
in age. conformation, thrift and appearance, and did 
little or no culling, he paid much less for them, and 
in the end lost less 
money. This was due to 
the fact that the packers 
paid quite as much for 
warmed-up range steers 
as they did for finished 
natives, because the de¬ 
mand for cheap meat 
was greater, in propor¬ 
tion. than the call for 
heavy carcasses that 
usually are in demand 
for the export trade. 
CONSISTENT PRAC¬ 
TICE.—The farmer who 
maintained his breeding 
herd and raised his own 
calves was not brought 
into competition with 
these outside or adverse 
influences, and was able 
to make ends more than 
meet during the trying 
period, lie was able to 
group a. bunch of calves 
similar in age and qual¬ 
ity and. if lie was on to 
his job, he rushed them 
off to market before 
they put on too much 
weight, or before they 
cost him a lot of money 
in feed and finish. lie 
could turn right around 
and care for his next 
crop of calves, and m 
this way was in a position to maintain his regular 
farm practice and to utilize his surplus corn and oats 
to the best advantage. Instead of speculating and 
buying his neighbor’s farm on time, and choking his 
labor load, he held forth in regular form and aver¬ 
aged big on the three years’ turnover. 
UNWISE CHANCES—No one can intelligently 
deny that live-stock breeding, rather than exclusive 
live stock feeding, has enriched the greater number 
of corn belt farmers. By this I do not mean to 
restrict breeding to purebred animals. Rather, it is 
to he observed that where the graded herd was 
regularly topped with a purebred sire and average 
care exercised in growing and feeding the young¬ 
sters. it was necessary to build up the fences, keep 
down the meadows, and actually to be a patron of 
that kind of mixed farming which in the end pays 
regular dividends. In a recent column I pointed 
out the hazards that confront the tenant farmer in 
sections where this year’s crop would not begin to 
meet the actual contracts for interest and rental. 
If we should press harder into the reasons which 
contribute toward this condition I dare say we 
would he pretty generally supported by public senti¬ 
ment should we claim that the greatest factor re¬ 
sponsible for the existing burdens is not altogether 
low values for corn and oats, but rather an organ¬ 
ized movement on the part of the corn belt farmers 
to modify the farm practices and policies that were 
largely, if not entirely, responsible for their thrift 
and prosperity, viz., the production and maintenance 
of the proper kind and number of farm animals. 
BREEDERS’ TROUBLES.—Breeders of purebred 
animals often ignored their local trade and endea¬ 
vored to market their surplus breeding stock in 
other States, or in counties necessitating shipments 
by freight or express. They accepted notes that 
under ordinary conditions would be turned down. 
They sold at prices that could not possibly result 
in a profit to the buyer, and in the end they lost 
their own profit or commission, because some of the 
notes came back marked N. (i. In some instances 
animals were actually dizzy because they were put 
through the auction ring so many times. (Juarantees 
were made or implied that did not hold, and the 
public lost confidence in the purebred live stock 
fraternity. They refused to he further duped either 
by the high values or by the extravagant claims that 
were made for the prepotency or the latent wonders 
of the flesh-padded specimens. Inflated values? 
lies, and it will take a long time to satisfy the class 
of fanners who were misled and misguided or 
defrauded that certain breeders or groups of pro- 
•ninters have reformed to such a degree that the 
public can safely patronize them, or even attempt 
to go on with Hie trade that the scalpers so suc¬ 
cessfully shackled 
(’ONSERVATIVE METHODS.—For the most part 
the responsible breeders and registry associations 
have adopted a conservative basis for breed exten¬ 
sion work. Instead of serving as mere buying and 
soiling agents the field men are turning more in the 
direction of educational propaganda, and actually 
showing or citing instances where their favorite 
breed has more than made good with the farmer, or 
in sections such as the range where operations are 
executed on an extensive scale. Fixed or mere 
transfer auction or private sales are discouraged 
and exposed, and a concerted effort is being mani¬ 
fested to purge the sales ring of its sinister influences. 
THE DAIRY TOW.—The dairy cow is bound to 
step out into the limelight under prevailing condi¬ 
tions. She is by far the most economical transfer 
agency for converting feed into edible solids. Give 
her 100 pounds of digestible nutrients, and she will 
yield 18 pounds of edible solids, as against 2.75 
pounds of the steer. Is it any wonder that the dairy 
districts of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota are peo¬ 
pled with tenants who are able to pay their hills, 
while the less fortunate beef-maker is looking about 
for an animal machine which can function more 
efficiently? What policies have the dairy farmers 
in these sections followed during the past few years? 
Simply raising their own heifer calves from their 
best cows, and out of the sires that fuse blood lines 
which carry milk-making tendencies in every vein, 
in other words, the bulk of them have been breeders 
as well as milk salesmen, who now find that their 
herds are rated high as profitable producers of 
market milk. 
THE FINANCIER’S ATTITUDE.—It is only nat¬ 
ural that banking interests should be among the first, 
to appreciate these factors, for it requires concerted 
interests to pay the kind of interest that hanks in 
sist upon collecting. The paper signed up by a 
dairyman who makes it a fixed practice to raise, 
rather than assemble from here and there, the calves 
and cows to replenish his herd, is much more ac¬ 
ceptable to the man behind the cashier’s cage than 
that usually presented h.v the dairy farmer, who 
thinks milk, new or skimmed, is too valuable to feed 
to his heifer calves, and who decides to buy cows 
from the dealer to keep his production up to a 
sn tisfactory standard. 
After all, it is mighty hard to depend upon the 
other fellow to do what you ought to do in the way 
of raising breeding stock to fit into your own stalls 
and feeding practices. There are many differences 
between a breeder of dairy animals, a dairyman 
and a mere cow dealer 
or milkman. F. c. M. 
W ater W itch F ailed 
Y OUR recent discus¬ 
sion on water 
witches brings to mind 
an instance I recall 
when I was a very 
small boy, nearly 50 
years ago. My father 
wished to dig a well to 
supply the kitchen, etc. 
He had selected the 
most convenient location 
and was preparing to 
begin operations. At 
this juncture he was 
prevailed, upon to allow 
one of those “diviners” 
to tell him where the 
water was. My father 
did not believe in signs, 
but. figuratively speak¬ 
ing. he was always from 
Missouri, so lie con¬ 
sented to have the man 
come. He came by ap¬ 
pointment, and had with 
him his choice witch 
hazel forked stick. Many 
of tlie neighbors were 
on hand to see the dem¬ 
onstration. By bis 
method my father’s lo¬ 
cation was proved to he absolutely without water, 
but at quite «m inconvenient location on the other 
side of the bouse there was water—and plenty of it. 
I can see the expression on my father’s face at 
once. It was a mixture of disgust, pity and doubt. 
After a few shrewd questions, in which the man 
committed himself, that the stick was the all potent 
factor, that no movement or turn of his hand was 
responsible for the turning, etc., etc., he consented 
to be blindfolded, and to paraphrase a certain pop¬ 
ular cartoonist of the day, “that is where he made, 
his big mistake.” I must admit that my father was 
skillful in the conducting of that man around the 
premises, hut the afternoon proved to be a very 
amusing one for all present, with the single excep¬ 
tion of the wise man manipulating the forked stick. 
The impression made upon my mind on that after¬ 
noon that the whole performance was a fake will 
require more evidence than I have yet found to prove 
otherwise. Let me add, too, my father proceeded 
to dig Hie well at Hie original site and found an 
abundance of water, “as cold as ice,” at the usual 
depth of the community—50 feet. c. h. r. 
New York. 
A Converted Scientist- 
T happens that I was one of those scientific ones 
who scoffed at the idea. What was my astonishment 
one day, in experimenting with the thing, to have 
the stick turn! I tried to stop it and think that T 
was fooling myself, but I had to admit that it cer¬ 
tainly turned. Then I really began to be interested, 
and investigated in earnest. T tried known springs 
and pipe lines and found the stick would turn over 
these but would not turn a short distance away. 
