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these several objects in view: First, he argued that, by keeping several cheap mares for general farm work, he could, by paying a nominal sum, say from two to five dollars, procure the service of a common country stallion, of entirely unknown origin; and well do I remember how, when quite a boy, I saw these stallions, gaily bedecked with a broad, fanciful breast girth, to keep the saddle in place, and the foretop and mane, and even, occasionally, the tail, plaited and tied up with red and blue ribbon, and the groom, who was, also, generally the owner, seated on the stallion as proudly as if the animal had been worth several thousand dollars, instead of so many hundreds. One old groom, I remember, always walked and led his stallion.

The next object of the farmer was to get all the work he could out of the mare, working her until within a week or a few days of her time for foaling. After the colt was one or two weeks old, the mare would again be put to work, and thus it was, he considered, that the comparative cost of the colt would be but trifling-never more, at the outside, than ten dollars.

Our farmers, we know, set a high value upon barn-yard manure, and our stock raiser would now reckon that the manure produced by a colt would about half pay for its keep until two years of age. Colts of a large growth are then, at the age of two or three years, hitched up in the manure wagon, or to the plow or harrow the farmer thinking that they are now old enough to earn their feed, or at least part of it. When five years old, the animal has arrived at a marketable age, and then the farmer often finds that out of five animals thus raised, two of them will have but little market value, being either leggy and overgrown, or too small, or having some material blemish. The other three may, ordinarily, command $120 per head, and that is a high average.

In many instances, the farmer will dispose of the most valuable, and retain the blemished or ill-shaped stock to do his work, and, in the course of a few years, will either sell these at low figures-say an average of fifty dollars or trade with a neighbor, of course, trying to get the best of bargain, or swap with a horse jockey, and get cheated. So that for the five colts thus raised, the farmer may receive the average price of ninetytwo dollars.

Now, had a strict account of expenses been kept, it would, no doubt, have been discovered that these animals really cost, at five years of age, no less than an average price of seventy-five dollars. Thus the average profits on the colts per head for five years would be only seventeen dollars. Rather slow business we would think. Even at these low figures, it is hard now to dispose of animals of this class to horse dealers, whilst, at the same time, these very dealers are receiving colts and horses from the western States, which, on account of their superior build, strength, and comeliness, sell readily, even to our farmers, at from $100 to $200 per head.

But our farmers and stock raisers generally are becoming more progressive, and are improving their breeds, and now many Norman and Percheron colts are raised here, and although the services of a well bred stallion may cost twenty-five dollars, the additional cost of raising a colt of this kind will be but very little, if any, more, as they are able to do more work between the ages of three and five years, and though they may, at the latter age, cost an average price of $100, or even $125, yet they will readily command an average of $160, thus leaving more than double the profit of the ill-bred stock, for the farmer will be very apt to have four out of five of well-bred animals of this class to be of good bone, well proportioned, and sound.

Besides this, many of these animals, on account of their size and weight, are salable at four years of age, which is another great advantage to the farmer, as he realizes his profits a year sooner than he otherwise would. I have rated these animals according to the present low market value. A few years ago they commanded far higher prices. There are, of course, some exceptions in this matter of ill-bred stock, as there are to all established rules. I will quote the following:

A farmer in my neighborhood raised six colts, all sound and well shaped, out of a blind, leggy, and very ill shaped mare. But he was careful to have her served invariably by a well-bred stallion, and the progeny taking after the stallion, these good results were thus obtained. I have not been able to learn whether any of the mare's progeny have been used for breeding purposes. If they have been, they will be quite likely to produce, at least, some colts having some of the bad qualities of the blind dam, and thus stock, instead of improving, will deteriorate.

The Mule.

I will say nothing in regard to raising horses for speed, but will now take up the animal of whom it has been said none ever have been known to die a natural death. I, of course, refer to that hybrid whose history and character Josh Billings seems to have studied so carefully for the sole purpose, seemingly, of maliciously slandering it.

There are, comparatively, few of these muchly abused, but inestimably serviceable, animals raised in this State. But a very large number are now used both by farmers and in the larger cities, to say nothing of the many used in the coal regions and by iron manufacturers. The principal reason that so few have been raised here is because our breeders have used miserable, scrawry little jacks, lacking style, shape, and spirit, and bred them to very ordinary mares. As a matter of course, their progeny are small, and although mules are ordinarily marketable at two or three years of age, yet our home raised mules appear so small at that age that they can scarcely be sold at any figure, though, as in the case of horses, western mules of improved breed sell readily here, at the same age, at from $100 to $150. Now, about the only difference in the price of raising a good, large marketable mule would be the first cost of a large and well-bred jack. His services would, necessarily, cost double or triple the price of service charged for the small donkeys now used for breeding, but there would be so much more demand for service as would soon pay the owner for the cost of his jack, and farmers, by breeding to large, well-formed mares, would be able to sell the progeny at two or three years of age at handsome profits, or keep and work them a life time, and then, if they have not been abused, sell them for the cost of raising.

The following brief account of mule breeding and improvement of this stock in Kentucky, the principal mule raising State of this country, may not be out of place:

"Up to the year 1835 the mule was bred solely with an eye to his size and efficiency for heavy drudgery and short fare. He was looked upon in the North as a degraded menial, only fit for the meanest of employments; in the South he was viewed as a necessary substitute for the noble horse, and always consigned to the care of the plantation negro. His breeding was from the diminutive but hardy donkey, common to most parts of Europe, introduced into Kentucky from the New England States and Virginia. The mares employed were the lame, the blind, and superannuated, that were considered unfit to breed colts, and a mule was a mule with a stereo

typed value. Twenty dollars at four months was the universal price, and forty-five dollars at two and one half years, when he was driven to the cotton grower. About the year 1835, the first effort was made to improve him by the Honorable Henry Clay, who introduced the Catalonian jack from Spain.

"Spain had been in possession for centuries of a race of jacks distinct from the common donkey introduced into that country by the Moors, and supposed to be of Arabian origin. This jack is entirely different from the common ass or donkey in every respect; of uniform black color; high trotting form; long neck; fine head and muzzle; fine thin skin and fine hair; round chest; high commanding carriage; and the spirit and bearing of the finest blood horse. He is also very uniform in size, varying from fourteen to fifteen hands high. The earlier importers introduced the jack only an error that the later ones have corrected-the first jennets of the true blood having been introduced about 1853. The result of this introduction of this improved race of asses has had a corresponding effect upon the growth of the mule.

"Instead of the ill-shapen, unsightly, repulsive brute that was grown, there is now the blood-like, high spirited, graceful animal, fit for any service. They are very rich in color, being mostly of a dark shade of bay. Their use has completely revolutionized the trade, breeders selecting the Spanish mule to the rejection of all others, and they sell readily at from $100 to $150, so that even a well bred mule, although costing but little more to raise, will realize nearly double the amount of an ill-bred one."

Cattle.

Turning now to cattle, I would preface my remarks with the oft repeated assertion, that most farmers keep too large a number of cattle. That is, they keep more than they can feed and care for profitably, not giving the proper attention to the selection of animals for breeding. They will not pay a few dollars for the service of a good bull, owned by some progressive breeder, when they can have service from a neighbor's, or perhaps their own ordinary bull, for nothing, when at the same time a calf by the former might be worth several dollars more for veal, or double the amount after arriving at maturity.

Many farmers also raise and keep scrubs for their own use, constantly breeding in and in, and continually retrograding, not thinking that the trouble of keeping a bull is more than all the expenses of the service of a good one. In Kentucky the raising of good stock has become quite a science; cows and bulls sell for thousands of dollars, and the service of bulls is often held at fifty dollars. The result is that good stock has increased so wonderfully, that whereas England was formerly considered the stock nursery of the world, and exported thousands of animals at almost fabulous prices, that country now turns to Kentucky and purchases large quantities of stock, also at high prices.

England imports both for breeding purposes and for food. In 1876, there were exported from the United States live cattle worth $1,110,703. In 1877, the export of live cattle to Great Britan amounted to $546,829. In 1876, Canada imported from the United States cattle worth $164,491. The following clippings from the Paris True Kentuckian files of 1876 and 1877, will show that all the cattle exported to England for food, the well bred have brought the high figures:

"Mr. Burns, who has been buying largely of our best cattle for Mr. Eastman, who is shipping to England, closes out his business to-day. We

are sorry to loose his trade, and hope Mr. Eastman has made it profitable enough to send him among us again. Mr. Burns has been shipping about two hundred and twenty-five head per week, for the last six weeks, and will ship his last lot of about four hundred this week.

"Nineteen cattle, averaging nineteen hundred pounds, were bought in Jessamine county, Kentucky, at nine cents per pound, for shipment alive to London market. Common cattle are bringing only three to three and three fourths cents in Jessamine county.

"The very fine lot of thirty-five Kentucky steers, which averaged fifteen hundred and ninety-six pounds, reached the high mark of twelve and a half cents, to dress fifty-eight pounds. These choice Durhams were purchased by the Samuel Brothers for shipment alive to great Britain."

Of the stock quoted above the well bred sold for two thirds more per pound than common cattle, I have no figures in regard to the cost; but they could certainly not have cost over one third more to raise, and then there would be at least one third more profit in the well bred.

Colonel Jeremiah Weaver, of Berks county, who has fed a large number of cattle and sheep, and who is of the opinion that well-bred stock is by far the most profitable, gives me the following memoranda. He says:

"In 1862, I bought forty-five head of well-bred cattle in northern Ohio. They weighed fourteen hundred and forty pounds per head. I walked them four hundred and fifty miles; commenced to feed them at home, November 21; fed fifty bushels of corn per head; sold them in Philadelphia, May 14, 1863, each bullock having gained an average of four hundred and eighteen pounds.

"Two years after that I fed forty-five head of ill bred cattle, whose weight averaged nine hundred pounds; fed from November until May. They gained only one hundred and twenty-three pounds.

"About the same time I bought a well bred cow for which I paid $100; raised out of her four calves; one bull when four years old, weighed dressed, fourteen hundred and eighty-eight pounds; one cow with her third calf sold for $85; one at $90; one excellent milker I still own; and the cow after being fattened brought me $97 50. At the same time the common breed of cows were selling at from $30 to $60.”

Jacob G. Zerr, President of the Berks County Horticultural and Agricultural Society, and a progressive farmer, says:

"I consider that it costs no more to raise good than ill-bred stock. A well-bred foal is worth from $20 to $100 more than one of the inferior blood. The comparative cost of raising is the same until three years of age, when the difference in value of the two might vary from $100 to $1,000, in favor of the well-bred colt.

"A good blooded calf when first dropped is valued by stock raisers at form $10 to $100. A common calf at the same period at from $3 to $10. The cost of raising the first year is about $10. Second year about $12. Third year $15. Cost of well bred at three years $47; ill bred $40. So that the former would cost about $7 more, it would probably sell at from $75 to $100, while ill bred would not bring more than cost of raising, which would make quite a contrast; certainly not in favor of ill breds.

"As to pigs. Pure blooded shoats at four weeks old will bring $10 per pair, while ill bred of the same age will bring form $3 to $5 per pair. Any farmer after once using a well bred boar, and feeding his stock liberally, will be convinced that he can produce better pork, and at considerable less expense than he could in the use of the common boar."

Mr. Zerr being a breeder and dealer in Berkshires, thinks that breed the best, being hardy, thriving fast, growing large, and laying on fat with

more streaks of lean meat running through the fat, and meat has a better and finer flavor than any other hog raised.

Of sheep, he says, pure blooded sheep will give a still better return for money invested than ill breds, as they have better and finer wool, worth more per pound in the market, and stock will increase faster in number, often doubling and tripling, and are worth more in the shambles than ill breds.

And now, in conclusion, I can only say that want of time alone prevented me from furnishing more figures to prove what I firmly believe, and that is, that well bred stock, although costing more originally, will in the end be far more profitable to the raiser than ill bred.

As a further proof of the good results of raising good stock, the secretary offered the following, furnished by a western correspondent, and, of course, dealing' with the question from a western stand point; with proper allowance for the difference in situation, the same argument may be used here.

1. Live weight of a Short-Horn, at two years old, fourteen hundred pounds. 2. Gain, first year, eight hundred pounds; second year, six hundred pounds.

3. Give the entire milk of the dam six months, and grain the remainder of the year.

4. Cannot attain as good results by feeding skimmed milk, nor even by hand feeding, counting labor.

5. Would consume ten bushels of corn the first year, and eight hundred pounds of hay; the second year, twenty bushels of corn, and two thousand pounds of hay.

Value of feed first year.-Milk $18; grain, $2 50; hay, $2; total, $22 50. Second year, Grain, $5; hay, $5; pasture, $6; total, $16. Total cost for two years, $38 50.

Manure and cost of marketing the grain, are equal to the care.

Value of steer, at two years, fourteen hundred pounds of beef, at five cents, $70. Deducting $38 50, cost of production, we have profit $31 50.

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Value at four years, weight nineteen hundred pounds, at six and a quarter cents,

Total cost for four years,

Net profit, if sold at four years old,

. $118 75

102 50

$16 25

Scrub Steer at Two Years Old.

Treated in the same way, the scrub will make, the first year, six hundred pounds; the second, four hundred pounds.

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