PERSISTENT EFFORT NEEDED ON THE FARM.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2580, 14 July 1882, Page 3

PERSISTENT EFFORT NEEDED ON THE FARM.

[‘'American Paper."] The results come far abort of surfng 6 requiremout.fi of this age, if a farmer X‘ satisfied with cattle stock that in fairly good, Css o;wa yielding 61b or Tib of butter a week, and tbo Btsora growing up to fair size, and '»ot.ting tolerably fat on what passes for good farm keep at four ytin old. Farmers in these dare are, figuratively speaking, squealed between'two mill stones. Their ta res, direct and indirect, as compared to the period when the present farmers of fifty and over b’gan their farming, are largely increased. We have no simplicity in official stations nowadays. Love of country, and desire to servo our fellow-man, hava given place to greed after office, largely for the cake of the pay it affords. Ocnside rations that formerly insured economy in public expenditures, and consequently low taxes, cut no figure in these days, hence nearlv every thing" the farmer buys for his own 'consumption is taxed heavily, or is shoddy, or the two are combined. Hsr.ee cows that will make tin or seven pounds of butter a week, and Bteers that at four years will weigh 1200, and sell at a low figure per hundred, cannot be relied on to meet the expenditure of tbe average farmer’s family of this day. The farm that has increased in value from fifteen to forty dollars an acre, is put to a very poor use when devoted to growing the grade of stock which prevailed on the fifteen dollar land. Then the opportunities for improvement were very widely scattered. The mass of farmers were so situated that it required a journey of from one hundred to several hundred miles to procure a well bred bull calf. Thus, the remoteness of supply and the then meagre income, cut efi facilities for improvement, and farmers were more excusable for keeping the only kind they had opportunities lo procure. But now the c rcumstanoEH ere entirely different. Well-bred stock of every kind, like the locomotive, has found its way to the very base of the mountains of Colorado and New Mexico ; is seeking access to the valleys bevonl, and is scattered over all the country this side. So there is no_ obstacle in the way of cur farm stock becoming rapidly re-invigorated, taking on the high-price , early maturing form in place of that of the rardy growers, too common even in our day. Yet, improvement in farm stock, outside of the- swine herd, is a thing of slow growth. This is demonstrated every day at any principal stock market in the country, through the very meagre showing of good beasts on sale. For proof of this, see how small a proportion of six cent cattle are offered, and bow extended the list of sales at half, or a fraction over half this figure. The consumers ia the country at large, even much the largest portion of those whe live in the principal Western cities, eat very indifferent beef "and mutton, because they cannot procure better grades. By the ama tho usual culling hai taken place, the best being selected for shipment to Eastern cities and to Europe, a hrga proportion of all tbe offerings remaining aro what are termed “butcher’s and cancer’s slock’'—low-down grades at best. Toe cancers go upon the proposition that anything that ia bi cf,evenif from an old worn out bu.l, or a superannuated i o 3W, too old to fatten well, will boil toleri ably tender if the process is long enough continued, and will sell to the class of persons who are expected to eit this kind of leathery, insipid meat. 'With all tho avenues that aro now opened for improvement, coupled with the fact that oar farmers are now quite . ready .to concede tho necessity of pushing our gradai of stock up to a higher standard, for the reasons given above, tho native cattle , still far outnumber the better kinds ; and , ignoble blood is so fixed in the scrub beast, ; that to eradicate this requires a great deal ofr paUenoe and perseverance.