JUDICIOUS SELECTION OF HELP.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2721, 29 December 1882, Page 3

JUDICIOUS SELECTION OF HELP.

Farm animals at pasture, permitted to go here and there at will, water being within reach, are generally under circumstances favorable to thrift; but the coming o winter means, to the stabled animals, imprisonment. Under this confinement they have no liberty to seek food, but are dependent entirely upon the orders of the owner, and upon the faithfulness of the attendant in carrying out these orders. The animal at liberty takes its rations leisurely, and these being usually of grass alone, is not gorged. But when Ihe transfer to the stable is made, and grain feeding begins, then more judgment and faithfulness is required than the average hired man possesses. Winter feeding requires to be commenced upon farm animals with consummate skill, because if any excesses are committed at the start, deranged digestion may affect the overfed animal all winter, recurring from time to time as too much food is received. So many men who hire out—we refer now to the hired man as this term is generally understood, and not to the professional herdsman have grown up in such a haphazard way, subjected to no discipline or system in their way of doing, that they are not really responsible ; and the employer who takes them with any other intention than being ground in person from hour to hour, or having a responsible head, or foreman, to direct their movements, will be disappointed. Ordinary hands may do fairly well in caring for common work horses, but in the care of cattle and swine that are confined to close quarters, they fail signally as a rule. U nder such help, breeding animals are fed and watered to excess one day, and neglected on the next. Cows on the eve of calving, and brood sows about to drop their litters, are fed to repletion, thus laying the foundation for inflamed udder and indigestion in the young calf or pigs. The farmer who keeps valuable stock, if he is a good care-taker himself, and is duly acquainted with their wants, may get along very well during the summer season without a herdsman, but during the winter he cannot afford to take the chances on animals of high value without skilled help, such as has come to him with .amide recommendations. The loss of an udder, or a portion of it, comes of slight neglect, and an udder once damaged never regains its soundness. The careless man letting a calf to its dam at night may flatter himself that all the teats are emptied, while perhaps only two or three were, and the others may be ruined or seriously damaged by morning. A two hundred dollar cow may be said to have one fourth her entire value m each teat. If one quarter of the udder is destroyed, some buyers would say one-fourth her value was gone. If half the udder was destroyed, it is a question whether the average buyer would want her at more than half her value if perfect. Certainly he would not if any deformity followed the injury. Hence, a hired man who permits accidents of this kind to occur, so easily avoided as they are, becomes very expensive, and can bo employed with safety only when closely watched.