GOING INTO DEBT.

Patea Mail, Volume III, Issue 302, 9 March 1878, Page 4

GOING INTO DEBT.

■ Half the young men in the country, ’ with many old enough to know better, would “go int« business,” that is into debt to-morrow, if they could. Most poor men are so ignorant as to envy the merchant and manufacturer, whose life is an incessant straggle with pecuniary difficulties, who is driven to • ’constant ‘ shining,’ and who from month ; to month barely evades that insolvency which sooner or later overtakes most men in business; so that it has been ■ computed that but one in twenty of them achieves a pecuniary success. For my - own part—-and I speak from sad experience—l would rather be a convict in a State prison, a slave in a rice : swamp, than to pass through life under the harrow of debt. Let no man misjudge himself unfortunate or truly poor as long as he has the full use of his limbs and faculties, and is substantially free from debt. Hunger, cold, rags, bard work, contempt, suspicion, unjust i-e----proach are disagreeable; but debt is infinitely worse than them all. I repeat, my yong friends, avoid pecuniary obligations as you would pestilence and famine. If you have but fifty cents and can get no more for a week, buy a peck of corn, parch it and live on it, rather than owe any man a dollar ! Of course I know that, some men must do business that involves risk, and must often give notes and other obligations, and I do not consider him really in debt who can lay his hand directly on the means of paying at some little cacrifico all ho owes. I speak of real debt, that which involves risk or sacrifice on the one side, obligation and dependence on the other; and I say, from all snob let every youth humbly pray God to preserve him evermore !—“ Horace Greeley.”

gMITHFIELD CATTLE SHO W. The Smithfiold annual cattle show was held at the Agricultural Hal!, Loudon, on the 10th December last. In cattle the Devons appeared to bold very liigli position, as will bo seen from the following extracts from English papers—The Times says :—The red rosette denoting the first prize of £25 as best animal in its class, the red and white marking the first prize of £4O as best of the breed, and tho red and blue riband proclaiming tho winner of the £SO cup as best ox or steer, are suspended over the Prince of Wales’ Devon steer, three years and two mouths old, fed by His Royal Highness at Sandringham, and bred by Mr IV. Shaplaud, of North Moltou, Irom whose herd it was selected for the Prince by Mr Walter Farthing. Now, this is an unusually handsome little steer, for he is small iu frame, and that is his principal shortcoming; but, with the exception of his thighs being somewhat light and his liindquarter slightly tapering off iu tho manner characteristic of the breed, his form is well nigh matchless, and exactly such as charms the eye in a picture of what a model Devon should be. A neat head, ornamented with fine bright, bonis, a surprising neck-vein, chine, shoulder, fore-flank, rib, flank, and twist, a true line along shoulder-top, back, loin, to the setting on of the tail, with another line as level running from brisket to underpoint, distinguish this prime little animal j and his even feeding and tho beautiful quality of his flesh cannot be over-praised. Still, he lacks the expansion of frame and grand proportions of Mr Kiduer’s Devon ox of last year's Show. Referring to the Devons, the Standard .observes :—These classes are well filled •with animals that represent the old.ostablished and most approved herds; ■and are all beautiful of their kind. The younger classes, both of steers and heifers, have some perfect specimens among them: but it is iu the second class, for steers not exceeding three years and three months old, as we have already hinted, that we find the best of any of the Devons—the Prince of Wales’ three years and two months steer, fed at ♦Sandringham, and bred by Mr W. Shapland from the stock of Mr G. Shapland, of North Molton. It needs not the eye of a connoisseur to discover his merits. His level back, round barrel, •deep chest, small head, fine hocks, and soft hide at once mark him out for the di.>ti.U’t’ox! conferred upon him by the judges as winner of the first prize for his class, and of the silver cup for the best of the Devon classes, thereby constituting him a competitor for the Champion Plate of one hundred guineas, given by tho Agricultural Hall Company to the exhibitor of the best beast in the Show, The Prince also shows in the first and third classes of Devons, and the Queen has entries in the second, third, and fourth (or heifer) classes. On the whole we may pronounce the Devons of all classes a unique portion of the Show, and quite equal in quality to the finest of previous years.

FEEDING DAIRY COWS. Mu Millkr, a dairyman (says the Queenslander ), lias been experimenting with various kinds of feed, in order to sec v.licich is best adapted for carrying dairy cattle through'.the winter.-' He gives the highest credit to maize meal, •Experimenting with cows of about 900 ibs weight that were coming on for c iviug, lie Ad an average to each cow of three pints of maize meal, cooked with wt'-’r, daily for seven weeks. They neither gained nor lost flesh on this food, and on being turned upon grass and bay they calved without any risk, idr. Miller fount! that after a maize meal leedji'he cows ceased to ruminate or chew |

the cud; but they showed no signs of unrest, or suffering. His theory is, that it is not a necessity in tho economy of cattle that the stomach should bo distended with coarse woody food that entails rcniaslicatiou upon the cattle. They get along very well, ns he explains, with the more condensed and richer food. ' We may add that Mr Carrol, dairyman, of Lizzieleo, Euoggers, has bad almost similar experience. For nearly twelve months he has been feeding maize meal to his milkers, adding hay, sugar-cane, and such other feed as he could obtain, to such as are milking, and has carried all his stock through the(wo regret to say) still trying season, without losing a beast. Many •thefsof our dairymen have tested, for months past, the great value of maize meal, and their experience of it is almost as conclusive as that of Mr Miller, although not carried on in the same exact manner for detailed reference.