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About The gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 11, 1915)
HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE. SECTION 3 Selecting Cows for Efficiency WE want a cow that will take our feed and convert it into the most profit, because it we are putting in a part of our Uvea feeding cows and milking them, the value of that part of our life is determined by the amount of profit that we get out of those cows. There is no question about this. The man who makes the chief end of life getting dollars makes a big mistake. But when he sets out to make a success of his business for the pur pose of accumulating something that he may provide himself and family with the comforts of life, educate his children and provide against old age, he owes it to himself to get just as large profits as possible. We want our cows to take their food and con vert it "into the biggest possible amount of dairy products. How are we to know? Shall we select a spotted cow, or some other color? No. Color makes no dif ference. It is the cow that will take her feed and convert it Into the most product. How are we to know? Shall she have sloping shoulders, large udder, good milk veins and all that? Yes. But I want to know something more about her: The cow Is a piece of machinery to take our food and convert it Into a product. We have learned that there is something about the conformation of .that machine that Indicates its temperament. But outward con formation may be right and some thing wrong with the inner works. Occasionally we find that some of these cows have the right conforma tion, and not the ability. Go a lit tle farther. It's like the horse. When the man was looking for the fastest horse, he picked out Dan Patch because he was built right. How fast could he go was asked. You could not tell, but there is one way you can tell. Get up behind that horse and drive it. That's common ordinary horse sense. Apply the same horse sense to this proposition of the dairy cow. Keeping Tub. In the matter of production. When you feed that cow, know what she is paying you for it. The common ordi nary dlaryman can be his Qwn clerk, you don't need a bookkeeper, that is all nonsense. I never had a bookkeeper and never Bpent such a great lot of time with a pencil. What time I have spent has paid me best In the dairy proposition. Once in 10 days weigh the milk, morning and night. Multiply by 10 and we know near enough how much that cow is giving in milk. If in the butter business, go farther and test it occasionally, at least three times a year, and better yet, 'once a month, to find out how much fat is in the milk so. you may know the value oUIt. Then you must know about the feed. It don't take much time. I go in the barn when the cow is being fed and pick up the hay and weigh it. From that to another one and so on. I know the value of that per ton, and it only takes me a Bhort time to know the value. Will the man feed the same? I don't know. He may feed a little more or less, but I have the average feed. I will do the same with corn stover and the ensilage For the grain I use a small measure and know how much that will hold and what it weighs. Over each cow is a file, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, that shows how many each cow is to be fed. Thus I know what it is costing me to feed. Does It Pay? The question the men always ask, "Does it pay?" Two young men in my county were dairying, ono on one side of the road, the other on the other side. They were told not to go It blind, but to know what they were doing. It appealed to one young man. He bought a scalo and a tester and paid $3 for the two. He took time enough to weigh and test the milk. At the end of the year he knew very nearly what every cow was do ing from his record of feed and what they had paid In for It. The other man said if he fed his cows it " was all the time he had. What was the result? After three years, one got 250 pounds of butter per cow, and the other got 200 per cow. Which got the 2D0? It was the man who got rid of his poor cows. The other one had the same chance to do that work, but did not want to do it. One got 250 pounds and the other 200 pounds. It required the value of the first 150 poundsof butter to feed those cows and take care of them. The result, one man had 100 pounds of butter profit, and the Other one only' had 50 pounds profit because he would not take time to find out. That young man made the worst mistake of his life, he didn't have time to know his business. The worst of it is, he will have to take time to make up for what he did not know. He must take care of them for another year, and then have only the same as his neighbor had in one year. He put in two years to accomplish what his neighbor ac complished in one year. We cannot afford to be so busy that we cannot take time to know our business. Value of a Record. In one of the Southern Michigan owns I met two young men and talked same thing to them 10 years ago. We went into the details of this proposition and they started to prac tice It. I was there two years ago, and these young men were there with a record of cost and how much each cow had paid for feed. The records showed the first -ear they got an average of 184 pounds of butter per cow. Some went above 200 and some only above 100. They gold off the cows that did not pay and got better cows. They studied how to feed and care for them, aDd when you begin to figure on this you will look at the little things that go to make success. Their average was 184 pounds of butter. After eight years of that sort of work, what was their average? Three hundred and seventy-six pounds of butter per cow. They started with 184 pounds and worked up to 376. How much more profit was there in one year to those men getting 376 pounds than when getting 184? They are making more clear money in one year with 376 pounds than they made in 10 years when getting 184 pounds. Consequently by knowing their busi ness they had multiplied that part of their life by 10. No Investment a man can make pays him so well as to know his business, and be able to multiply the value of his time by 10. That cow that pays you the most for a dollar's worth of feed, and at the end of the year makes the most profit, is the cow that it pays you to keep, and you cannot afford to keep the poor ones. N. P. Hull. If You Have Any News, Get It to the Editor Ml T is not enough for a live com- I munlly that advertising 6hould be correctly used to stimulate busi ness and to promote general prosper ity. The home newspaper is a social and Intellectual thing as well as a medium of business. One cannot serve the community better than by seeing that interesting, items get to the editor. The editor is no mind reader; call him up and toll him. To do so is the neighborly thing, the kindly thing a courtesy not to the publisher alone but to everyone in the district who might be interested in your little item." Whenever Eric W. Allen, head of the department of journalism at the University of Oregon, speaks in a town, he urges the citizens to get bo hind their home paper .in both a busi ness and a news way on the ground that the newspaper can be made a wonderful agency for building up a community. By a "successful com munity," Mr. Allen means not merely the community whose busluess men are prospering, and whose laborers are all at work, but the community that Is a real social and Intellectual center. He looks to the home paper as the most powerful means within reach of bringing about this kind of "success." "If you can once get all your peo ple into the way of voluntarily pour ing these interesting scraps of news Into the weekly paper, you will add Immensely to the general friendliness of the community," says Mr. Allen. "You will be helping to make your town the kind of place where people want to stay and to which former residents will want to come back. "So try to get ideas into the paper. Write a little for it once in a while. Don't let the editor do all the think ing for the town. If you publish ideas, you start others to thinking, and you raise by just so much the general level of Intelligence. "Encourage the home paper to be a business, social and intellectual cen ter of the community. It will richly repay," In Kentucky they cultivate the al falfa field just after cutting till "it looks like a cornfield prepared for planting." They use either a spring toothed harrow or a double disc cultivator. When Luxuries Become Necessities FIFTEEN years ago the man who'owned an automobile was looked upon as a man of great wealth and the machine as a luxury far beyond the reach of the average mortal. But today the automobile has become a farm necessity. A score of years ago tele phones in farm houses were almost unheard of and were more for amusement than for sen-ice. Piano players, phonographs, kodaks, motorcycles, electric light, water under pressure, gas ranges and many other articles that go to provide household comforts of today, were, only a few years ago, unavailable for farm use, or if they were ob tainable, they were for the luxury-loving few who would afford them. But needs arc often felt before they are expressed, and needs in the farm home aro no greater than in the city home. Farmers must provide for their own homes. In the cities many of the comforts are available for the asking. But there is no luxury or comfort of the city that is not available today for the rural home, and in most eases at a lower cost than is paid for the same comfort in the city. The first cost of any convenience is, of course, much greater for the farm home, as it is necessary to install the plant and then operate it. Electric lighting systems, for example, require the purchase and installation of the machine for generating the electricity; storage bat teries for the accumulation of "reserve power and an engine for op erating the plant. This costs money, but the operating cost, plus the interest on the investment, is lower than the cost for the same amount of power supplied by large plants in most cities. It is no longer the height of folly for fanners to think of making use of some of the many devices which go to make the home more comfortable. In fact, the situation is the other way around, and it is only the shiftless man who does not care to give some consideration to modern appliances for lessening the labor and increasing the com fort of the Lome. Every device which goes to supply convenience in the farm home and make it even more comfortable than a city flat, is to be obtained from advertisers in farm papers. Not every issue has all these ad vertisers represented, but if any reader wants any modern appliance, from an electrio light plant, sanitary closet or septic tank, to a water pressure system or refrigerating plant, let him write the Editor, Oregon-Washington-Idaho Fanner. The luxuries of yesterday are the ne cessities of today and there is no use in trying to think otherwise. Double the Wheat and Oat Crops Money must be made by better farming; it is common sense to see grain drilled only 3 inches apart, not 6 inches or 7 inches between rows means much better seed distribution, better sur face covering with crop, less wasted land, better saving of moisture, crowding out the weeds and many other advantages; one maker of 3-inch drills guarantees 25 or better increase or no pay for the machines. Fetzer & Co., of Spring field, 111., claim in a dry year the yield has been increased four times more per acre, besides mak ing a good stand of clover where the clover with wheat was dried out with 7-inch rows. Write today for the proof and guarantee and free printed matter. Don't buy your Seeds before getting our Catalogue of TESTED SEEDS It is full of information of how, when and what to plant. Everything for your garden, Seeds, Trees, Plants, Roots, Bee Supplies, Model Incubators, Spray and Spray Pumps, Tools, etc., etc. Send Today for Catalogue A Aabling & Ebright Seed Co. 89 Pike St., Seattle What Do You Think OF THIS? 3,000,000 Acres FINE FREE HOMESTEADS and Montana Deeded I.anda 18 to l an acre Ready for the plow. i'Jelds SO to 60 bu. wheut, Oats, barley, flax, hay, etc., ti proportion. Finest Inland Climate. Vaud Sold on Crop Payment Plan. Low far Homeseekers' Excursions on first and third Tuesdays of each month. Western Inimlicratloa Agent, C M. ST. P. RV. 2d and Cherry, Seattle, Wash. HOTEL EATON W. Park and Mor. Sts., PortlnuJ, Or. Rates. II up: with bath, $1.30. gpe. clal rates by the week. Located In the heart of the city. Dean D. Ballard, Arcade Bid.. Beau!, Wn. KnglMi Tested SEEDS Rend for Ct. N MAKh lilt. MONKV Mt. ell the bt-'St rream Sep rator on the market. Get t he exclusive atjencj for .our territory and be Inde i.entlcnt. It's easy to make 'Tom $10 to a week. We ten.Ht you the business ind apr-oint you our rial ajeeit. Writ today, hs we appoint only one ma a for each territory. The levrland ( rpnm Sep arator Co rfi puny, 1016 Tower ave., Cleveland, OliU.
