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.