Stock farming

“ Farming pays in proportion to the amount of work intelligently applied to this manner of increasing values. It is difficult to make a profit growing and selling grain. Grain may sell for more than the labor and seed, but it takes so much vitality from the land that depreciation of capital often is greater than the margin of apparent profit. When grains are grown and fed to live-stock on the farm, business methods demand better [78] buildings and more power, which means that the farmer is employing auxiliary machinery and other modern methods to enhance values. ”

“ They instantly rush into the business, flood the country with hogs and get almost nothing for them. Why don’t men take the hint? A moderate stock all the time, makes more money than that system which has none when the price is high and too many when the price is low.
Because one year, the wheat crop has been very large and fine, and the price low, not half so much will be put in another year. Those who are wise, foreseeing this fact and sowing largely, will, if the season favors wheat, reap a handsome profit. ”

“ Every colony of small farmers nowadays needs to provide for co-operation among its members. There is no other way for them to enjoy the technical advantages of large-scale farming in the buying of seeds, stock, fertilizers, tools, machinery, and other necessities at wholesale prices, in the selling of farm products at the best prices; in the establishment of creameries, etc. The buying of necessary costly machines, such as stumping machines, tractors, threshers, headers, is beyond the financial power of an individual settler. ”

“ It can seldom happen, therefore, that a man of any considerable stock should quit the superior, in order to place himself in an inferior station. Even in the present state of Europe, therefore, little [Pg 162] stock is likely to go from any other profession to the improvement of land in the way of farming. More does, perhaps, in Great Britain than in any other country, though even there the great stocks which are in some places employed in farming, have generally been acquired by farming, the trade, perhaps, in which, of all others, stock is commonly acquired most slowly. ”

“ By far the larger part of this can only be made by stock, which should, at the same time, be made the source of profit, at least sufficient to pay the cost of their keep, so that, other things being equal, it is a safe rule to estimate the condition of a farming district by the amount of live stock it may possess, and the provision made for their sustenance. Applied in this instance, we see that the New York farmer has invested in live stock two dollars and seventy-six cents, and the Massachusetts farmer one dollar and twenty-one cents [Pg 368] per acre more than the Virginia farmer. ”

“ The least trouble, not the best stock, seems to be the question with most. The discouragement of debt, the low prices of all farm products, the habits of arrant carelessness which naturally belong to large farms, of rich lands, removed from a ready market, and on which there is more than enough for home use, and much waste of the surplus because a poor sale for it; these things are the causes why but little attention is paid to good stock. ”

“ All farmers who have made money should be let off, provided they made money by real farming and not by selling fancy cattle, poultry, etc., at startling prices. Real farming is a man’s job, and those who succeed at it deserve 115to be patted on the back. The fellows who sell the blooded stock belong in about the same class as the bond salesman—we will come to these later on. ”

“ Considering the small amount of capital and time required for the establishment and upkeep of such a "vivarium," is there any other form of farming or stock raising more profitable? We venture the answer without fear of contradiction — there is absolutely not. ”

“ The farmers feel some pride in it; and now the thing begins to work rightly. When once the best stock, of any kind, is a matter of hearty personal pride with the farmer, over and above the mere price of them in market, then there will be constant and solid improvement. ”

“ Improved cultivation, (p. 220) a careful rotation of crops, better fertilizers, drainage, farm stock, and labor were the characteristics of the new farming, and these were ordinarily practicable only to the man who had some capital, knowledge, and enterprise. Therefore, coincidently with the enclosures began a process by which the smaller tenants began to give up their holdings to men who could pay more rent for them by consolidating them into larger farms. ”

“ The farmer or stock raiser, as a rule, who is making the most money, is the one who raises not horses, cattle, sheep or swine alone, but often two or more of them. The same can be applied to fur farming. Suppose an enclosure of a few acres is made for skunk, why not take in a pond and raise muskrat, coon, fish and frogs. ”

“ To those who expect to make a fortune at the business in a year or two, we predict failure, but to all who are willing to go at the industry, building a substantial enclosure, paying the same careful attention to the feed and care of their fur animals, that they would to other "stock," to get best results, far more than ordinary profits should result. ”

“ The raising of venison for market is as legitimate a business as the growing of beef and mutton, and state laws, when prohibitory, as many of them are, should be so modified as to encourage the industry. Furthermore, deer and elk may be raised to advantage in forests and on rough, brushy ground unfitted for either agriculture or stock raising, thus utilizing for profit much land that is now waste. An added advantage is that the business is well adapted to landowners of small means. ”

“ If they judge by the market today, they are in danger of two errors: first, of overestimating the future demand, which may be satisfied before the new crop comes; second, of diverting from ordinary staple crops too large a portion of the crop-raising force. Common experience has taught that a high price of hops or onions or broom corn has almost certainly wrought a reduction of the price for succeeding crops below the normal cost. Still larger foresight is needed with reference to the raising of live stock, which requires more than a single season's investment of capital. ”

“ Had the opossum raiser, during the low prices for this fur in 1907 and 1908, sold off his breeding stock at low prices, as he would have been compelled to do, he would not had a supply when the prices advanced in January, 1909.
Some farmers make the mistake of selling off all their stock when prices ease up, expecting to go into the raising again when a reaction takes place. This is not the way to make the most money; when a reaction comes, other farmers who have continued raising this certain animal, reap the harvest, selling to the market or to their neighbors at high prices. ”

“ The animals that are to be kept for breeding purposes need not be fed so heavily during the winter months or after those that were intended for market have been killed. Of course in the spring after the females have young, they must be fed heavily.
Some raisers, as soon as the young are weaned, select those that are to be killed the coming winter, keeping them separate from the breeding stock so that they can be fed properly. That is a great saving of food, as those for market should be fed much more than the breeders at this season—say during the months of September, October and November. ”

“ The most successful stock breeders are those who make a special study of their animals and take a great interest in them and those who do not are almost certain to fail and really deserve failure. If so much care is necessary in breeding domestic animals, how much more important the care in handling the wild creatures, knowing so little of them as the average man does. But even handicapped by lack of knowledge the experimenters have been fairly successful from the start if they were the right men for the business. ”

“ Many farmers, hoping to offset the low prices with higher yields, took advantage of the new technology to produce bumper crops; the result was an additional surplus and even lower prices. Throughout the 1920s, the farm situation remained critical. [211]
The stock market crash of 1929 marked an extension and exacerbation of the grim farm conditions rather than a sudden decline. It rocked the farmer's market, of course, by further decreasing the amount of raw products being sold; unemployed workers bought less of everything, and often kept gardens themselves. ”

“ In a self-contained farm—that is, one which raises sufficient food for the requirements of the live stock—ten dollars an acre may be considered a moderate investment for animals. If, however, the plan is to raise only the coarse feed, while the necessary grain as well as other concentrates is largely purchased, a farm may easily carry from $25 to $35 worth of live stock per acre. Lack of capital is one of the most potent influences in preventing a larger production of animals and animal products. ”

“ Great care should be exercised in the selection of the males for breeding stock. Only the large and healthy animals of good color should be used and all others should be killed and their skins marketed while they are in good condition.
While the animals do not always breed strictly true to color, the white markings may be greatly reduced and the general stock improved by selected breeding. One should, each year secure fresh breeding stock from other localities and related animals should not be allowed to breed together or in a few years the result will be disastrous. ”

“ Having all his capital in stock, he is unable to handle it to advantage, and must readjust his capital in live stock to his capital in the farm and machinery by selling some of his stock and adding to the value of his farm. On the other hand, many a farmer is land poor, where the bulk of his capital is invested in land, while he cannot command circulating capital in stock and wages sufficient to make the land useful. He needs, in the spirit of prudence, to sell some of his land for the sake of current funds to invest in live stock and in labor. ”

“ Who has made the greatest success at raising stock in your neighborhood—the man who loves stock or someone who thought they saw a fortune in the business but neither loved animals or knew anything about them? We venture the answer, without fear of contradiction, that it has been the party who loves and delights in stock. Remember, this applies to fur animals as well as horses, sheep and cattle. ”

“ The matter of providing sufficient food is not as difficult as it would appear at first glance. If the farm is located near a large town or city, hotel and restaurant keepers will generally save table scraps, stale bread, etc., on request, if one will make a regular habit of calling for it. Even in the country the neighbors will help out. The farmers will be only too glad to have you take the dead stock, poultry, etc., thus saving them the time and labor of otherwise disposing of it. ”

“ The head of a great firm of agricultural implement manufacturers at Hamilton told me that his firm, a branch of an American firm, has spent within five years something like five million dollars in opening branches at various centres, and he said, “I might almost say we have not yet got back a dollar. The farmers are making large profits, but they have no money to spend. As soon as they sell their wheat they need money to increase their holdings, to buy machinery and stock, and we have to let them have our machines on long credit, or to be paid for on the instalment principle. ”

“ The quantity of circulating stock in every manufacture is in proportion to the value of the raw material, and the wages of the manufacturer. But we have seen that the price both ’ of the raw material, and the wages of the labourer in all manufactures, are raised in exact proportion to the price of corn. More circulating capital, therefore, is wanted in that proportion to carry on every manufacture, and the reasonable profit upon this additional capital must be added to the price of the manufactured commodity. ”

“ Strode must have smiled.
"You're beginning to get it," railed Challoner, "the great father-in-law jest! Well, that's what's expected of me. They're educating me to it."
"But surely your daughter——"
"Gone clean over to the enemy!" snapped Challoner. "And quite right, too. If a wife doesn't share her husband's principles, she has no right to share anything else of his. I'm old-fashioned enough to see that." His tone became milder. "After the crash—about which the least said the better—farming in Canada was decided on. It sounds solid, and reads well in the leaflets. ”

“ Of the great additional quantity of capital employed upon the land in this country, during the last twenty years, by far the greater part is supposed to have been generated on the soil, and not to have been brought from commerce or manufactures. And it was unquestionably the high profits of agricultural stock, occasioned by improvements in the modes of agriculture, and by the constant rise of prices, followed only slowly by a proportionate rise in the different branches of capital, that afforded the means of so rapid and so advantageous an accumulation. ”

“ At this time there are hundreds of thousands of acres of good land lying idle, waiting for the industrious farmer to fence and plow and raise grain on. But what is the use? There is no market for the grain except in limited quantities, as we have no facilities for shipping to the outside world. The consequence is, that if a man does not have money enough to go into the stock-business, he won't come here at all. The one great trouble is to get our supplies. ”

“ That this annual crop, being in the hands of the actual producers, is less affected by such financial fluctuations as affect other crops in other countries, and no such fluctuations can extend to the capital stock on which the annual crop is dependent, so as to limit the production or lessen its value from year to year. ”