Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1891 — LIVE STOCK. [ARTICLE]

LIVE STOCK.

Wires to Sell Hojjl. When to sell hogs is a mooted question among farmers. One writer advises to sell hogs when the most money can be got for the least outlay. The ups and downs of prices we cannot control, hut by careful attention to the feeding and use of scales we can tell closely whether we are making corn into pork at a profit or not. ilf not, there ought to be a change of ration or an immediate sale of marketable stock. It doesn’t pay to hold beyond the time of profitable growth and fattening. successful feeders believe it pays best one year With another to sell- the pork when the highest point in gain has been reached, letting-the question of probable higher prices alone. Corn used in keeping over fattening hogs will make twice as much pork if given to other animals. It is a losing game to hold for an increase of price as a rule. Make all the pqrk you can out of your corn in just as little time as possible and then market to the best advantage, is the advice of the Cincinnati Commercial. Care of Farm Animals. The most practical and valuable information that can be brought to the intelligently practical farmer is that which relates to the care and management of farm animals. But few farmers have any solid data of facts to draw upon derived from their own experience. To know just exactly which costs the most to produce, a pound of mutton or a pound of beef or a pound of pork is something not more than one farmer in a thousand can tell, for the 999 never keep exact records. All of them can guess at it, may be, quite closely, but It is guess work after all. To be sure they put their money up on their guess work, and embark in mutton feeding, beef feeding, or pork feeding, and many say they ought to know all about it as long as they are in the business. It is true they ought and they would know If they did not have such an universal contempt for keeping exact records. Here is where the English and Scotch farmer excells his American cousin. He is trained in the art of keeping books and records. He is not considered a good safe farmer unless he can show what a thing costs. That is just as great an advantage to the earnest thinking farmer as it is to the manufacturer. The dollars the farmer is to earn runs the gauntlet of 111-luck and accident to as great an extent as the manufacturer’s dollars. He should not be loaded down with an extra per cent, of carlessness and indifference to sound rules of business proceed ure. Heat Horne to Sell. The American Agriculturist states that horses to be sold in the New York market for “general purpose” will bring the best prices when they conform as nearly as possible to the following standard: A good steed, bony head, full, kind eye, prickedefcrs, good crest, oblique shoulders, short on back, long on belly, somewhat arched at coupling, well ribbed up, heavy boned, short, flat legs, compact, active, blocky, good tempered and a good walker. He should weigh from 1,000 pounds upward.