Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 August 1910 — MAKING HERD BULLS EARN THEIR KEEP. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MAKING HERD BULLS EARN THEIR KEEP.

From the Jean DuLuth farm in north ern Minnesota come photographs illustrating to what good use they are putting Red Poll and Guernsey bulla, writes Joseph E. Wing in the Breeder’s Gazette. It is evident that these bulls are much more than earning their keep. They are splendidly useful work.' Doubtless by means of this hard work they are maintaining their virility and potency as welt They are good and useful members of society on the Jean DuLuth farm. This is as it should be. A caged bull is subjected to the worst possible conditions. His lack of movement, of stretch of muscle, is bad for his virility. Imprisonment sours his temper or makes him stupid. He cannot live a natural life in such environment. Bulls are masses of huge muscles. It is good for them to have use. Nor are they intractable. rightly broken, nor difficult to manage. There are certain classes of work where cattle come well in play. They are admirable to draw the hay wagons from meadow to bam George Aitkin has always splendid great oxen doing this trick in Vermont. They also plow, haul manure, haul off stone and upturn stumps. There is an amazing lot of slow, resistless power in a good team of either oxen or bulls. In old Mexico I have seen very splendid oxen, gentle as horses, well fed and cared for. drawing Immense loads of stone or merchandise or forage. In France one sees the best oxen nowadays. There it is the practice on some of the best farms to buy, young cattle adapted to work, often of the Nivernaise breed, to work them on. the farm for a

few years, feeding them well. They reach very heavy weights and are finally marketed as beef. There is in France no prejudice

against beef from oxen, I think, and therefore no lessened price in the market for the great cattle of six years. We are far too intolerant tn America, too resolved to be “in the fashion.” We refuse to avail ourselves of many expedients and economies that would be good. This thing of the enormous dormant, wasted and worse than wasted power of idle bulls throughout America should receive attention and reform.

BULL IN HARNESS