Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 June 1878 — The Future for Stock. [ARTICLE]

The Future for Stock.

The speculations of an editor as to the future out-look of stock are only the ideas of one who is as liable to error as any other thinking man. But from various circumstances there is just at this time much deep anxiety on tho subject. For several years pork has been a very remunerative product of the farm, and many have wondered why it continued to sustain so good a price while everything was so depressed. And many cautious persons did not raise as many hogs for several years past as they might have done for the reason that they confidently believed there would be a collapse in pork before the hogs would be ready for market. Finally it has como. But what is the hope of the future? The country is full of cheap corn and the farmers are far bettor prepared for raising hogs on clover pasture than ten or even five ycafs ago. These two facts would largely increase the products were all other things equal. But the prospect of two dollars per hundred at the farm after so many years of flush prices, disgusts the common farmer and he does not care whether bis pigs live or die. This will materially lessen tho hog

crop, which will probably, next porkpacking season, stimulate prices, but it cannot De expected to some back to what it has been for five years. And oven now, when looking backward, it is hard to account for tne buoyancy it sustained so long. With a very weak probability qf a general war in Europe, and with a large surplus of pork on hand, and a large portion of old porkpaekers hopelessly ruined, there is no very bright prospect for an advance in pork above the present prices. , lu beef cattle, there is a change going on worthy the serious consideration of all fanners. The difference between common and superior beeves is widening every day. Tho demand for our best cattle in Europe is beyond the supply. A very large portion of all our beeves are of an inferior quality, which cannot be shipped abroad. The five or six hundred thousands of cattle from Texas and the Western plains, added to our scrub stock all over the United States, surfeit our market at home, and the result has been and will be to still furtiier depress prices of that class of stock. The suocessful shipment to England of all our choice beeves will tempt the pride of our lovers of good beef in our Eastern c ! tics to bid up for home consumption on the better class. This will always insure a good price for good steers, while the inferior class will recede with the price of cheap pork. Consequently, with no serious disturbing elements, we may expect a future decline in common beevesu while the fat higher grades will improve rather than recede. In this branch of farming the future outlook has everything to encourage the producer of steers weighing from 1,600 to 2,000 at three and rour years old; and a far better promise to those who will produce the same weight steers at one year younger. Everything points to the one important feature of stock raising, “ better stock and fatter beeves.” But a large number of farmers, who have not fully studied the science of successful breeding, will adopt the fatal error of employing graded sires. All acknowledge the importance of better stock, but tne slight difference in a thoroughbred over a grade will be the fatal stumbling block of many. —State Register.