OCR Text |
Show BETTER SIRES MOVEMENT There is every reason to believe that the replacement of scrub ami grade sires by pure breds is on the increase. Reports received by the L". S. department of agriculture from i county agents in various parts of the country show that the "Better Sires Better Stock" movement is having a noticeable effect. A recent statement state-ment by M. G. Lewis, county agent of Rockbridge county. Va. is typical ot a large number. "The pure-bred bull movement.'" says Mr. Lewis, "is progressing rapidly. rap-idly. Since January 1. 16 farmers have disposed of grade or scrub bulls and are using registered bulls instead On the other hand1, there are no less than 5 0 men in the county who still persist in holding out against the progress and development of the livestock live-stock interests of the county by keeping keep-ing inferior garde or scrub bulls. I have a list of 50 owners of such bulls Some of these men have grades that are fairly good individuals, whille others have scrubs that are the worst kind of disgrace to the community and to the county. "The cost of a good registered animal an-imal is so small now that it is a mys tery why any farmer will keep any-thing any-thing else. Many record's have been kept during the last few years to prove out the actual value of a purebred pure-bred bull in dollars and cents." Some of these actual figures were obtained recently by the Department of Agriculture through an inquiry sent out to more than 500 farmers throughout the United States. These men gave it as their opinion that in all kinds of farm stock pure breds have an earning power more than 4 0 per cent better than common stock. It is noteworthy that in the case of dairy cattle, whose productive power can be easily measured, pure breds were considered , to be 47.8 per cent better than common cows. The lowest low-est percentage given for any kind of stock was 36.8 per cent. |