The Wrong Start

The Wrong Start

By George H. Maughan, Department of Agriculture, Ricks Academy

It is a common statement and an oft repeated experience

that farmers (and this may apply to other men) often fail to

do things as well as they know how to do them. Often condi-

tions of a very trivial nature shape our acts and determine our

methods.

On the farm with which I am most familiar, an old pig,

which was noticeable because of her inferior qualities, was left

year after year. We called her Pointer because of the pointed

appearance of both ends of her body. She was bought because

of our impatience to get into the "hog business." Her first litter

consisted of the insignificant number of three; and because of

her lack of importance the summer passed while Pointer went

unnoticed; and when fall came, instead of being ready for mar-

ket she was the mother of five more little pointers. Of course,

she was kept to raise her litter. And so circumstances inter-

vened again and again to save her life until she and her offspring

seriously disfigured what otherwise would have been a good

looking herd.

Some such conditions can be found on practically every farm

in the land, and they are the cause of much loss and discourage-

ment. The dairy herd is one of the most common places of

refuge of this kind of "boarder."

I well remember Old Bell who represented a familiar type

of horse. She was inclined to be "arnery", as the boys said, and

her opinion was respected, at least to an extent, when the size

of the load was discussed. Her form and quality were far from

ideal, also; but she never ran away, and she could be depended

on to keep up the stock. In fact, when she died of old age at

twenty-one, she was the mother or grandmother of nearly fifty

per cent of the horses on the farm, all of which, while being

improvements, still had the drooping rump, lack of life, and

somewhat questionable disposition of Old Bell.

Rexburg, Idaho

© Underwood & Underwood, New York