The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, May 10, 1917, Page 6

e as S R % 3 TR You Never Can Tell Till You Try How a Group of Plucky Farmers Took a College Man’s ~ Advice and Worked Wonders With Cattle Two-year-old steers grazing on 50-acre pasture at Mandan experiment station, in experiment designed to learn how much forage is needéd for beef cattle. BY E. B. FUSSELL OU never can tell” is a say- ing that is ,heard frequently enough, but it is a lazy man’s saying. In the experiment station of the North Dakota Agricultural College at Fargo, which is no place for a lazy man, they have amended this saying by adding three words. They made it read: “You never can tell till you try”. This is a different proposition al- together. It fits the case better, be- cause the college experimenters are continually trying something, not abstruse scientific problems, but practical matters of real interest to the farmers. ‘What follows is the story of two ex- periments now being carried out by J. H. Shepperd, agriculturist of the de- partment. He is now in his twenty- fourth year with the North Dakota Agricultural college. He is a graduate of Iowa Agricultural College, took his master's degree at Wisconsin and taught at the Minnesota A. C. before coming to North Dakota. BREEDING DAIRY CATTLE TO FIT NORTH DAKOTA In 1910 Prof. Shepperd undertook the first of the two experiments which will be related here. It was the establish- ment of a breed of dairy cattle particu- larly adapted to North Dakota climate and pasture conditions. Shepperd knew that the practical northwestern farmer would have little use for the pampered cow that has to be waited upon by inches to give a prize milk production. What was wanted was a hardy animal that would thrive on prairie grass pasture in summer, stand a hard winter and at the same time be depended upon to produce some- where around 300 pounds of butter fat a year, as against the 125 to 150 pounds, which the average cow pro- duces. The secret of establishing a new breed of stock, or of adapting an existing breed to new conditions, is continual selection and crossing with- in a restricted territory. This was the method followed by William Bakewell, the father of livestock breeding, in England, in originating breeds such as Shorthorn cattle, Lester sheep and the English cart horse. Bakewell took as fees for the services of his bulls and stallions his pick of their get, having always in mind the type he wanted to develop, making careful selections with that end in-view and finally succeeding in establishing definite lines that bred true to form. GETTING GROUP OF FARMERS TO CO-OPERATE IN WORK In order to follow this method it was necessary for Shepperd to find a group of progressive farmers willing to co- operate, to go on shares, if necessary, to buy high class stock with which to start the experiment, and to work to- gether by breeding back and forth, un- der the direction of the college authori- ties, in order to secure the crosses of blood lines desired to bring results. Shepperd selected to carry out the experiment probably the best group of co-operators in North Dakota. These were a colony of German-American farmers around New Salem. As early as 1895 they grasped, all by themselves, the idea that they could get somewhere by working together, while their ef- This is the second of a series of articles tell- ing of the work that is being done at the Ag- ricultural college in behalf of the farmer. The next article will tell about the fight against tuberculosis, hog cholera and other animal diseases, undertaken by college authorities. forts would be wasted by working separately at cross-purposes. They established in that year a co-operative creamery that has been in continuous and successful operation ever since, being closed down in all that period for just two days, and that while a new concrete floor was hardening. A book could be written about the "experiences of this German colony, how a group of German laborers, prin- cipally from Chicago, with no knowl- edge of farm life, started a back-to- the-soil movement in the early eigh- ties, homesteading their 160-acre tracts, how they nearly starved and undoubtedly Wwould have frozen to death in their sod houses but for the deposits of lignite that they were able to dig from the ground, how things took a turn for—the better after they grasped the co-operative idea, how after their creamery venture proved a success they organized a mutual fire __insurance company of their own be- cause the old line insurance companies wouldn’'t take their risks, how they co-operate now in joint ownership of threshing outfits, how they buy their silo materials all together and get manufacturers’ prices, and how they now have some of the model farms of the state, and all good money makers. But that, as Mr. Kipling would say, is another story, and a cracking good one too. NEW SALEM AMERICANS THE RIGHT GROUP TO HELP The point of it is that when Shep- perd wanted to find a group of intel- ligent farmers to work with him in his breeding experiment, he picked men who had already displayed intelligence enough to work together. It was determined to try to adapt the Holstein cow to North Dakota conditions. Accordingly 16 of the New -Salem farmers were organized into the North Dakota Holstein Cattle Breed- ing Circuit association. Rules adopted were that each member should pur- The coilege experts can work out for the farmer the problem of how much grazing land each steer needs. After he has fatten- ed the steer, the farmer will have to work out for himself the problem of how to dis- pose of it to good advantage. J. H. Shepperd, agriculturist of experiment station, in his office. SIX chase at least five cows of the Hol« stein-Friesian breed and one bull, and that these should be. bred and the dairies managed under direction of a committee of three, consisting of one representative of the U. S. department of agriculture, one representative of the North Dakota experiment station and the president of the association. Besides co-operating to the extent of following the direction of central authority in breeding their cattle and managing their dairies, individual members of the association found' it profitable to go still farther. For in- stance, three members decided to unite in joint ownership of one bull, which has since proved the best animal of the circuit. How well the members of the cir= cuit succeeded in grasping the co- operative principle is shown by the fact that when, after some years of experiences, it seemed to Professor Shepperd that it would be to the best interests to have this bull, owned by three men, exchanged for a younger bull on the circuit, which was owned jointly by two men, the trade was negotiated without trouble of any kind, in spite of the complicated ownership. A still more severe test came after the trade, when it appeared that the three farmers who had secured the younger bull had gotten the worst of the bargain, but even this wasn’t al< lowed to disrupt the circuit. The losers took their loss as the fortunes of war and went on with their work. In order to determine which mems bers of the herds were best for breed« ing purposes, a representative of the Agricultural college was assigned to continuous work with the circuit. The cows were graded into four classes. In the first class were placed cows which rated up to a schedule calling for 360 pounds of butter fat a year or more from an animal five years old, with requirements slightly less, on a sliding scale, for young cows. This is above the requirements for advanced regis- try for a Holstein cow. In the second class were placed cows giving within 40 pounds of the first class requirementsj in the third class, cows within 100 pounds cf first class requirements, and in the fourth class, cows falling 100 pounds or more short of the maximum requirements. NEW SALEM NOW STANDS FOR BEST IN HOLSTEINS Members of the circuit were requir= ed to keep careful account of the vole ume of milk produced and the Agriculs tural college representative was kept constantly on the go between the farms, testing the milk and determins« ing the amount of butter fat. By cares ful breeding and selection of calves from good milk producers and good foragers a higher class strain suitable for North Dakota conditions has grad- ually been built up. This work has been under way for seven years now. It would be impossi« ble to go into detail to tell anything - like all the experiences of the circuits It is enough to tell something of re= sults. 7 The outstanding result, as far as the cattle industry of the Northwest is concerned, is that a strain of the Holstein breed of cattle, as represented in the New~Salem dairy herds, has been thoroughly adapted to North Dae- kota climatic and. forage conditions. _ This is thoroughly recognized now by dairymen of the state and by those in