The tendency today seems to be to neglect everything except that which we are using at the moment. Look about you and see if this is not correct. See the agricultural tools that are rotting between harvests; observe how the harness is treated in winter; examine the colony houses and the brooders after the chicks have been sold or gone into winter quarters; look inside the incubators and see if they have been cleaned out after the last hatch was taken off. In all these cases, and in hundreds of others, you will find that the owner has forgotten to take proper care of his belongings simply because he was not using them at that particular time. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are annually lost because of this neglect – indeed it is this same neglect that keeps many other men in business.
Personal property thus neglected deteriorates very rapidly and soon becomes useless so that it is necessary to replace the loss by new purchases – a step that many times means the difference between success and failure. If such be the fact with inanimate objects, think what injury must be inflicted upon live creatures by neglect. This reminds us of the story of the “green” young man who took up farming and was asked by a neighbor how everything was going.
He replied that all was well except that the hired man had not shown up to milk the cows for three days!
Think what those cows suffered!
Think what it means to leave an animal or bird without water! Put yourself in the place of the creature and imagine how you would feel under like circumstances. Yet there are men who care little and think little of birds or animals unless they need them or have immediate use for them.
One very often sees sadly neglected horses, cows and poultry which have at one time been most useful to their owners but are now left to shift for themselves simply because they are not necessary to the owner at the moment. Most people if they have hens will feed them at least once a day and will occasionally see that they have some water but that is usually the extent of the labor that is expended on the ordinary poultry flock during the summer. If there is any real care taken with the poultry it is all centered on the chicks – the older fowls can look out for themselves.
Nothing particular is expected of them – they have done their bit – and the chicks are so much more important in the eyes of the owner.
Sad isn’t it?
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