560 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



purposes, the produce of three and a half other acres, he being 

 able, with the help of his wife and children, to cultivate well 

 the whole six acres, and to have a great deal of time left for 

 other purposes, is, I am assured, often to be found in Belgium, 

 and strikingly illustrates the success of quiet and patient in 

 dustry, joined to temperance and economy. 



CXLL LIVE STOCK. 



In respect to the live stock of the Continent, a traveller per 

 ceives at once that, with the exception of horses, little attention 

 has been paid to the improvement of the different breeds. Per 

 haps I should except sheep likewise, as I shall presently show. 

 In this respect England distances all other countries within my 

 observation ; and has displayed a skill, perseverance, enterprise, 

 and success, which are admirable : and which, in enormous 

 prices, have been liberally compensated. A thousand guineas 

 for a bull, six hundred guineas for a cow, or three hundred 

 guineas a year for the service of a ram, ring in one s ears like 

 music from the regions of romance. The symmetry of propor 

 tion, and the extraordinary degree of fatness to which some 

 animals are forced, as may be seen particularly at the Smith field 

 Christmas show, in London, and the extreme beauty of the im 

 proved stock of England, are most remarkable. Aptitude to 

 fatten, early maturity, and great weight of carcass, in proportion 

 to the age, and the amount or cost of the food required, are 

 points of great value in any race of animals which are designed 

 for food. But beauty, either of form or color, has only an im 

 aginary value, and no necessary connection with its product, 

 either in beef or milk ; and the extreme obesity of many prize 

 animals is often obtained at an expense to the farmer or amateur 

 much beyond any price which the animal is likely to command 

 in the market. Early maturity is a point of great importance ; 

 for, excepting where animals are kept for labor, animals kept a 

 day beyond their readiness for a fair market, are almost always 

 kept at a loss. The secret of profit is in general in a_ quick,- 



