FARM LIVE STOCK OF 

 GREAT BRITAIN 32* 



INTRODUCTION 



A PROPER knowledge of the habits and treatment of 

 the animals of the farm is, without doubt, the most 

 important branch of a farmer's education. It is the one, too, 

 that is found to offer the greatest difficulties to men who 

 take to the profession of farming late in life. In fact, few 

 men who have not, as boys, been intimately associated with 

 animals can ever hope to attain the first rank as judges or 

 managers of stock. For the same reason we never find a 

 really first-rate shepherd in a hill district the place where 

 superior knowledge and intelligence are most wanted who 

 has not as a boy seen, and assisted in, all the many little 

 details of the management of a flock. He drinks in the 

 information, as it were, with his mother's milk, and does not 

 realise in after-life that he was not born with much of the 

 knowledge he possesses. Nor is it only a knowledge of 

 animals, but also an interest in them, that a boy gains by 

 associating with them. They are the playthings of his youth, 

 and the objects of his affection as he grows in years. A 

 first-rate judge and prize-winner it does not matter in 

 what class of stock is invariably found to spend much of 

 his time gloating over the points of his favourite beasts. It 

 is only in this way, and not from books, that a man can 

 ever master the details of structure and the peculiarities of 

 breed and constitution, and obtain that knowledge which 

 alone can lead to financial success as a breeder, and victory 

 in the show-ring. 



A servant entrusted with the management of stock must 

 make his charge his hobby if he is to be successful in his 



A 



