CHAPTER IX. 



SELLING STOCK BY LIVE WEIGHT. 1 



A tendency towards exactitude is characteristic of 

 farming in the present day. The scientific school- 

 master is abroad, and his influence permeates even those 

 quarters where his authority is still unaccepted. The 

 last world left for him to conquer was perhaps the agri- 

 cultural, and that may now be said to own his sway. 

 There still doubtless remain many persons whose 

 allegiance to the haphazard rule of tradition is un- 

 broken, whose " stubborn hearts," as Spenser says, are 

 not yet " mollified " by " sweet science." But the typical 

 farmer of the day is not, as far as concerns his business, 

 much behind the practitioner of other callings in appre- 

 ciating the advantages of exact knowledge. And in so 

 far as he aims at and achieves exactitude, and places his 

 dealings on a strictly commercial basis, is there hope even 

 in these dark days of depression that he may be able to 

 weather the storm. 



The present application of this general principle lies in 

 the consideration of the desirability of substituting a 

 sounder method of selling stock for the old rule-of-thumb 

 proceeding which still generally prevails in this country. 

 It is only necessary to consider the matter for a moment 

 to see that the present system is logically indefensible. 

 The breeder and feeder of stock is engaged in the 

 manufacture of beef or mutton. Out of so much raw 

 material in the shape of calves or lambs, of store cattle or 

 sheep, of grass, of hay, of cake, of corn, and so forth, he 



1 Journal Bath and West of England Society, Vol. XVIII., 

 3rd series, 1888. 



