148 AN AGRICULTURAL FAGGOT. 



ranged from 56 to 67. It should be noted that all the 

 animals were weighed unfasted. 



We now come to the practical question whether an 

 alteration of the existing methods is worth while. Why, 

 it will be asked, should we change the present system ? 

 It works, so many will say, comfortably and conveniently 

 enough. Why therefore introduce scales where they are 

 not wanted ? It is to these questions, perfectly natural 

 and legitimate as they are, that an answer must be 

 sought. 



It may be observed at once that it is by no means 

 every seller of stock who will propound the queries which 

 have just been placed in his mouth. Not every farmer 

 is even now satisfied that he gets the fair value for his 

 stock. One thing, at any rate, he knows, and that is, 

 that he knows very little about it. The average farmer 

 does not know, and has no means of knowing, whether the 

 beasts he sells fetch their full price. The purchaser, as 

 a rule, does know with very remarkable accuracy. No 

 ordinary farmer will attempt to say that his judgment of 

 the size and weight of a beast is equal to that of a dealer 

 or butcher. It is impossible that it should be so. The 

 dealer or butcher spends his life in estimating the weight 

 of stock. His eye and judgment are his stock-in-trade, 

 and very efficient they become. He possesses, too, what 

 the farmer does not possess — the means of training and 

 educating his judgment. A farmer may estimate a 

 beast to contain a certain quantity of meat ; he may 

 possibly be right, but if so, he never knows it. The 

 butcher alone is able to check his judgment by the actual 

 result in the slaughter-house. 



There is no allegation of unfairness against butchers as 

 a class in saying that they are scarcely likely to over- 

 estimate the weight of a beast which they are buying. If 

 they possess superior knowledge and experience, they are, 

 by all the rules of business, perfectly justified in using 

 them to their advantage. It is well to know to what 



