SELLING STOCK BY LIVE WEIGHT. 155 



I am sure that the subject is worth the attention of farmers, 

 and the dealers take advantage of their ignorance. I think, 

 too, that when Mr. Westley Richards and myself are prepared 

 to back our ignorance, with the help of scales, against the most 

 experienced butcher or salesman, it is tolerably evident that 

 they are a valuable help to the ignorant. 



Sir John Lawes, it may be explained, refers to his 

 ignorance with respect to the weight of an animal. He is, 

 as is well known, a practical farmer as well as a scientific 

 man, and is well able to judge of the relative quality and 

 condition, and by that judgment to make his estimate of 

 the percentage of carcass. So much knowledge, as Sir 

 John Lawes himself urges, is necessary to any person 

 who sets out to buy or sell by live weight ; but possessing 

 this knowledge, the farmer, by the aid of the scales, can 

 hold his own in the market against the most experienced 

 butcher or dealer. 



Reference has hitherto been made to the disposal of 

 stock by the farmer to the butcher, but it is desirable to 

 indicate — what is sufficiently patent— that selling by live 

 weight implies also buying by live weight. In other 

 words, if the system be adopted, the farmer will not only 

 sell his beeves, but will also buy his stores thereby. So 

 far as prospects of actual money gain are concerned, the 

 farmer has possibly less interest on this side of the ques- 

 tion. He buys probably on the whole more advan- 

 tageously than he sells. Nevertheless he would very 

 likely oftentimes reap an immediate benefit. Sir John 

 Lawes in the article written for the Newcastle Farmers' 

 Club, already referred to, says : — 



I generally have a good deal of rough grass left by the dairy 

 cows, and I am in the habit of purchasing about forty Irish 

 shorthorns during the autumn for the purpose of consuming it. 

 This year the shorthorns, with the carriage, cost me £13 5s. 

 per head, and their average weight was 8 cwt. 3 qrs. 6 lbs. ; the 

 cost therefore was not quite ^\d. per lb. This price was 

 reasonable enough, but what I complain of is, that I had no 

 voice in the matter, and if they had cost id. per lb. more I 

 must have paid it. What is really wanted, and what every 



