SELLING STOCK BY LIVE WEIGHT. 157 



business. By periodical weighings of his stock he would 

 find that his knowledge of their progress was very 

 materially increased. In these pinched times it requires 

 some courage to urge upon the farmer any additional 

 outlay in machinery, but there are few appliances which 

 would pay better interest on their cost to the stock- 

 keeper than a weighbridge, apart altogether from its 

 use in marketing. 



Supposing that the advantage of substituting the 

 system of the scales for that of rule of thumb in the cattle 

 market be admitted, how, it may be asked, is the change 

 to be brought about ? Unquestionably it must be brought 

 about by the farmers themselves insisting upon it. The 

 producer has the right, and within certain limitations, 

 the power of selling his produce in his own way. He is 

 master of the situation. The key thereto is in his hands, 

 and it is for him to recognise its value, and apply it. But 

 there is a preliminary step needed. That step is expressed 

 in a word of somewhat ominous sound — legislation. 

 The legislation which is needed, however, is extremely 

 small and extremely simple. It is that the authorities 

 of every cattle market, licensed to take tolls, should be 

 compelled to erect a weighbridge suitable for the weighing 

 of live stock. By the Markets Act of 1847, a buyer at 

 present possesses the right of having " commodities " 

 purchased in a public market weighed, but it has been 

 assumed — at any rate by the market authorities — that 

 the word " commodity " does not comprise live animals. 

 It is obviously fair, however, that sellers and buyers 

 should have the power of effecting a sale on the basis 

 which they think best, instead of being, as they now in 

 most cases are, precluded from the use of the scales by 

 the fact that there are no scales to use. 



To quote a now historic phrase, " the flowing tide is 

 with us." The tendency of the age, to which allusion 

 was made at the outset, scarcely leaves room to doubt 

 but that the adoption of the system of selling stock by 



