AGRICULTURE. 171 



capital employed ; the market value of the fodder con- 

 sumed ; a fair rent for the land, with return of expenses, 

 as the case may be ; is all that can or ought to be looked 

 for. The contingent profit that can be reasonably looked 

 for is that of the doubling the produce of the land, 

 through the instrumentality of the animals fed on the 

 farm. 



It is an industry that has to be created, and the ways 

 and means of its economic conduct have yet to be un- 

 folded by practice ; and there is, undoubtedly, a crying 

 necessity for the initiation of some simple and practical 

 system of preparing wholesome meat for the consumption 

 of our city populations. 



That which is required to put animals into sufficiently 

 good and firm condition for all purposes of beef, is that 

 they should be domesticated, and that they should have a 

 sufficient and never-failing supply of fodder, or food of a 

 quality sufficiently nutritious strong feed grasses that 

 are neither too young to have collected nutrient elements, 

 and which have reached a stage of organization sufficient 

 to render them ' fatting food,' nor so old or over -ripe as 

 to have parted with their nutritious properties. The food 

 best calculated to answer the purpose (it need not be 

 turnips and oil-cake) is that which can be produced in the 

 greatest quantity and nutrient quality from a given space 

 or extent of ground at the least comparative cost, and 

 which can be provided or produced in the most suitable 

 feeding state at the different seasons of the year. That 

 determined, consumers must of necessity pay for beef a 

 price equivalent to the value of such food converted into 

 beef. 



There is no help for it ; it is a law of economics that it 

 must be so ; and, there is no question, that good, nutri- 

 tious beef, at five times the cost per given weight, is 



