6 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



ing order is less than when a smaller amount is con- 

 sumed. J 



It will not, then, be desirable to breed animals that 

 eat but little, as we cannot reasonably expect them to 

 give as large a proportionate return for feed consumed 

 as those that have efficient digestive organs of greater 

 capacity. 



A comparison of the results obtained with different 

 animals is generally neglected by farmers, and they 

 therefore make too little difference in the price of 

 their best animals, that are capable of returning a fair 

 profit on the food consumed, and those of inferior 

 quality, that do not, perhaps, pay for their keep. 



The great difference in the relative value of ani- 

 mals will be best shown by a few illustrations. 



One cow yields five pounds of butter a week, 

 which, at twenty cents a pound,' would be one dollar, 

 or twenty dollars for twenty weeks, which we will 

 assume is the period of usefulness for the year. 



Another yields eight pounds of butter a week, 

 worth one dollar and sixty cents, and the total return 

 for twenty weeks would be thirty-two dollars, or 

 twelve dollars more than was realized from the first 

 cow. This difference represents the interest on one 

 hundred and twenty dollars, at ten per cent, for the 

 year. On the same basis, a cow yielding ten pounds 

 of butter a week would earn forty dollars in twenty 

 weeks, or twenty dollars more than the first cow, and 

 this difference would be the interest on two hundred 

 dollars for the year. 



Three pounds of wool from one sheep, at fifty 



1 " Michigan Agricultural Report," 1873, p. 120. 



