86 My Little Farm 



was two years old. She has grown much since then, 

 and she has fed more than two calves in addition to 

 her own, so that she counts as four, and is not yet 

 three years old. Is there any three year old 

 bullock worth as much money on land worth .5 

 an acre ? This cow is now bought to breed by 

 Mr. Webb, of Carlyle, and her calf has made a 

 record as a bull, with Mr. Jordan, Raith, 

 Aghamore. 



Here are two branches of the one family, 

 Polly II. and the Mermaid, bred exactly alike, one 

 of them invariably horned at the third generation, 

 or sooner, the other invariably hornless up to and 

 including the fourth generation. Recognising the 

 scientific importance of the contrast, I have taken 

 care to verify every service. There are standing 

 orders that no cow of mine shall ever go to any 

 but a pure shorthorn bull, but, in addition to that, 

 I have seen to it personally. The " Mermaid " 

 leaves me a heifer calf, the first horned in this 

 line. 



Science apart, the industrial and economic 

 question is Have I solved the regional problem ? 

 If so, a nation is my debtor. Around me, and 

 more or less in something like half of Ireland, the 

 economic cow does not yet exist, and it is not 

 likely to exist so long as individual incapactiy is 

 permitted to cancel the value of official policy and 

 of its necessary expenditure. In these regions the 

 shorthorn is too often like a skeleton after the 

 winter, and the coarser animals that might stand 

 the treatment are bad milkers, even on the best 



