The Regional Problem 91 



the cows have it when the intelligent stranger 

 comes along. 



There are two fairs, within ten miles. English- 

 men and other strangers come to one, never to the 

 other. When I have cows to sell, I take them to 

 meet the strangers, and get a bigger price ; when I 

 have legs to sell, I take them to the other fair, and 

 get also a bigger price, profiting by the judgment 

 in the one case and by the want of it in the other. 

 A group of my short legs, in the proper place will 

 always beat the " bigger " animals with the long 

 legs ; but the short-legged groups are too few and 

 too seldom in the fair to affect local judgment, 

 which goes on selecting for longer and longer legs 

 from generation to generation, while the Depart- 

 ment expends taxes to shorten the legs for the 

 superiority accompanying the shortness. We pay 

 taxes to improve the cattle, and we pay bull fees 

 to destroy them, preferring the inferior sire for 

 sixpence in half-a-crown, and losing at least a 

 pound in the calf in order to gain the sixpence. 

 The investment of that sixpence for forty times 

 itself in one year, equal to 4,000 per cent., is the 

 most reproductive investment that I know in any 

 industrial application within these islands, and the 

 Department enables us to secure it every time, 

 while we deliberately choose to throw it away. 



The difference in price is not confined to the 

 ordinary conditions of the fair. Every male of the 

 better line, without exception, makes a good bull, 

 and sells for such, often privately, at prices well 

 over those of the fair. Sometimes it happens with 



