92 My Little Farm 



the native line also, but less often and less success- 

 fully. They come out much more variously in 

 size, colour, shape, constitution and general 

 appearance, their qualities not being yet suffi- 

 ciently fixed, owing to their more nondescript 

 origin, while the red poll factor, on the other hand, 

 enables me to know with practical certainty what 

 I can expect at any time. 



Why does the Connaughtman so consistently 

 pay the higher price for the inferior animal ? 

 That he does so is certain, and the importance of 

 the question is plain. In doing so he increases his 

 cost of production by many times the length of his 

 legs. A cow is a kind of machine, consuming to 

 produce, and the best machine obviously is that 

 which produces most at least cost. Yet the 

 machine requiring the higher consumption for a 

 given standard of production is preferred every 

 day, and a higher price is paid for its inferiority. 

 There is hardly anything more certain of cows than 

 that length of leg, beyond a symmetrical propor- 

 tion to physique, is a sign of small production for 

 the cost in consumption, and I know no surer sign. 



A clever jobber might make money by buying 

 the best cows in Connaught to sell elsewhere, and 

 the worst elsewhere to sell in Connaught. By 

 " best " and " worst " in this real sense, I mean 

 something of more importance than price. One 

 of the worst cows I have seen for some time 

 was sold for ^23, a coarse brute that ought never 

 to have lived ; but she went to England, where 

 they know better than to allow her to reproduce 



