184 My Little Farm 



succeeded in breeding a good cow for himself, 

 while the other man could not breed a bad cow. 

 The man who kept the bad bulls knew very well 

 all the time that, across the fence, he could have 

 better value, for himself and for his neighbours, at 

 less cost ; but he paid the higher price for the 

 inferior value rather than help his neighbour to 

 extend the better value to the advantage of all 

 the neighbours and his own. When, in the end, 

 the contrast had become too plain for the neigh- 

 bours to tolerate it, the man who kept the very 

 bad bulls sent some of his bad cows across the 

 fence, so that he could say he had raised the 

 better breed himself, and still deny the credit of 

 it to his neighbour. 



Merely because one man, who keeps bulls, hates 

 the prosperity of another man, who breeds bulls, 

 the bull-keeper actually pays money for nothing 

 but to prevent the prosperity of his neighbour ; 

 and in doing so, he pays also to inflict a serious 

 injury on his other neighbours, forcing them to 

 rear bad calves when they could be rearing good 

 ones at the same cost. Now, this is the Connaught 

 character, as nearly as I can describe it after long 

 and intimate study of it. How can a country 

 prosper on it ? 



