42 QUESTIONS OF PRINCIPLE 



a pedigree back to Eclipse may prove of no more worth 

 than to pull a greengrocer's cart ; a heifer with a splendid 

 milk pedigree proves, not infrequently, to be of no special 

 value at the pail, and even though it be otherwise, an acci- 

 dent, or an outbreak of disease, may wipe off the whole of 

 the value due to long pedigree in a few minutes. There 

 must be no departure under any circumstances from the 

 principle of valuation at the cost of production ; on no other 

 basis will the farmer's accounts act as an index of the 

 success or otherwise of his management. On these principles 

 the process of valuation, in an established system of farm 

 accounts, is in fact, the ascertainment of cost results, and 

 the value placed upon any item in the valuation is the 

 ascertained cost at that date, or the cost less depreciation 

 in certain cases. 



In the case of purchased pedigree stock the principles 

 of valuation suggested here seem to contradict themselves, 

 in that if the cost to the farmer is to be followed then 

 pedigree value must be recognized. The difficulty is more 

 apparent than real, for in purchasing pedigree stock the 

 farmer is really buying two things, and the purchase price 

 is resolvable into two parts : (1) the cost of the animal 

 as one of its class ; (2) its additional cost arising from its 

 pedigree. Having regard to the disparity in the prices paid 

 for pedigree as compared with ordinary or market stock, not 

 only is it the right course, but as a matter of prudence it is 

 the necessary course, to split the total value, as marked by 

 price, into the cost of the animal as stock of normal class 

 at ordinary prices, and its additional cost as stock of an 

 abnormal or pedigree class. The former, which should in 

 most cases be calculated by weighing, will be charged 

 against the particular live stock account to which the animal 

 properly belongs, and the latter will be debited to a 'Pedigree- 

 value ' account. If the purchased pedigree stock is retained 

 for service on the farm, and is thus decreasing in value, 

 a proportionate part of the pedigree value should be written 

 off each year. If the animal is sold at any time at less than 

 the combined costs at which it appears in the ordinary stock 



