14 STORE CATTLE 



sound tillage, throve on the plant-food from artificials at the 

 expense of farm-crops. In spite of the fallacy of much of their 

 propaganda, these men did good work; but when others, profiting 

 by their mistakes, taught sound theory, the State was very slow 

 to supply means to demonstrate and spread their teaching. 



This negligence, though it was as potent as it was lamentable, 

 was not the chief cause of many plough-land farmers continuing 

 to buy store cattle at too high a figure and to overfeed them 

 while fattening them. The most pernicious influence of all was, 

 in my view, the bad example set by those who ought to have 

 been the leaders in improvement. The shows held by Agri- 

 cultural Societies for live stock encouraged the exhibition of 

 extravagantly fat animals, and, in the case of breeding stock, 

 of disgustingly overfed creatures. The landlords were prominent 

 exhibitors at such gatherings. These breeding animals were not, 

 it is true, overfed for purposes of encouraging the tenant farmer, 

 but as a means of securing high prices which the foreigner 

 would pay when an animal, otherwise a perfect specimen, was 

 really "well up." The condition of being "well up" may, I 

 think, be exemplified by an account of a conversation I had 

 with one of the greatest veterinary pathologists in Europe. 



" The condition of fatness'' he said to me, "to which you get 

 your show cattle is undoubtedly pathological '." This hideous state 

 of fatness, where breeding stock were on exhibition, was almost 

 greater than at our fat-stock shows. This may appear, at first 

 sight, incredible, but there is an explanation. 



The butchers were so tired of all the dripping, tallow and 

 lard which the carcases of the exhibits carried, that they set 

 their faces against the prize-money being given to specimens 

 that were altogether too obese, and their influence has been 

 sufficient to moderate the excess to a certain extent. At the 

 breeding-stock show, on the other hand, the foreign buyer 

 seems only capable of judging a first-rate specimen when the 

 whole body is covered with an excessive coating of firm grease. 



That the landlords of this country should have taken a leading 

 part in these contests was regrettable, but the harm done by 

 them as exhibitors did not end the trouble. 



I know most of the fat-stock markets in England and many 



