POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE 93 



munity has been satisfied with some public exhibitions of very 

 fine fat stock among which were occasionally classes for fat 

 cows. These shows were undoubtedly useful, particularly when 

 the ages and weights of the animals were recorded : unfortun- 

 ately this was not often, if ever, done as regards the cows. 

 Educational Institutions and Authorities have done much good 

 spade-work in recording weights gained for given rations fed. 

 All such figures, useful as they have been, must be augmented. 

 The foods fed to the stock, the milk-yields of the parents, the 

 milk-yields of the cows themselves, and the returns obtained 

 must all be brought into account if progress is to be made. It 

 may be taken for granted that, for the present, the fat stock show 

 will be held on the old lines as soon as peace conditions permit 

 it, but gradually it will be found possible, I believe, to ensure 

 that the farmers who support these exhibitions will demand 

 more than the meagre information hitherto supplied. It must, 

 moreover, be made possible to get full and exact information 

 about commercial, as contrasted with exhibition, stock, if pro- 

 gress is to be expected. The registration of the cows already 

 begun may, as has been shown above, be extended to a record, 

 by means of branding, of the history of their heifer calves. 

 The systematic marking of their steered calves could be carried 

 on at the same time. 



At many of the shows in the North of England and in Scotland 

 there are classes for store cattle. Useful as these are for demon- 

 stration purposes, they would be still more valuable if used to 

 prove fully what could be done by breeding being confined to 

 the most useful type of animal. If it was known how the store- 

 stock at these shows, as well as those at some public sales, were 

 bred and fed, their ages and their weights, we should be able 

 to get much valuable information at present unobtainable. Such 

 general information would be a reliable check on results obtained 

 with small numbers of animals kept under trained observation 

 during feeding trials. The returns obtained as produce must 

 be the criterion of successful breeding and feeding operations, 

 and once the practising agriculturists fully realized that certain 

 brands of stock gave them better results than others, they 

 would buy them; thus better prices would reward those who 



