CHAPTER III 



CATTLE — BREEDS — BULLS — BUYING STOCK 



As soon as the house and buildings are completed, 

 it will be necessary to set about the stocking of your 

 range. By the time you have finished your proba- 

 tion with the ranchers on whose places you have 

 been working, you should have a fair knowledge of 

 what constitutes the best stock to run on your own 

 account. But, for all that, it would be as well to 

 have the advice of a thoroughly competent man 

 when selecting your breeding stock, as, from want 

 of knowledge mistakes can often be made which 

 you might afterwards regret and be unable to rectify, 

 thereby wasting both your money and time. Dealers, 

 I am afraid, are not always too conscientious and 

 scrupulous in their transactions with those they see 

 a chance of making a little additional profit by, on 

 account of want of experience, so that it is only fair 

 to warn the settler to be on his guard, when ap- 

 proached by some of them with beasts of any kind for 

 sale, and especially (let me whisper it in his ear) a 



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