40 QUESTIONS OF PRINCIPLE 



for the mare for the period during which she is not at work ; 

 calves from a dairy herd maintained for milk production for 

 direct sale, or for cheese-making, may fairly be treated as by- 

 products. Milk is the object of production and milk cannot be 

 produced without the calf, so service fees, or the cost of main- 

 taining the bull, as well as the cost of the cow whilst dry, are 

 charges against milk, not against the calf. The calf is accord- 

 ingly taken as costing nothing at birth, and it is only necessary 

 to take steps to record against it the cost of food and labour 

 employed in its subsequent maintenance. Calves from 

 a non-dairy herd, and lambs, cannot be treated in this way, 

 for they are in no sense by-products but are themselves 

 the main objects of the management of the herd or flock 

 respectively. Just as, therefore, the cost of maintaining 

 the dairy herd, in the former case, gives the cost of the 

 milk produced, so in the latter case, that is, the non-dairy 

 herd or the ewe flock, the cost of the herd or flock represents 

 the cost of the young stock or lambs raised. If this point 

 of view be accepted it is then an ordinary routine matter 

 to calculate the subsequent cost of the young animal, year 

 by year, until it is sold as a store or fat to the butcher, 

 until it is taken into the breeding stud, herd, or flock, or 

 until, in the case of horses, it is sold or put to work on the 

 farm. Those animals retained on the farm for breeding 

 purposes or for work should be valued thereafter at the total 

 cost of bringing them up to that stage, and no more. Thus 

 if a heifer has cost, say, 28 to keep up to the time of her 

 first calf, she will be valued so long as she remains in the 

 herd at this figure, and a young horse that has cost, say, 

 45 up to the time when it is broken for work will stand 

 in the books at this price thereafter less the annual deduc- 

 tion for depreciation calculated upon its probable life. 

 These are the sums that it has cost the farmer to bring these 

 animals to a productive stage. The further expense of 

 maintaining them year by year is not an addition to the 

 cost of the animals, but represents the cost, to the farmer, 

 of their produce, whether it be work done, as in the case 

 of horses ; milk and calves, as in the case of cattle ; or 



