MILCH COWS. 199- 



of the laws of architecture, and expect a convenient house, or 

 a fast-sailing ship to be the result of his labors. 



" Is not the usual course of procedure among many farmers, 

 too nearly parallel to the case supposed ? Let the ill-favored, 

 chance-bred, mongrel beasts in their barn-yards testify. The 

 truth is, and it is of no use to deny or disguise the fact — the 

 improvement of domestic animals is one of the most important, 

 and, to a large extent, one of the most neglected branches of 

 rural economy. The fault is not that farmers do not keep stock 

 enough ; oftener they keep more tiian they can feed to the most 

 profitable point ; but the majority neither bestow proper care 

 upon the selection of animals for breeding, nor do they appre- 

 ciate the dollars and cents difference between such as are profit- 

 able and such as are profitless. How many will hesitate to 

 pay a dollar for the services of a good bull when some sort of 

 a calf can be gotten for a " quarter ? " and this, too, when one 

 by the good male would be worth a dollar more for veal and 

 ten or twenty dollars more when grown to a cow or an ox. 

 How few refuse to allow to a butcher the cull of his calves and 

 lambs for a few exjtra shillings, and this when the butcher's 

 difference in shillings would soon, were the best kept and the 

 worst sold, grow into as many dollars and more ? How many 

 there are who esteem size to be of more consequence than sym- 

 metry or adaptation to the use for which they are kept? How 

 many ever sit down to calculate the difference in money value 

 between an animal which barely pays for keeping, or perhaps 

 not that, and one which pays a profit ? 



" Let us reckon a little. Suppose a man wishes to buy a cow. 

 Two are offered him, both four years old, and which might 

 probably be serviceable for ten years to come. With the same 

 food and attendance, the first will yield for ten months in the 

 year an average of five quarts per day, and the other for the 

 same term will yield seven quarts and of equal quality. 'What 

 is the comparative value of each ? The difference in yield is 

 six hundred quarts per annum. For the purpose of this calcu- 

 lation we will suppose it worth three cents per quart, amounting 

 to eighteen dollars. Is not the second cow, while she holds out 

 to give it, as good as the first, and three hundred dollars at six 

 per cent, interest besides ? If the first just pays for her food 

 and attendance, the second, yielding two-fifths more, pays fort// 



