8 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



needs, as Bakewell happily expressed it, '' the best 

 machine for converting herbage and other animal food 

 into money." 



He will therefore do well to seek such animals as are 

 most perfect of their kind — such as will pay best for 

 the expense of procuring the machinery, for the care 

 ^ and attention bestowed, and for the consumption of raw 

 ^material. The returns come in various forms. They 

 may or may not be connected with the ultimate value 

 of the animal. In the beef ox and the mutton sheep, 

 they are so connected to a large extent ; in the dairy 

 cow and the fine wooled sheep, this is quite a secondary 

 consideration ; — in the horse, valued as he is for beauty, 

 speed and draught, it is not thought of at all. 



Not only is there a wide range of field for operations, 

 from which the stock grower may select his own path of 

 procedure, but there is a demand that his attention be 

 directed with a definite aim, and towards an end clearly 

 apprehended. The first question to be answered, is, 

 what do we want? and the next, how shall we get it? 



What we want, depends wholly upon our situation 

 and surroundings, and each must answer it for himself. 

 In England the problem to be solved by the breeder of 

 neat cattle and sheep is how "to produce an animal or 

 a living machine which with a certain quantity and 

 quality of food, and under certain given circumstances. 



