126 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



as the choice animals of this class are usually sold at 

 a younger age. Though the choice animals should not 

 he thus sold, the suspicion is present in the mind of the 

 intending purchaser that bulls in the one-year form and 

 older have not been disposed of earlier because pos- 

 sessed of qualities not to be desired. When such animals, 

 possessed of the requisite inheritance and form, can be 

 purchased as cheaply as those purchased in calfhood, 

 the investment is safer and more economical, as, when 

 introduced into the herd, the character of the develop- 

 ment is better known and they are ready for immediate 

 service. 



But so strong is the prejudice against the purchase 

 of bulls in the one-year, and, especially, in the two-year 

 form, when thus carried over in the herd, and so great 

 is the expense of maintaining them in form for selling, 

 that it will usually be more profitable for the grower to 

 dispose of them for meat in the castrated or uncastrated 

 form than to retain them for sale for breeding uses. 

 Some breeders of pure-breds whose methods have been 

 otherwise commendable, have found the business un- 

 profitable, because of the extent to which they have 

 attempted to carry this class of stock. 



The prejudice against the purchase of mature bulls 

 is even stronger than that against the purchase of year- 

 lings and two-year-olds. It should not be so, as the pre- 

 potency of the former has been proved. The average 

 age at which herd bulls are sold as meat is probably 

 four years. At that age they should be in the zenith 

 of highest usefulness. When the}' have shown trans- 

 mitting qualities of a high order, they are possessed of a 

 higher relative and absolute value than a young bull 

 whose transmitting qualities are yet unproved, and 

 usually they can be purchased at a price not much be- 

 yond that for which they will sell as meat. The owner 

 sells them to avoid the necessity of breeding them to 

 their own progeny. When their breeding record has 



