100 
Relative Profits to the Farmer from 
inadequate feeding, that the breeder or dealer does not in every 
case get the encouragement he would otherwise receive. Either 
farmers do not in sufficient numbers appreciate thoroughly well- 
bred animals as they should do, or the breeders and dealers are 
not in a position to measure such a preference by materially- 
enhanced prices. In the present unsatisfactory state of the lean- 
cattle trade, particularly with Ireland, the farmer cannot reliably 
ascertain the descent of the stores he feeds ; but by breeding more 
of them he could know better what he was about, and would 
pocket more money in the end. Never supposing that all farmers 
could breed and rear nearly as many cattle as they feed, I would 
strongly urge on those who buy "stores" (1) to avoid the glar- 
ingly ill-bred brutes, hundreds of which are dear at any figure ; 
(2) to use every possible means of ascertaining the breeding of the- 
animals ; and (3) to pay handsomely for good varieties when 
they can be had. If this were systematically attended to, there 
would soon be a greatly superior race of cattle in the market. 
Were farmers to studiously shun the inferior lots, and create a 
good demand and remunerative sale for the nicer sorts, they 
would give the most powerful incentive to improved breeding 
and rearing that could be imagined. It is not enough to say that 
thousands of farmers already endeavour to do what has just been 
described as so desirable. Granted that they do, can it be denied 
that thousands make no such attempt ? If that were denied, I 
should like to know where all those Irish and other droves of 
calves and stirks go, that frequent one leading fair after another 
in various parts of the country. No reflecting person can see 
those emaciated hide-bound creatures, without feeling that the 
dumb brutes themselves have come through some unkind, un- 
generous, nay, even cruel hands ; and that whoever was foolish 
enough to saddle himself with the fattening of them was surer 
of his work and outlay than his profit. 
I venture to affirm that a calf from a moderately good cow and 
a pure-bred Shorthorn bull, is better value to the rearer and feeder 
at 5/., than one of the same age, from a nondescript sire, is at 5s. 
The one will consume quite as much food as the other, and, as 
a rule, the better-bred animal can be easily sold at two years old 
for about 30/., while the other will fetch little over 20/. If 
farmers, almost to a man, could be convinced of this, and the 
owners of dairy cows, as well as other breeders of calves and 
stirks for sale, made fully aware of such a conviction, pure-bred 
bulls would soon be universally in service in the great dairying 
districts. VV^hat fine growing and feeding crosses, for instance, 
could be bred from the strong sappy cows in the dairies in Somer- 
setshire, Derbyshire, and Cheshire, if only a pure Shorthorn bull 
were put to them I Instead of the calves, at 8 or 10 days old, 
