454 
On Weighing Live-Stoch. 
system which furnishes means for exactitude. Farming is said 
to be a business of small economies ; now small economies can 
only be brought about by nice observations of petty details ; 
and as regards progress in the growth and breed of animals 
the only reliable telltale is the balance. The advance in public 
opinion since Mr. Rew's paper was published, as expressed by 
legislation, together with the record of recent experience in the 
adoption of the system, may be usefully brought under the 
notice of agriculturists. There seems to be no occasion for 
entering further into argument in favour of its adoption, or for 
reviving contentious discussion with those who may be indif- 
ferent or actively opposed to it. It is no longer a question 
whether or no live animals will be weighed for trading purposes 
in Great Britain ; that question is settled by the fact that thou- 
sands are so treated, and the spread of the system is thereby 
removed from the field of discussion to that of actual applica- 
tion. 
It is obvious, therefore, that at the present moment what is 
needed in the way of literature is a statement of practice and 
results, as far as they can be gathered from those who are mak- 
ing use of the weighbridge in the course of business. 
A study of this practice and its results reveals several 
glaring defects or contradictions in the statistics of the cattle 
business. Taking for instance the quotations of prices in the 
Metropolitan Islington Market, there is the best possible reason 
for believing that they are utterly worthless as a basis of 
prices. Either the price per stone quoted is beyond that which 
the beasts have made, or the butcher's estimate of weight is 
below the reality. The evidence of Sir J. B. Lawes before the 
Royal Commission on market rights and tolls in 1889 cor- 
roborates this view. He says (Q. 6602) the prices of meat 
" are misleading in this sense. If I weigh a quantity of animals 
alive I can tell with very great accuracy, if they are my own 
breeding and feeding, what they will weigh dead. If I send to 
the London market and look at the quoted prices for that meat in 
the paper, I find that instead of my animals weighing when 
killed 55, 56, or 58 per cent., as I know they ought to weigh, 
they only weigh perhaps 50 or 51 per cent. 1 know with 
absolute certainty that the figures are misleading and incorrect." 
It should be explained that the percentages here mentioued 
appertain to the dressed carcasses, or meat out of the whole live 
animal, the balance of percentages belonging to the offal. As 
additional testimony we have that of Mr. Westley Richards 
before the same Commission. He says (Q. 6548) as to news- 
paper quotations, " I am quite certain they are not reliable.. I 
