424 
Farmers' Accounts. 
cattle lose fully five per cent, in going to market and standing there. 
There is therefore only 22 or 23 stone available for sale. If a 
butcher comes to my farm I take him off five per cent, from the 
farm weight, thereby reducing it to market weight. I consider 
that if store cattle are to pay the grazier a fair profit, they should 
be bought in the autumn at Is. to Is. 2d. a live stone less than the 
average price of beef per live stone when they are sold, and if bought 
about May 1, at 6c?. a live stone less. An oSicial record of live 
weight prices of store cattle would therefore be a most valuable 
guide. 
This has not been possible the last year or two, except in the 
case of Canadian stores, which have been bought more in accordance 
with the price of beef. Autumn buying of stores must depend 
upon the means a farmer has of keeping them through the winter 
without losing weight, and it is desirable that grazing farms should 
have a little arable land attached, though details of this kind are 
well known to all practical farmers. The price of stores will of 
course always be subject to variations, but if farmers would accustom 
themselves to take the weight of their store cattle at the time of 
purchase, it would be a check upon their own judgment and would 
help to check the great variety of prices often given for the same 
class of cattle, in the same market, on the same day ; and in a 
short time they would know what they could afford to give. The 
live weight at the time of purchase would also be a valuable record, 
as by taking the live weight when sold fat, it would enable the 
graziers to see what their land had done, and also which breed of 
cattle had fared best. All this is at present conjecture and matter 
of opinion, but it would be far more satisfactory to have it as matter 
of fact. The buying in of stores is a most important question to 
all feeders of cattle. The smaller cattle of good quality under 90 
stone alive at market make the most money and do not come so 
much into competition with the American killed beef as does the 
larger class of Shorthorns weighing 100 live stone and upwards. 
With respect to the sale of fat stock, the quality and condition 
will determine the price per live stone, and of this the farmers who 
have fed the cattle will be the best judge. They will soon learn the 
percentage of dressed meat the stock are likely to yield. A mode- 
rately well-fed animal will yield about 57 per cent., the better fed 
animals as much as 60 or 61 per cent. All cattle will of course vary 
more or less in the percentage of meat they yield, which must l»e 
arrived at by taking averages. If cattle are picked as they are ready 
to be sold, a good judge will estimate their carcass yield to within 
one or two per cent. Many butchers are very good judges and keep 
accurate accounts of the live weight of the cattle they buy as well 
as of the dead weight of meat they yield, and are perfectly able to 
buy their fat cattle by live weight, and m.any do so. A farmer may 
kill a test beast or two in average condition, and, taking the fasted 
live weight and dead weight, this will be a guide to the percentage 
of meat they are likely to yield. Or he may sell a few to a local 
butcher by weight, and see them weighed, and in this way much 
