260 Desirable Agrimltural DxperimenU. 
breeds. To effect this object it would be necessary to ascertain 
the comparative consumption of food, and production in meat or 
milk, of good representatives of the large and small breeds of 
cattle. 
In making these remarks I am not ignoring the differences 
in circumstances which render the keeping of one breed most 
advantageous in one district, and the preference for another 
breed reasonable in another part of the country. But there are 
circumstances in which local suitability does not enter as a 
factor in determining whether Shorthorns, Herefords, Polled 
Scots, Devons, Dexters, or Sussex cattle shall be kept for meat 
making ; or whether Shorthorns, Ayrshires, Jerseys, Guernseys, 
or Kerries, shall be chosen for dairy animals. One farmer, in 
the course of his experience, has arrived at a certain conclusion 
in relation to two or more breeds, and another, after an equally 
fair trial, has come to precisely the opposite decision. Either may 
have had ample reasons for his judgment, or may have jumped to 
a conclusion upon evidence vitiated by accidents ; but neither is 
likely to be able to adduce sufficient grounds for deciding the 
point at issue for other people. 
There are marketing facilities which rightly influence the 
choice of breed in any particular district, as well as climatic or 
other characteristics ; but the first of these considerations is 
dependent upon custom, which is subject to alteration in course 
of time. If it were shown upon a sufficiently extensive scale 
that where one breed is usually kept another would pay better, 
the fashion would gradually change, and marketing facilities 
with it. It is possible to eliminate all local considerations in a 
trial of the relative advantages of keeping different types of 
animals. English beef-makers, as a body, may regard with 
contempt the claim of the best of the small breeds to compete 
with their Hereford, Shorthorn, Devon, or Sussex cattle. They 
may be right, and yet they have not proved that they are so. 
There are English pastures upon which a Dexter would be as 
much at home as a Hereford, and it is not certain that the 
latter makes the better return in proportion to the food he 
consumes. Similarly, there are parts of England in which a 
Jersey or a Kerry flourishes as well as a Shorthorn or an Ayr- 
shire, and might pay better for the cost of maintenance, for 
anything that has been shown publicly to the contrary. Such 
instances of uncertainty might be multiplied, but will suffice for 
my purpose, which is to plead for a competitive trial of typical 
breeds as a beginning of tests which can be pursued hereafter 
to a further extent. 
Let me, then, come to business by suggesting that a couple 
