Desirable A(jricultural Experiments. 
265 
above, would afford — unless they happened to be too conflicting 
— fairly conclusive evidence upon two of the points just men- 
tioned. They would show the quantities and value of food con- 
sumed, and the live-weight and value of beef produced, by a 
considerable number of cattle, month by month, up to the age 
of three years. Supposing that there were ten trials, we should 
have records of the details in relation to a hundred well-bred 
Herefords, and an equal number of good Dexters ; and, if the 
trials were all well conducted, the average results could hardly 
fail to inspire confidence. The results might possibly differ so 
greatly as to prove nothing ; but, on the other hand, they might 
tally so closely as to be absolutely convincing. In the latter 
case we should know (1) whether, with certain feeding stuffs 
and beef at given prices, it paid to fatten cattle at all with 
those foods apart from the value of their manure ; and (2) at 
what age, up to three years, after they were in any way fit for 
the butcher, they paid best or lost least. If the animals paid 
up to the age of three years, or if the loss was so small as 
obviously not to exceed the value of their manure, it might be 
necessary to have a fresh set of trials to ascertain whether cattle 
could be advantageously kept to an older age ; or the same 
trials might be prolonged. In all probability, however, this 
would not be found necessary, and as it would be tiresome to 
have the issue of the test originally proposed left undetermined 
beyond the three years, the prolongation would not lightly be 
determined upon. 
Of course no trials can settle in an absolute manner the 
question whether it pays feeders generally to fatten cattle up to 
a given age, because circumstances vary so greatly that what 
would be remunerative to one man would not be so to another. 
For example, one man may be able to grow roots or hay at 
twenty per cent, less cost per ton than another ; while the 
variations in prices of purchased feeding-stuffs and beef render 
any general conclusion additionally difficult. But a sufficient 
number of trials might justify a confident expression of opinion 
to this extent — that, under the prescribed feeding conditions, 
and with the feeding stuffs used at given prices, well-bred 
animals of a certain breed, kept up to a particular age, will 
produce beef at a specified cost. Each farmer would then have 
to decide on his own account whether he could produce roots, 
hay, and other fodder at the prices named, and to calculate the 
differences in the expense of meat-making caused by any rise 
or fall in the prices of cattle foods which have to be purchased. 
If it be objected that a conclusion so hedged about with vary- 
ing conditions is not much to aim at, the answer is that nothing 
