266 
Desirable Agricultural Experiments. 
as definite has ever yet been established, and that a more 
sweeping verdict would be untrustworthy. But it is to be 
borne in mind that the numerous variations which have to be 
considered in determining whether, as an absolute fact, beef- 
making pays at all, or up to a certain age and not beyond it, do 
not affect the merely comparative issues relating to large and 
small breeds or to ages for butchering cattle. The questions 
whether it is more advantageous to keep Herefords or Dexters 
for beef-making, or whether it is more profitable to kill either 
at the age of two years or at that of three years, are not affected 
by the rise or fall of markets for feeding-stuff's or beef. 
In order to avoid complication, I have hitherto refrained 
from going into the question of the valuation of the manure 
that would be produced by the subjects of the two trials 
suggested. It would simplify matters to leave this point out of 
account in comparisons of breeds and ages, although it has an 
important bearing upon the decision as to whether beasts yield 
any profit or not ; but to do this would be to give an undue 
advantage to small breeds and to animals finished off" at a 
youthful age. It is obvious that the intrinsic value of the 
manure would be in inverse proportion to the advantageous 
conversion of food into beef or milk under given conditions. 
In other words, the gi’eater the quantity of meat or milk pro- 
duced from a given quantity of food, the less the value of the 
manure would be. Or, to put the point in yet another way, 
the greater the waste, the more valuable the manure. Again, 
the greater the quantity of food consumed, if there were any 
considerable difference, the more manure would there be. 
Therefore, the manure made by the large breed of cattle would 
be presumably more valuable than that produced by the small 
breed. There would be more of it, and it might also prove to 
be more valuable intrinsically. The same may be said of the 
manure produced by animals kept for three years or more, as 
compared with that made by animals killed at a younger age. 
It would hardly be worth while to go into the question of the 
intrinsic quality of the manure made by one lot of cattle as 
compared with that of the excrements of the other lot ; but 
the quantities should be estimated and valued in proportion 
to the quantities of foods of various kinds consumed, and 
in accordance with well-known data concerning the propor- 
tions and values of excrements. It would be desirable to take 
into account the depreciated value of dung caused by the great 
reduction in the prices of artificial manures which has taken 
place in recent years ; and, therefore, to insure uniformity of 
valuation, the several conductors of identical trials should agree 
