CATTLE, HOW TO BUT AND SELL. 
190 
cut square to show the shape. There is no profit, however, to the feeder 
in cattle fattened to obese or immense weights ; they arc mere mountains 
of fat, and contain no more lean meat than animals fattened fairly ripe. 
There are few people who do not like well-fattened beef. Few, however, 
care to cat any but the lean. An animal, therefore, that is fattened just 
ripe is the heaviest in muscle, well marbled with fat. This is what the 
consumer wants, and what the feeder should seek to make. Smooth, fine- 
horned, medium cattle, according to the breed selected, are what give 
profits in this respect. 
How to Buy. 
In buying ordinary (that is native) cattle for pasturing and feeding fat 
during the Summer and Fall, always buy in the Spring. If the grass is 
good at the time of purchase, as it should be, no matter how thin the stock, 
if healthy and hearty. The thin stock will weigh less, and you will have 
to pay less for it. The loss will be with the farmer who grudges his 
animals sufficient to cat in Winter, rather than with the buyer. Gener- 
ally all this class will sell cheaper in the Spring than in the Fall, and as 
a rule yearlings may be bought for less ‘money in the Spring than tho 
same calves would have brought in the Fall. If they havo been fairly 
wintered they will be profitable to feed ; if badly wintered, it will bo 
questionable, unless the price paid is low enough to warrant the purchase. 
In any event the feeder must usually depend upon buying steers off of 
common keep. Good feeders are not apt to sell half-grown steers, nor 
those that one more season’s keep will make ripe. The best money- 
making friends of tho sagacious buyer are, after all, those who never 
read, and will not believe that anything in print relating to agriculture in 
any of its various departments can be of value. They do not know that 
as great advances have been made in agricultural art within the last thirty 
years as in any other industry, and that tho best practical talent in 
Europe, and within the last few years in America, have been earnestly 
engaged in elucidating and applying practical science to agriculture. 
In selecting milking cows tho following doggerel verses from an old 
English magazine are as true now as when written as to what constitutes 
a cow for both milk and beef : 
She’s long in her face, she’s fine in her horn, 
She’ll quickly get fat without cake or corn ; 
She’s clean in her jaws, and full in her chine. 
She’s heavy in flank, and wide in her loin. 
She’s broad in her ribs, and long in her rump; 
A straight and flat back, without e’er a hump ; 
She’s wido in her hips, and calm in her eyes ; 
She’s fine in her shoulders, and thin in her thighs. 
