The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-05-13

money value between au animal which
barely pays for keeping, or perhaps not
that, aud one which pays profit =?
Let us reckon little Suppose man
wishes to buy a COW. Two are offered
him, both four years od.anj which might
PROBABLY be scrvcrable for ten years TO
come.
With the same food and attendance the
first will yield for ten months in the year
an average Of five quarts per day, and
the other for the same term will yield
seven quarts, aud Of equal quality. What
is the comparative value OF each ? The
difference in yield i, six hundred quarts
per annum. For the purposes of this cal
culation we will supp Sc it worth three
cents per quart amounting to eighteen
dollars.
Is not the second COW while she holds
out to give it, as good as the first, and
three hundred dollars ut six per cent in
tercst besides? IF the first just pays for
her food and attendance, the second,
yielding two-thirds more, pays forty per
cent. profit annually and yet how many
farmcrs,with two such cows for sale would
make more than ten or twenty, or at most
thirty dollars difference in the price
The profit from one eighteen dollars q
year, in ten years, one hundred and eighty
dollars, besides the annual accumulations
Of interest The profits Of the other is
nothing.
If the seller has need to keep one, would
he not be wiser to give away the first than
part with the second for one hundred dol
lars ? Suppose again, that an acre Of
grass or a ton Of hay cost five dolars,and
that for its consumption by given set Of
animals the farmer gets return of five
dollars worth of labor, or meat, or wool,
or milk. He is selling his crop at cost,
and makes no profit. Suppose, by en-
ploying other animals, better horses, bet
ter cows, oxen and sheep, he can get ten
dollars per ton in return. How much are
the latter worth, more than the former
Have they not doubled the value of the
crops, and increased the value Of farming
from nothing to one hundred per cent?
Except that the manure is not doubled
and the animals would some day need to
be replaced, could he not as well afford
to give price of his farm for one set as to
accept the other as gift? Among many
who are, in fact, ignorant of what goes to
constitute merit in breeding animal,
there is an inclination to treat as imagin.
airy and unreal, the higher values placed
upon wel-bred animals over those of
mixed origin, unless they are larger and
handsomer in proportion to the price de-
manded. The sums paid for qualities
which are not at once apparent to the
eye are stigmatized as fancy prices. 1t
is not denied that fancy prices are some
times, perhaps often, paid for there are
probably few who are not willing occa.
sionally to pay for what plcases them,
asids from any other merit commensurate
to the price.
But an the other hand, it is fully as
true that great intrinsic value for breed
ing purposes may exist in an animal, aud
make very little show. Such a one may
not even look so well to a casual observer
as grade, cross-bred animal, which al.
though quite as valuable to the grazier or
butcher, is not for breeding purposes,
worth a tenth part as much
Ill. BRED TnoRoUGlIBREDs.--The Maine
Farmers quotes with emphatic approx al
an opinion uttered at the late Winthrop
convention of farmers by Hall G. Burl.
cigh. of Fairiield-'An ill-bred thorough.
bred is the worst animal farmer can
breed from This is no new idea to the
members Of the North Kennebec Society
among whom Mr.. b. has been urging it
for several years with great earnestness.
Their adoption Of it has done much to
keep out Of the Soclcty's limits second.
rate animals that too often find a market
because they have made a paragraph in
the herd.book The Farmer closes with
the inquiry, Should there not be tweed.
ing" Of our thoroughbred herds, and
would not the future character of all
these, as well as of our cross.bred ami.
mails, improve in consequence p Water.
vile Mail.
To this the Boston CUltirctor adds
The aforesaid quotation from Burleigh
a Maine breeder Of splendid Herefords is
waking up inquiring and provoking pun
gent remarks on 'ill-thoroughbreds, some
Of which are registered in herd.books and
take prizes at the exclusion of better ami.
mails. We trust that compelers of herd.
books will be more cautious in future
than it the past. Let the good work 60
on.
There is without doubt, foundation
for just criticism on individual animals
which are of pure blood. Ill.breeding
and injudicious management cause deteri.
GRAFTON. And though the blood is still
pure, the animals cease to be thorough
bred, as we understand that term.
While we have never failed to advise
the use of thorough bred sires to cross on
common stock, it has been with this quail.
ification, that the individual animal should
be himself meritorious, possessing the
qualities we desire to reproduce, and
that these qualities should be fixed and
? intensified by good-5reeding
FLUCTUATIONS IN WooL.-The National
Live Stock Journal says:
A correspondent deplores the effect
upon the sheep interests of the fluctuations
in wool which have marked the previou:
history of this country and declares the
great necessity Of the country to be, sta
bility and uniformity This is all true
enough, and to secure this stability and
uniformity, sheep growers should resis,
all changes in the tariff laws. They have
been ore fruitful source of change ant
uncertainty, and it would seem as if thu
government could adhere to one of policy