Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-05-23
Farm and Fzresaae.
E.MPROpEyvG STOCK.

The following sound advice is from the
pen of S. L. Goodale, late Secretary of
the Maine State Board of Agriculture:
The truth Island ii is of no use to deny
or disguise the fact--the improvement of
domestic animals is one of the most i'm
portant and, TO large extent, one Of the
most neglected branches of rural economy.
The fault is not that the farmers do not
keep stock enough; oilener they keep
more than they can feed to the most profit
able point; but the majority neither be-
stow care upon the selection of animals for
breeding, nor do they appreciate the dol
lars and cents difference between such us
are proftless.
How many will hesitate to pay dollar
for the services of a-good bull when some
sort of a calf can be got for a 'quartcr p
and this too, when one by the good male
would be worth dollar more for veal and
ten or twenty dollars more when grown to
a COW or an OK. How few refuse TO allow
a butcher the Gull of his calves and lambs
for few extra shillings would soon, were
the worst sold and the best kept, grow into
as many dollars and more? How many
there are who esteem size TO be of more
consequence than symmetry or adoption
TO the use for which they are kept? How
many ever sit down to calculate the differ
ence in money value between an animal
which barely pays for keeping, or perhaps
not that, and one which pays a profit?
Let us reckon little. Suppose man
wishes to buy COW. Two are offered him,
both four years old, aud which might prob
ably be serviceable 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 and of equal quality. What is the
comparative value of each? The difference
in yield is six hundred quarts per annum.
For the purpose Of this calculation we will
suppose it worth three cents per quart a
mounting TO eighteen dollars.
Is not the second COW, while she holds
out to give ii, as good as the first, and three
hundred dollars at six per cent. interest
besides? If the frs! just pays food and at
tendance, the second, yielding two thirds
more, pays forty per cent. profit annually /;
and yet how many farmers, with two such
COWS for sale would make more than ten
or twenty, or at the most thirty dollars
difference in the price? The profit from
one eighteen dollars year, in ten years,
one hundred and eighty dollars, besides
the annual accumulations Of interest. Tho
profits of the other is nothing.
the seller has need to keep one, would
he not be wiser to give away the first than
mort Will, ,ho aaonn1 for ono bunIrnd dol
lars ? Suppose again, that an acre of grass
or ton of hay cost five dollars, and that
for its consumption by given set Of ami
mails the farmer gets return of five dol
lars worth of labor, or meat or wool or
milk. He is selling his crop at cost, and
makes no profit. Suppose, by employing
other animals, better horses, better 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 in
creased 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 the price of his
farm for one set as to accept the other as a
gift Among many who are, in fact, ig-
norant of what goes to constitute merit in a
breedin animal, there is an inclination to
treat as imaginary and unreal, the higher
values placed upon well-bred animals over
those of mixed origin, unless they are
larger and handsomer in proportion to tho
price demanded. The sums paid for quail
tiles which are not at once apparent to the
eye are stigmatized as fancy prices. II is not
denied that fancy prices are not sometimes,
perhaps often, paid for there arc probably
few who are not willing occasionally to
pay for what pleases them, aside from any
other merit commensurate TO the price.
But on the other hand, IL is fully as true
that great intrinsic value for breeding pur-
poses may exist in an animal, and MAKE
very little show. Such one may not even
look so well to a casual observer as grade
cross-bred animal, which although quite
as valuable to the grazer or butcher, is moi
for breeding purposes, worth tenth par
as much.