Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1878-02-22

The truth is, said Prof Goodale several
years ago, and measurably holding good yet
it is of no use to deny or disguise the fact the
improvement of domestic animals is one of
the most important, and to a large extent, one
of the most neglected branches of rural econ
omy. The fault is not that farmers do not
keep stock enough oftener that they keep
more than they can feed to the most protita-
BILE point but the majority neither bestow
proper care upon the selection of proper ami
mails for breeding nor do they appreciate the
dollars and cents difference between such ms
are profitable and such as are profit
less. How many will hesitate to pay
dollar for the services of a good bull when
some sort of calf can be gotten for quar-
ter z" 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 n COW or an OK. How many esteem size to
be of more consequence than symmetry or
adaptation to the use for which they are kept?
How many ever sit down to calculate the diff
ference 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 a man
wishes to buy COW. Two are offered him,
both four years old and 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 aver
age of five quarts per day, and the other for
the same time will yield seven quarts, 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 quart, amounting to eighteen dollars.
Is not the second COW, while she holds out to
give it, as good as the first, and three hun
dred dollars at six per cent interest besides I:
If the first pays for her food and attendance,
the second, yielding two-ffths more, pays
forty per cent. profit annually and yet how
many farmers having 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 is eighteen dollars year ;
in ten years one hundred and eighty dollars
besides the annual accumulations of interest
The profit of the other is nothing. If the
seller has the need to keep one, would he not
be wiser to give away the first than to part
with the second for hundred dollars? Sup
pose, again, that an acre of grass or a ton of
hay cost five dollars, and that for its consump-
ton by given set of animals the farmer gets
a return of five dollars worth of labor or
meat, or WOOL, or lnllk lie Is belnnb MS
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
increased the profit of farming 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 af-
ford to give the price of his farm for one set
as to accept the other as n gift?
Among many who are in fact, ignorant OF
what goes to constitute merit in breeding
animal there is an inclination to treat as imag.
mary and unreal the higher values placed up.
on wtll-bred animals over those of mixed orr
gin, unless they are larger and handsomer il
proportion to the price demanded. The sums
paid for qualities which are not at once ap
parent to the eye are stigmatized rs fancy
prices. 1t is not denied that fancy prices art
sometimes, perhaps often, paid, for there ar,
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 it is fully as true that grea
intrinsic value for breeding purposes may ex
list in an animal and yet make very little show
Such one may not even look so well to
casual observer as a grade or cross-bred ami
nal, which, although quite rs valuable to thu
grazier or butcher, is not, for breeding pur
poses, worth a tenth part rs much.