breeder on a par with that of a builder who should fasten together
wood and iron just as the pieces happened to come to his hand,
regardless of the laws of architecture, and expect a convenient house
or a fast sailing ship to be the result of his labors.

Is not the usual course of procedure among many farmers too nearly
parallel to the case supposed? Let the ill-favored, chance-bred,
mongrel beasts in their barn yards testify. The truth is, and 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 economy. The fault is not that
farmers do not keep stock enough, much oftener they keep more than
they can feed to the most profitable point, and when a short crop of
hay comes, there is serious difficulty in supporting them, or in
selling them at a paying price; but the great majority neither bestow
proper care upon the selection of animals for breeding, nor do they
appreciate the dollars and cents difference between such as are
profitable and such as are profitless. How many will hesitate or
refuse to pay a dollar for the services of a good bull when some sort
of a calf can be begotten for a "quarter?" and this too when one by
the good male would be worth a dollar more for veal and ten or twenty
dollars more when grown to a cow or an ox? How few will hesitate or
refuse to allow to a butcher the cull of his calves and lambs for a
few extra shillings, and this when the butcher's difference in
shillings would soon, were the best kept and the worst sold, grow into
as many dollars and more? How many there are who 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 difference in
money value between an animal which barely pays for keeping, or
perhaps not that, and one which pays a profit?

Let us reckon a little. Suppose a man wishes to buy a cow. Two are
offered him, both four years old, and which might probably 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
q