ch animals as are most perfect of
their kind--such as will pay best for the expense of procuring the
machinery, for the care and attention bestowed, and for the
consumption of raw material. The returns come in various forms. They
may or may not be connected with the ultimate value of the animal. In
the beef ox and the mutton sheep, they are so connected to a large
extent; in the dairy cow and the fine wooled sheep, this is quite a
secondary consideration;--in the horse, valued as he is for beauty,
speed and draught, it is not thought of at all.

Not only is there a wide range of field for operations, from which the
stock grower may select his own path of procedure, but there is a
demand that his attention be directed _with a definite aim_, and
_towards an end clearly apprehended_. The first question to be
answered, is, what do we want? and the next, how shall we get it?

What we want, depends wholly upon our situation and surroundings, and
each must answer it for himself. In England the problem to be solved
by the breeder of neat cattle and sheep is how "to produce an animal
or a living machine which with a certain quantity and quality of food,
and under certain given circumstances, shall yield in the shortest
time the largest quantity and best quality of beef, mutton or milk,
with the largest profit to the producer and at least cost to the
consumer." But this is not precisely the problem for American farmers
to solve, because our circumstances are different. Few, if any, here
grow oxen for beef alone, but for labor and beef, so that earliest
possible maturity may be omitted and a year or more of labor
profitably intervene before conversion to beef. Many cultivators of
sheep, too, are so situated as to prefer fine wool, which is
incompatible with the largest quantity and best quality of meat.
Others differently situated in regard to a meat market would do well
to follow the English practice and aim at the most profitable
production of mutton. A great many farmers, not only of those in the
vicinity of large towns, but of those at some distance, might, beyond
doubt, cultivate dairy qualities in cows, to great advantage, and this
too, even, if necessary, at the sacrifice, to considerable extent, of
beef making qualities. As a general thing dairy qualities have been
sadly neglected in years past.

Whatever may be the object in view, it should be clearly apprehended,
and striven for with persistent and well directed effor