HINDRANCES TO PROGRESS IN BREEDING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1891, 19 August 1884, Page 2

HINDRANCES TO PROGRESS IN BREEDING.

It not infrequently happens that fnrm stock enterpnses takes such an appaiently promising turn as to really bring on a reaction, retarding rather than acting as incentives. This has proved true in instances wheiea given breed of cattle has been pushed forward into what has always proved to be undue prominence, where extraordinary claims are made and extravagant prices are for the time being obtained. The stock of a railroad or manufacturing enterprise sells for a large or an indifferent piice, according as the enterprise turns off a large or a small product, as shown by earnings and the dividends paid. The same rule should be applied to all classes of farm stock, and under this rule, if any one interested in finding onfc the tiue merits of a given description of live stock will make an analysis of the market where animals are concentrated for sale for their fleoh, if the question be upon flesh-making breeds, he need not remain in doubt as to the breeds that have, in a satisfactory manner, filled the demands and paid the dividends. All distinctions based upon name or title, upon colour, having horns or being hornless, disappear under the hand of the wholesale butcher, and the retailer buys his quarters stiipped of all the insignia of rank or breed, paying a pi ice which is fixed entiiely upon the interior quality of the product. This is where the basis for a dividend comes in, and may be likened to the showing made by a railroad company upon its books, this showing aflordiug a basis on which to declare a dividend. It is undeniable that beginners are unsettled in their minds as to what breed or bieeds of cattle, sheep and swine to buy, being rendered so by the ofttimes extraordinary offorts that are made to elevate a breed over others of like proclivities and equal merit as producer of a given product. Men are given to imbibing ideas upon farm stock without having sufficiently substantial reasons for the views held. These views are expressed in the hearing of those who are not informed upon such matters with such positiveness as to carry conviction to the minds of beginners. Hence not a few start out upon a plan of selection that is altogether blundered upon, and may, for reasons, be abruptly retreated from within two or three years, the owner being wiser, while at the same time he is poorer. The proper tests are, advantages shown through competitive tests in the matters of longevity, prolificness, rapid growth to marketable weights, and shapeliness, and resulting cuts that will, upon the butcher's block, outsell those from all competitors. Blatant expressions of opinion as to the merits of any class of stock kept and fed for its flesh that do not hinge upon these points are not worth considering. Styles and colour of the cloth we wear change each twelve months, and there are always plenty who discard the old and run after the new ; yet the old, well tried black cloths hold up in price and change not. Those who have for a series of years tried the test upon wearing apparel, and have settled down upon kinds well proved, are not liable to be drawn into new eddies that set in. It is those who are drifting about with no settled views that are liable to mistake the transient upcoming of a new fashion for the real substantial thing, and this, as stated, stands, in their way as a hindrance.

A gentleman had a bad eye, and was advised to have it out, so that he might save the other eye. He took chloroform, and the doctor, a famous specUlist, took out the good- eye by mistake. The patient is blind, and cannot shoot the specialist. We draw special attention to Mr T. Trewheellar s advertisement in another column. A pubjtic meeting to protest against anY.changA in the present railway time-table will be held al le Awamutu on Friday next at 7180 p'.ta'. • c Messrs CouJtardlßrps., Eapajcarac Steam Saw Mill*, tovelo,<so feet best kauri timber bajjd^