THE PRACTICAL IN AGRICULTURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3017, 10 January 1912, Page 17

THE PRACTICAL IN AGRICULTURE.

In the course of an opening address before tho Glasgow Agricultural College Discussion Society, Mr James Cameron made some shrewd remarks in reference to judging Live stock by points and selling cattle bv guess work instead of passing them over tho soaks. In regard bo the former, Mr Cameron’s main contention was that one wag apt to lose sight of the animal as a whole while they were absorbed in tho addition sum on the parts, and next that it was almost impossible to apply the figures to lean stock. In any case, it was a training in lowness, and slowness was frequently fatal in practical life. As reported in the North British Agriculturist, he said : ...... Let mo justify my own position, if it requires justification. L : ke yourselves, I believe in points, but my notion is that those can be commented upon and valued, so to say, without, any resort to figures. You are'dealing with a living organism; not with a machine, and in the case of a breeding animal you do not always appreciate to the full the virtues or the defects until you see the subject on tho move. How ik it possible for you to place a figured value on signs of high-class breeding? You have a mere healthy bag of bones in front of you. let one say, but you are convinced, partly by instinct, and perhaps a little more by experience, that tho animal placed brio re you ic not a commoner. If you were asked to put a figuied value on vour true instincts you would utterlv fail. It is impossible to express intuitions in mathematical terms. Figures however, do come to the aid of pract’ca-1 farm life where stock nr© concerned. Tho old notion that one should perforce consult the weighbridge when buying or selling the like of potatoes, hay. or straw, but that fat cattle possibly worth £4O per ton should change ownership on a basis of guess work.' held the field until recent tim n s. and it was not put out of court, without bitter wranglings. Those, who acted as pioneers in the use of the scales were ola«.-ed as unpractical. But I have known many a so-termed practical man o*o lewt wrong in tho live weight of a bullock, and more than 101 b wrong in too dead weight of a fat sheep. —An Appeal to the Scales. —

Nowadays the weighbridge is very commonly used in the buying of store cattle, and every regular mart must, as you know, have weighing facilities. If practice with tho eye is frequently checked by an appeal to the scales work is rendered more exact, and in these days of generally small profits there is great virtue in exactness. In buying store sheen there is usually no call for use of the" weighbridge, but it would i>o well at times, I think, to find out what one is paying per lb live weight. It is mere nonsense to assume that a man is parting with a share of judgment if he seeks to subject his estimates to exact tests. It is good for us to have a capacity for some mental detachment in order that we may examine certain matters in their true bearings. At many of our shows there are classes for “Host Commercial Dairy Cows” and for ‘‘Heat Bullocks or Heifers for Butchers’ Purposes.” Those classes are in effect a protest against that worship of flu' ornamental or artistic which is apt to be an outcome of all open shows. One has heard the expression. “Our judges are not commercial enough,” or “What could you ,oypeot .from merely commercial men?” When vou sav that a judge is not commercial enough, you express the opinion that he is not giving due prominence to those qualities width are appreciated in the ordinary market. Your opinion is eevero because' it is so largely based upon truth. Every day one se-s genuine wearing qualities 'pushed aside, so to say, and preferer*> given" to subjects which owe ever so much to tine skill of attendants. As you may understand, I enter no plea for negligence on tho part of exhibtors. T merely say “See that the great essentials are not. bowled ont by the temporarily ‘catchy.’ ” That darning is specially needed _ln tho horse department, and it holds in the breeding section all over.

I —Corrective of Fads, j While rubbing shoulders with fcllowmcn in the markets and in other splieres of action is a great corrective of fads, It may not supply positive tiraining in certain departments. I should say that instinct for

the points and qualities of purebred animals is largely an individual gift which ia improved by practice, and held along sound lines by tho actualities and frank crticism of life. The “merely commercial man,” as ho is sometimes termed, may be out of his sphere at times. Still one has known cases where his good sense and freedom from bias were of more value than tho pronouncement •of some narrow specialist. As a rule, however, it is well to keep men a<s much as possible to domains which they may bo said to have mastered.