RECENT HOLSTEIN PURCHASES.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 72, 22 December 1911, Page 4

RECENT HOLSTEIN PURCHASES.

PRICES.PAID BY THE GOVERNMENT.

The other day, says " Hoard's Dairyman" of October 27th, the senior editor of this paper purchased for the New Zealand Government a two-year-old liolstein bull for £240 and a brace of two-year-old heifers for £2OO each. These cattle were bought of S. B. Jones and Son, of Watertown, Wis. Another heifer for the same shipment, II months old, was bought of Mr John Hetts for £IOO. These, the paper continues, are long prices, but the Secretary for Agriculture for New Zealand, who sent nearly 6000 dollars to invest in such cattle, said, "Buy the best you can get." It will cost in addition about £BO a piece to pay the expenses of their transportation and an attendant to the place of destination.

This incident brings to mind a remark we once heard made by the late Thos. Hughes, the noted Guernsey breeder of Pennsylvania. Speaking of the men who had succeeded in producing the best cattle he said :

" I never knew a single instance where a man made any lasting improvement in his cattle who was looking for a cheap bull. He might, it is true, run on to a good animal by accident, but the bulls that are worth buying have as a rule, been bred by men, who for years have made a thorough conscientious study of their herds."

It will be noticed every time that such breeders pay but little attention to the price when they buy a bull, if they can get what they want.

There are a good many young farmers starting out to make good cattle breeders of themselves. The thing, more than anything else that will cut the ground from under their feet, will be the sacrificing of quality 'to price, when they should sacrifice price to quality.