Henry Baird Favill, AB, MD, LL.D., 1860-1916, a ... - University Library

47© HENRY BAIRD FAVILL
fundamental character of the sale. There are breeders who
have sufficient leisure, sufficient capital, and a large enough
business organization, to provide themselves with what
cattle they need, at private sale. There are breeders whose
standing has been sufficiently established to be able to sell
in private a surplus which they care to market; but, taken by
and large, these conditions do not obtain and the great mass
of breeders who wish to carry on operations, be they more or
less in extent, need a stable machinery for marketing upon
which they can depend and toward which the purchasing
or selling public shall turn with confidence.
I call your attention to the fact that, in the long run,
the essence of this proposition is confidence, and the foundation
of confidence is experience.
In the hurly-burly of stock trade in recent years, many
needs have developed which furnish food for careful reflection.
The average farmer, who has a few cows and heifers
to dispose of in the year, really needs a broker.
Thus far, public sales of grade cattle have not been frequent.
It will probably be a long time before grade cattle
will be so disposed of in general. There is no essential
reason, however, why regular sales calculated to handle
the surplus of the average farmer in groups and communities
can not be developed.
There is, however, some question whether that is an
economic project. Experience has not sufficiently developed
to show whether the great fluctuations in the demand
for grade cattle can be adequately foreseen and met by
sales at stated intervals.
In Great Britain the local sales and markets are developed
to a high degree. Conditions there are very different,
both as to farm economics and as to distribution and extent
of territory,
so that conclusions are not drawn lightly from
analogy; but even our present method of buying and selling
milch cattle through buyers and brokers is finally dependent
upon the quality and integrity of the man so employed.