STOCK BREEDOG. 



BY J. K. SMITH, ESQ., DUBLHST. 



Arc our farmers generally sufficiently aware of tlie im- 

 portance of raising tlie kind of neat stock best adapted to 

 their means of keeping ? 



Do tliey fully appreciate tke diflfcrcnco between stock 

 bred from selected individuals of any breed, and breeding 

 indiscriminately as many do ? 



And do tlicy apply the means at tlieir command so skill- 

 fully as to bring to the greatest perfection the stock they 

 do raise ? 



I do not propose to give an elaborate answer to the 

 foregoing questions, nor to write a formal essay on the 

 subject of them. I shall merely offer a few hints and ob- 

 servations in relation to them for the consideration of my 

 brother farmers, assured that they will value them accord- 

 ing to their worth. 



Before determining the kind of stock proper for any 

 farmer to propagate, the nature of his keeping, summer and 

 winter, should be considered. 



The better his hay, the more luxuriant his pasture, the 

 larger his breed of cattle should be. If he has plenty of 

 good hay for winter keeping, and has pasturage which has 

 not yet exchanged its honeysuckle, clover and herclsgrass 

 for white-grass, the Durham breed of cattle is probably the 

 best he could adopt as the basis of his stock. If, on the 

 contrary, he abounds in meadow or swale hay, and his pas- 

 tures have "fallen from their first estate," into barrenness 

 and sterility, relieved only by grasses of inferior (piality, 

 some smaller and hardier breed will subserve his interest 



