246 N. H. STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



better. The Devons, the Ayrshires, and the natives, "will, 

 under these circumstances present their respective claims, 

 and he will choose as his judgment or fancy may direct. In 

 the fertile valley of the Connecticut, and in many other lo- 

 calities in the State, the Durham would undoubtedly prove 

 most profitable to the breeder. 



But in the elevated portion of the State, where every 

 shower levies its contribution for a portion of fertility to 

 enrich the plain below ; where the former rich and succu- 

 lent grasses have given place to those of an inferior quali- 

 ity, the farmer must be content with a smaller and hardier 

 breed of cattle, one that requires less forage, and whose 

 constitutional vigor will not be impaired by feeding on that 

 of an inferior quality. Small cattle arc more easily kept, 

 are more active in obtaining their food, can subsist on short- 

 er herbage, and, in a poor pasture, will make more growth 

 in proportion to their food, and also will give more milk in 

 proportion to their size, than larger ones. 



Having determined on the kind of stock best adapted to 

 his situation and means, let him select the best individuals 

 to propagate from. No farm stock can long maintain its 

 standing, much less improve, without care in this respect. 

 If the butcher must make his selection from the calves first, 

 and the farmer raise those that he rejects, we need not be 

 astonished if the " lean kine," seen by Pharaoh in his dream, 

 are reproduced and perpetuated among us. It is but the 

 natural effect of a known cause, and this result is the only 

 one tliat could reasonably be expected. Althougli " a 

 good cow may have a bad calf," she is far less likely to 

 than a poor cow is. This principle is at the foundation of 

 all the improvements in the several breeds of cattle in 

 England. Had Bakewell bred indiscriminately, the Dur- 

 ham short horns, as a distinctive variety of cattle, would 

 not have existed. By judiciously selecting those individu- 

 als for breeding, which combined in the greatest degree 

 the qualities he sought, he developed those qualities, and 



