156 [Senate 



native stock, the grades will always excel the natives in this essen- 

 tial property. It is amusing to hear theorists object to crossing dis- 

 tinct breeds, on the ground that it is a violation of certain (it would 

 be difficult to say how established) canons of breeding, where unde- 

 niable facts and the sure test of experience prove so conclusively the 

 propriety and the advantages of such a course. So long as the far- 

 mer can improve his stock by crossing with the Durham, and so 

 long as each additional cross increases the value of the produce, his 

 course is a plain one, despite theories. And I am willing to go a 

 step further. I have not a doubt that a sufficient 7iumber of judici- 

 ous crosses with properly selected natives, will produce a variety in 

 all respects, certainly for all practical purposes, equaling the pure 

 Short Horns, and in every essential property excelling many of those 

 laying claim to the longest pedigree. The very fact that every breed 

 which now exists has heen formed, (because all descended from one 

 parent stock,) proves that the thing can again be done. And the 

 most valuable variety of all, the Short Horns, has been formed 

 within, comparatively speaking, a few years^ and one of its most 

 distinguished, most saleable, and most highly prized families, (a 

 family which nearly all the best Short Horns of this State are de- 

 scended from,) is the produce of a late cross w^ith the Galloways ! 

 The " bump of veneration" must be higher on the heads of most 

 Americans, than it now is, to enable them to credit the assertion, 

 that no other cow can be found, and that one cannot be found even 

 among our native breed, who can mingle blood with, without irre- 

 vocably degenerating, the aristocratic Durham, or that no other man 

 but Charles Colling will ever be found capable of making the pro- 

 per selection for such a cross. 



Horses. — The horses of Cortland are usually of no distinctive breed, 

 and as a general thing of inferior value. The price of service, more than 

 the quality of the stallion, has been generally consulted. For the last 

 three or four years rather more attention has been given to this va- 

 luable kind of stock; but there seems to be a great deficiency through 

 this county, as well as most other portions of the State, of those ac- 

 tive, strong, but clean boned stallions which are large and strong 

 enough for heavy labor, and active enough for the road. 



Sheep. — The breeds of sheep in the county are the native crossed 

 with the fine wooled; the English long and middle wooled varieties, 

 and the Merino and Saxon. The first named are a strong hardy sheep, 

 affording a good wool for domestic purposes — and they constitute a 

 variety well suited to the exigencies of the situation in which they 

 are generally found. The English long wools, under the various 

 names of Leicesters, Cotswolds, Bakewells, &c. are too remote from 

 markets where their mutton can be disposed of, to form the most pro- 

 fitable variety here. 



Some fine animals of the long wooled varieties have been import- 

 ed from England into our county, but have failed to meet the expec- 

 tations of their purchasers. The middle wools, the South Downs, 

 are preferred to the last named, but in their pure state do not, parti- 

 cularly when they have reached four or five years of age, pro- 



