258 [Senate 



by them in the shortest possible time. This, from the experience I 

 have had in my own stock, and from the observation I have been 

 able to make on the stock kept by others that have come under my 

 notice, can be procured from no other breed of cattle than the Dur- 

 hams, to the same extent. I have been so well assured of this from 

 my own practical experience, that I am confident the greatest impedi- 

 ment to the universal use of the Durham with all our farmers, arisen 

 from their carelessness in not making themselves acquainted with the 

 science of breeding. They do not consider that if they would have 

 a good breed of cattle, they must have something to start with that 

 has been fitted by care and attention to do that which they want done. 

 They cannot produce a herd of Durham cattle from using a Durham 

 bull with their common cow, and then going on to breed from half- 

 blooded bulls and their old stock of cows. This course has been with 

 many men an error that has proved fatal to their hopes. Many per- 

 sons who have for years been the owners of large herds of cattle, 

 have yet to learn the ABC of the science of breeding; and are even 

 unacquainted with the meaning of the term " blooded" as applied to 

 cattle. If they would call your attention to any particular animal in 

 their collection, they will praise it for being the possessor of some pe- 

 culiar excellence in their estimation, without even once mentioning the 

 hereditary properties of the family from which it is descended; not 

 knowing that to make good properties in the cow genus, permanent- 

 ly valuable, they must have received them from their ancestors; and 

 by a course of judicious breeding, have been fitted to transmit them 

 again to their offspring; and that then, and only then, are they enti- 

 tled to the application of the term " blooded." It is often amusing 

 to hear the remarks and fancied profitable results that are to accrue 

 from the " blooded calf'' that the farmer has obtained from a beauti- 

 ful Durham bull that may have been driven through the country, and 

 has accidentally come in contact with a diminutive, homeless, half- 

 starved cow when she was in heat. When the progeny of this half- 

 breed has been produced from some of his relatives on the side of the 

 dam, to listen to the regrets and expressions of deep disappoint- 

 ment, that the Durhams thus produced were no better than the old 

 breed, after they had been carried through a similar course of starva- 

 tion, upon sour skimmed milk and bleached corn-stalks, was enough 

 to make a man — feel for his country. It has often been urged 

 against the Durham cattle, as a very weighty objection to them, that 

 they require more care and more attention to their keeping than the 

 common stock of the country. This may be true in very many in- 

 stances. For many, I was going to say the majority of farmers 

 in our widely extended country, keep their stock in such a manner, 

 that if it should happen to be made the subject of written communi- 

 cation, and their names mentioned, would call forth a blush of the 

 deepest crimson to their faces. Those who keep their cattle at pas- 

 ture in the highway through the summer, when it requires their ut- 

 most vigilance and activity to procure a " half fill" through the day 

 and night, and in winter, shelter them upon the lee side of a pole 

 fence, with an allowance of one sheaf of musty well bleached corn 



