No. 63.J 259 



stalks, or a handmll of straw, and keep them well littered with snow 

 and ice, should never procure a Durham stock. Let them slick to 

 something that has reached a point so far down in the scale of dete- 

 rioration that they cannot get worse. To the man who is disposed to 

 attend to the comlorts of his domestic animals as they should be at- 

 tended to, 1 would hold a different language, and endeavor to prove 

 to him that for this opinion, he is contradicted by the actual experi- 

 ence of so many who have tried it, that it behooves him to lose no 

 time in testing the matter for himself; as every year that he defers it, 

 is adding largely, or at least proportionably, to his losses on the score 

 of his stock of cattle. Admit the Durham requires care and a gene- 

 rous supply of fodder, so far as it has been my lot to see them, I have 

 never seen them lose upon this. Those that 1 have seen and knew to 

 be kept well, always improved; and it has as yet always been the 

 pride of those who owned them to make them do so. How far a sys- 

 tem of privation would affect them, remains to be tested; but to those 

 who have extended a liberal hand to them, they have invariably made a 

 rich return for all their care and attention. Instances are not rare 

 of animals of this breed who have attained the greatest known 

 weights in the shortest known time. In addition to the numerous 

 published cases of this kind, I may add one of my own. I had a bull 

 calf sired by my bull "Sam Patch," out of one of my cows, that was 

 dropped on the last day of March. He ran with his dam in the pas- 

 ture, which was early and fine, until the first of September, when he 

 was weighed in the presence of a number of witnesses, and drew, to 

 their great astonishment, five hundred and eight pounds. Neither he 

 nor his dam were allowed any thing in addition to grass, but salt, 

 which they had as often as they would take it; and he had access to 

 no other cow than his dam, from whom he could have had a supply 

 of milk. I may also add, that this is not the only case 1 could men- 

 tion, and I mention this one particularly only to show that I have, in 

 addition to what some others have given to the public, some particu- 

 lar data to go upon for what I say. How different are these weights 

 and this return made for care and attention, from what I should have 

 received from any other breed of cattle that we are acquainted with; 

 and what a rich return to those farmers this would be, who, to carry 

 on their operations profitably, rear a considerable number of calves 

 annually. Indeed this early maturity, this great capacity to acquire 

 such a ripeness of their good points as to carry such weights, while 

 they are rapidly growing, constitutes one of the most valuable quali- 

 fications of the Durham. Where dairy properties are in request, I 

 feel free to say, without the least hesitation, the good qualities of the 

 Durham stand pre-eminent. So far as my own experience goes, I 

 have tested this matter to my satisfaction ; and on this point I speak 

 after full examination, though my experience has not been very long. 

 There is no qualification claimed for the Short Horn, that has been 

 more caviled at than this same milking property. But it does appear 

 to me, and certainly is, in those animals that I have known of this 

 breed, a quality that without great injustice being done them, they 

 cannot be deprived of. It is admitted, I believe, without hesitation, 



