262 [Senate 



and keeping of good cattle is very like the making of and keeping 

 up the soil. It requires constant care and unwearied attention, and 

 a judicious rotation of the proper crops. 



The bull selected should be as free from defect in his make and 

 shape as it is possible to obtain, and when making his selection, the 

 breeder should always remember, that one great desideratum in stock 

 is to get " the greatest possible weight in the smallest possible com- 

 pass." It is not the largest looking animal to the unpracticed eye, 

 that is always the heaviest, when you come to apply the tape line, or 

 the scale beam. Great weight in cattle should and generally does, con- 

 sist more in a ripeness and fullness of the good points, than in the 

 large and coarse formation of the frame and limbs. This full de- 

 velopment of the points and value can be observed by any one who 

 is in the habit of paying attention, to acquire a knowledge of what 

 constitutes value in the carcass of the cow. 



Admit for the sake of the argument, that the Durham requires 

 more keep than the common breeds of the country. For my own part, 

 and I think I have also seen it stated by others, I am satisfied that 

 they will eat and keep better upon coarser and rougher fodder, than 

 will our common cattle. To show the amount of my practice in one 

 case to obtain this result, permit me to state my course of manage- 

 ment with my bull " Sam Patch." He has a strong tendency to be- 

 come too fat in the grass season, so much so that I have been com- 

 pelled to reduce him; and I assure you, it has not been easy to effect 

 that object with considerable care. I have sometimes had him 

 tied up in his stall about the middle of June, and after keeping him 

 at a moderate allowance of hay for a week or tw^o, we could not 

 perceive that he was any poorer than when he was taken from the 

 grass. I have then directed him to be fed upon straw alone, and 

 have always observed that even at that season of the year he would 

 eat himself full with avidity. In fact, summer or w^inter, I have 

 never seen my cattle refuse straw or the roughest hay or grass we 

 placed before them. Be it what it will, if it is sound, and such fod- 

 der as can be eaten by any cattle, they will consume it, and be ap- 

 parently satisfied with it. And this is not because their allowance 

 is short by any means, for they show their keeping as well as any 

 other herd that is to be found in the neighborhood. I might go on 

 and detail my own practice, for the purpose of showing that the as- 

 sertions I have made are fully carried out by the facts, as I have 

 stated them, in several instances, but as my object was general in 

 the commencement of the paper, I will leave those matters for fur- 

 ther communications. 



