268 [Senate 



hay at the stacks in the morning; they are stabled towards night and 

 fed straw, and the twenty receive three bushels of potatoes daily. 

 One out of the twenty receives meal, on account of having entered 

 the winter thin in flesh. With the exception of three heifers, which 

 were allowed to suckle late calves, and consequently entered the win- 

 ter poor, all are in first rate condition. Some of them are fat, and 

 not one has fallen away. 



Last week we made an excursion among some of our breeders of 

 grades, with a view to ascertain if the experience of others coincided 

 with our own in wintering this kind of stock. 



Mr. Lyman Hubbard of Homer, has a herd principally the pro- 

 duce of a bull bred by ourselves, which we shall hereafter have oc- 

 casion to allude to. Like ourselves, Mr. H. gives but one feed of hay 

 daily, and straw with a small allowance of roots, equaling probably 

 about four or five quarts per head. Every grade animal in his pos- 

 session, with the exception of a single sick one, are in fine thriving 

 condition. A native heifer among his yearlings, fed like the rest, 

 was the poorest one in the lot. Mr. Hubbard is fully satisfied that 

 the grades are as hardy and as easily kept as " any cattle ever owned 

 by him." 



Mr. Manly Hobart of Homer, owns the bull spoken of as the sire 

 of Mr. Hubbard's stock. He is four years old past, and is three- 

 fourths Durham, and one-fouth New^-Leicester. This bull has been 

 fed exclusively on straw through the winter, until quite recently, 

 and he now receives a trifling allowance of roots. He has the ap- 

 pearance of a high fed animal! From experience with this, and va- 

 rious grades bred by him, Mr. Hobart considers them as hardy, and 

 as patient of coarse keep as the natives. 



Mr. Alfred Chamberlain, already referred to, had fed similarly and 

 arrived at similar conclusions. Hon. John Miller, and John Jeff"rey, 

 Esq. of Truxton; the Messrs. Boies, Mr. Joshua Chamberlain of this 

 town, and many others who have bred grades to a considerable extent, 

 unite in the same opinion. Indeed, we consider the point a settled 

 one, where the grades are the get of medium sized, compact, artd har- 

 dy constitutioned Durham bulls. . 



It is to be regretted that the spirited breeders of grade stock in 

 this county should omit the opportunity of exhibiting their animals 

 at the State Fairs. It would aflford an excellent opportunity for those 

 who object to crossing to submit their theories to the test of experi- 

 ment. 



We will engage, should any breeder of pure bloods invite such an 

 appeal, to exhibit grade animals at the next State Fair, which shall 

 not fall below the average of the pure bloods of the same age, which 

 shall be there exhibited. 



