No. 85.] 249 



DIFFERENT BREEDS OF CATTLE IN ENGLAND. 



HEREFORDS THEIR SUPERIORITY IN-AND-IN BREEDING LEICES- 

 TER SHEEP. 



BT GEORGE DRAKE, MANOR FARM, EAST TYTHERLY, HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND. 



To the committee of the Mew-York State Agricultural Society : 



July, 1st, 1844. 



Gentlemen — In compliance with the solicitation of your Corres- 

 ponding Secretary, (Mr. Johnson,) I am induced to forward an arti- 

 cle for insertion in your journal of Agricultural Transactions, on the 

 different breeds of farm animals, chiefly kept and patronized in Eng- 

 land, together with some suggestions for their improvement, and rea- 

 sons for their extended introduction into counties and countries re- 

 mote from the principal localities in which they are found and propa- 

 gated. Considerable opposition has been aroused, and is still main- 

 tained, as to which breed of cattle and sheep will pay the most mo- 

 ney for the food they consume, and return to the soil the greatest 

 proportion of the most valuable manure for the production of future 

 crops. Such undoubtedly is the best, and the duty of every one to 

 encourage, and should be made the test whereby to judge of the mer- 

 its of particular breeds, and individual animals. This desideratum 

 should have its due influence with every breeder in the founding and 

 maintaining a herd or flock. The breeding of domesticated animals 

 is, by many, esteemed as having arrived at its climax, but I believe its 

 true principles are very imperfectly understood, and a wide field for 

 improvement remains unexplored. That there are particular breeds 

 or tribes of animals, capable of paying more for the consumption of 

 food, and calculated to endure greater hardships than others, is an ad- 

 mitted fact ; and consequently deserves a greater share of our support 

 and attention. The Herefords, Short Horns, Long Horns, Devonshire 

 and Highland cattle, the South-down and Leicestershire sheep, cer- 

 tainly surpass all others for every purpose ; and all of these various 

 breeds have their advocates, some from early association, some from 

 the recommendations of their patrons, others from having seen pam- 

 pered and over fed animals at public exhibitions, made up for the pur- 

 pose of show, and perhaps labelled with the additional recommenda- 

 tion of a prize ; and a few from careful and judicious comparison, 

 without partiality or prejudice. The general and great hindrance to 

 the extension of well bred cattle and sheep, is the provincial opinion 

 that they require more and better food than the indigenous or hetero- 

 geneous multitudes of mongrels which disfigure many of our finest 

 pastures, and are almost sacred in the estimation of the inhabitants of 

 their respective localities. This delusion has more votaries than any 

 other ; and it displays a want of the knowledge of the external struc- 

 ture of animals, whereby to judge of their construction, capability 



