446 . [Assembly 



Working cattle, cows and grade cattle of superior kinds were 

 well represented. 



Horses presenting the requisites of strength, speed, and symme- 

 try, were present in large numbers. Much has been donetow^ard 

 improving our breed of farm horses, though leaving a wide mar- 

 gin for further labors in that direction. Indifferent common, and 

 even poor horses, predominate, even among farm horses. One 

 cause for this is, that all valuable animals are marketed when 

 they command high prices, in the eastern cities, leaving only the 

 least desirable among our farmers. Breeders here, as elsewhere, 

 have not been c\)nvinced that it is a losing business to breed any 

 except the best class of horses, as w^ell as other animals. It costs 

 as much to rear a horse that will sell for only one hundred dol- 

 lars, as it does to raise one that will readily command thrice that 

 sum. • 



It is a subject of regret that the show of sheep was meager, and 

 those presented scarcely offered a single superior animal. Mon- 

 roe county has many valuable flocks, both fine and long-wooled, 

 and it is discreditable to the owners and the county that none 

 more worthy of both W'cre on the ground. 



The same with equal truth may be said of hogs. Eoth these 

 animals are deserving of more than usual attention, as valuable 

 for raising upon farms devoted in the main to grain-growling, 

 offering to every farmer a sure source of profit with a moderate 

 outlay. It has been demonstrated that the tw^o branches of hus- 

 bandry can be prosecuted in conjunction wi.th better success than 

 when attention is given exclusively to either. A better breed of 

 hogs is very much needed with us, a breed that fattens easy, 

 thriving well in the pasture, coming to maturity early, with a 

 weight of 250 to 300 pounds net, at nine or ten months old. 

 Attention might profitably be turned to the Suffolk, to crosses 

 between the Leicester, Byfield or Yorkshire, and the Chinese. 



The shov^ of fow^ls was large and good, attracting much atten- 

 tion. Many of the prominent imported, fancy, high-named breeds 

 are raised with us, more w^e regret to say as the means of obtain- 

 ing inordinate prices, than with a desire to test their real value. 



