4*73 



In the last number of the Wool Grower and Stock Register, there is 

 an account of an auction sale of pure blood short horn and other stock, 

 belonging to the Northern Kentucky Importing Society, at the farm of 

 Brutus Clay, in Bourbon County, on the 18th of last August. The 

 purchaser wei-e under proper bonds not to remove the stock from the 

 State for one year. A selfish and narrow contracted act, but it shows 

 that after all has been said about them, they are nearly as anxious to 

 improve the blood of their cattle as their negroes. 



In this sale there were ten bulls, from one to three years old, which 

 cost in England, the present season, from $275 to |630 each, and sold 

 at auction from $1,000 to $6,000 each — none less than $1,000 and none 

 over $6,000. 



There were at the same time, fifteen cows and heifers, from one to six 

 years old, and cost in England, from $225 to $775 each, and sold from 

 $805 to $3,050 each. 



Twelve sheep sold from $52 to $775 each; one horse cost in Eng- 

 land $1,000, sold for $2,800. There is no mention of Cochin China 

 or Shanghai fowls ; if there had been, is it not safe to conclude, that in 

 the height of this humbug fever, they would have out-sold everything 

 else, even the $6,000 animal? When this humbug fever is'at its melt- 

 ing height, it is probable all the brains run together; hence, a rooster 

 is just as likely to bring $6,000 as a bull or a horee. When the fit 

 comes on, they must have something that is brought a great distance, 

 and costs a great sum of money. 



Now, for us in this new County to attempt to improve our stock, by 

 paying such prices, would be madness and folly in the extreme. If it is 

 improved, it must be by some different method. Will we sit down in des- 

 pair, because not one of us has six thousand dollars to pay* even for one 

 animal of the best blooded stock. W^ill we say, we will have no im- 

 provement, if we cannot reach the maximum of a Kentuckian at a single 

 step. No, there is no such blood in the veins of the stock growers of 

 Kent County. But their motto is, cannot, never accomplished any 

 thing; will try, has done wonders. Here we, as agriculturists, plant 

 ourselves; that we will not be surpassed by Kentucky, or any of the 

 Eastern States, or by old England herself. If we have fixed upon 

 our object, the next thing is, to look for materials to accomplish 

 it. . ^ 



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