548 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



this is a method of improving our native cattle within the reach 

 of every one, only requiring the purchase of good males, and 

 careful selection of the females, and then systematic, consistent 

 crossing. It is a too common fault with most who begin in this 

 way to improve their stock, that they do not retain the females 

 they breed; but tempted by the butcher's or drover's extra price, 

 dispose of them, and thus lose the means of taking the second 

 upward step in the course of breeding, as it is only by breeding 

 from constantly improving females that the best results are 

 attained. Any man who will pursue this course, selecting good 

 native females to begin with, and using thorough-bred bulls of 

 either of the established races, and then continue crossing on their 

 progeny for three or four generations, will at the end of a dozen 

 years have a stock, if not equal to Mr. Clarke's, at least that he 

 may be proud of. When one man's herd or farm will not war- 

 rant his buying alone, let him club with three or four of his 

 neighbors and purchase a bull in common, and I will engage, the 

 results will bear them out in the first expenditure. There were 

 a few good Short-horns and Devon grades exhibited, but not 

 nearly the number we expected to see, knowing the length of 

 time these two breeds have been in the county. There were also 

 some milch cows, whose attested performances in the butter line 

 bordered on the incredible. Neither full-bred nor grade Alder- 

 neys were exhibited, though some good ones are known to be in 

 the county, and several dairymen in the southern part are trying 

 the experiment of crossing them on the natives. These small, 

 hardy, butter giving Alderneys are so admirably adapted for 

 " town" cows, if I may use the expression, that is, for the use of 

 those living in towns and villages, having little land, and keep- 

 ing a single cow, that I should be glad to see them better known 

 here and more widely disseminated. 



The show of sheep in nearly all the various breeds was very 

 good; Long-wools, South-Downs and Merinos, were numerously 

 and well represented, and there were several pens of a breed well 

 deserving attention, and scarcely to be found in another county 

 in the State, the " Cheviots," a strong, hardy, well-wooled, prolific 

 sheep, quite able to " rough it," and so admirably fitted for the 

 bleakest and coldest portions of our State. The show of swine 

 w^as neither as large nor as good as it ought to have been. A 



