132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



duction, in part, at least, into every herd where butter-making 1 is 

 followed, to give, at least, color to the butter. This is the universal 

 advice, I believe, upon that subject. While they lack somewhat iu 

 hardiness, while their extreme nervousness and somewhat fidgety 

 nature makes them not the most pleasant animals to herd with 

 others, a high grade Jersey will so improve the richness of the 

 color of your butter, that they should have a place in every herd 

 designed for its manufacture. As a butter cow, in the vicinity of 

 cities, where they can have nice care, and as a pretty object to be 

 petted, they are in great favor, and pay their breeders high prices 

 for raising them ; but as farm stock, except for the purpose of 

 giving color to the butter, they can hardly be commended, or for 

 the especial purpose of butter-making, to meet this fancy demand. 

 I have gone over the ground now with regard to the merits of 

 these different breeds, and every farmer must choose for himself, 

 for his own wants, for his own neighborhood, his own soils, which 

 class of these animals it is most desirable for him to obtain. And 

 here comes up another point, which is the power of transmission 

 of the qualities which any animal may possess to its progeny. I 

 have said, with regard to the natives, that this power of trans- 

 mitting their properties, with any tolerable degree of uniformity 

 or certainty, was not possessed by them ; but there are breeds of 

 animals, there are families of animals, that possess the power of 

 transmitting their qualities to their progeny in a very high degree 

 and with great uniformity and certainty ; and that is true of every 

 one of those classes of which I have spoken. They have been 

 bred for centuries with one single object in view in each case, and 

 that has been kept uppermost all the time, until it has become an 

 established habit with them. You may have accidentally an A} T r- 

 shire that is not famous for milk, or you may have a Jersey that is 

 wanting in the peculiar characteristics of that breed, but they are 

 very rare exceptions indeed. They breed like their dams, like 

 their sires, with a good degree of certainty, and it is only by 

 breeding from such stock that you can hope to secure a superior 

 herd of animals. The best farmers in the world, those who pur- 

 sue a system of " stick-to-it-iveness" far surpassing anything ever 

 adopted in this country, have been sticking to these breeds for 

 more than a hundred years, or back to the earliest records, right 

 along; they have stuck close to one object, until they have secured 

 the power in their animals of transmitting their good qualities to 

 their progeny. Now, the value of an animal for breeding purposes 



