134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. > 



use to keep him." I am told the same thing with regard to the 

 Ayrshire calves. The grade calves are larger than the pure bloods, 

 but all the grades of these crosses are small in comparison with 

 the grade Shorthorns. If you want to make as light a drain as 

 possible upon your herds in that direction, it is certainly a very 

 great saving to adopt such animals, rather thau the common run 

 of native stock, of which you never know what the produce will 

 be. 



I have little further to say, except to insist once and again upon 

 this power of transmission of their good qualities in thoroughbred 

 animals as stronger than the power of transmitting their bad qual- 

 ities. If they have any faults, they are not as sure to be trans- 

 mitted as their good qualities. Take these principles to guide 

 you, and you can build up a herd that will be continually improv- 

 ing in the desired direction. 



Mr. Hersey of Lincoln. There have been some Dutch cattle 

 imported into this State this year, and I am aware that Mr. 

 Chenery of Massachusetts, has been importing Dutch cattle into 

 that State for several years. They have not been extensively 

 used yet. I see by the record of the New England Fair this year 

 that there were some full-blooded Dutch cattle sold by Mr. 

 Chenery at that Fair at a very high price — a great deal higher 

 than any others that were sold at auction. I would like to ask if 

 the gentleman has any information in regard to that breed. 



Mr. Gold. My knowledge is confined entirely to seeing those 

 animals on exhibition, and from what I sec in the reports that are 

 circulated in regard to them. They are doubtless, some of them, 

 enormous milkers, but they must be also enormous consumers of 

 food. They are very large, and generally rather coarse in their 

 forms, indicating not the finest organization, nor well adapted to 

 give the highest returns for the amount of food consumed. The 

 quality of the milk of the larger animals is considered to be inferior 

 to that of the smaller ones, and Mr. Flint goes so far as to say 

 that there is a regular gradation in the quality of the milk and 

 when you get down to the Brittanys, which he has inported (those 

 little animals three feet high; " cowlets," some call them, not 

 cows) the milk is as much superior in richness to the milk of the 

 Jerseys as the Brittanys are smaller than the Jerseys ; that the 

 size of a breed indicates in a good degree the richness of the milk. 

 Taking that view, the Dutch cattle would stand at one end of the 

 scale, and the Brittanys at the other. 



