UNION OF BEEF AND DAIRY QUALITIES. 359 



It is true that we cannot compete with the West in the produc- 

 tion of beef, but we need dairy cows and working oxen, and if we 

 can have both in a satisfactory degree from tone breed, it would 

 result to the advantage of many small fanners, who cannot well 

 keep distinct breeds, to know the fact, and to avail themselves of 

 its benefits. 



Mr. S. W. Coburn of Skowhegan, I am unable, in consequence 

 of ill-health, if from no other cause, to do justice to this subject, 

 but I will offer a few remarks on the importance and practi- 

 cability of uniting, in an eminent degree, fat and beef qualities, 

 with dairy or milk qualities in the 6ame breed. I am satisfied that 

 tins is nut ordinarily done, that is to say, that there are separate 

 breeds for milk and for beef, such as the Ayrshires for milk and 

 the Ilerefords for beef; even the Durhams are divided into milk 

 producing and beef producing animals. 



Having occasion to purchase Durham cattle some years ago, 

 — after fixing upon this breed as the best to take to California, — 

 I was recommended to Mr. Lathrop of South Hadley, a gentle- 

 mau of prominence in breeding successfully this stock. His 

 opinion I deemed of great value, because it was based upon long 

 experience. He had sold these cattle for -forty years to go to 

 different States of the Union and some places out of the Union, 

 and was familiar with the objects most desirable to be obtained 

 and the methods of obtaining them. His fixed opinion, based 

 upon experience was, that beef and dairy qualities could be 

 eminently combined in the same breed, and it had been his pur- 

 pose to accomplish that object ; that while in Kentucky and in 

 some other parts of the West it was not a great object for them 

 to cultivate milk properties, and they could be indifferent to that 

 question, in Mew England, it was inconvenient to have a number 

 of breeds for different purposes, and it was highly desirable to 

 have but one kind of stock and to get a variety of uses from that 

 one. As our farming was mixed, as we raised some beef cattle, 

 some heifers for the dairy, and some oxen for work, and as these 

 were ultimately to culminate in beef, it was important that both 

 objects should be attained if possible by one breed. His argument 

 was this : That the capacit}' of a cow to make a good amount of 

 milk, of good quality, rich in butter and in cheese, would, when 

 the cow dried up, readily be transferred, and that the cow would 

 make a good use of food in packing fat ; and if she would raise a 

 good butter producing heifer, that she would raise a good beef 



