256 PROSPECTS OF AMERICAN AGRICULTURE, 



ers of sheep and swine than is allowed to American breeders. 

 When we get imported animals we put numbers in their ears, and 

 keep the stock pure. No reputable breeder resorts to crosses. 

 And we can furnish longer pedigrees of Cotswold sheep, Essex, 

 Berkshire and Suffolk pigs in this country than are usually fur- 

 nished by English breeders. 



I saw sometime since the pedigree of an imported Essex boar. 

 The dam took this and that prize — the sire was never beaten at 

 any show, and so of the grand dam, and the grand sire was the 

 celebrated boar something-or-other, "the progenitor of the race." 



Talk of short pedigrees ! Why, it has been claimed, and per- 

 haps justly, that Chester White and Poland China pigs are not 

 established breeds, because ten or a dozen or a score generations 

 back the pedigree, if they have any, runs back into the American 

 woods ; and yet here is a pig, bought in England at a high price, 

 that two or three generations carries him back to the " progenitor 

 of the race." 



To the American breeder the future looks bright. If we keep 

 our sheep and swine pure; if we weed out vigorously; if we keep 

 accurate records, and breed for definite, correct and useful objects, 

 it will not be many years before we shall not only have a great 

 demand from our own widely-extended land, but from Europe, 

 Asia and Australia, and that at prices which will liberally com- 

 pensate us for all our skill, labor and patient waiting. We shall 

 not be able to make as fine a display in the show-yard, but our 

 animals will be far more valuable for the purpose of improving 

 common stock than those which are more promiscuously bred, and 

 intelligent farmers and breeders will not be long in finding it out. 



We all feel that America is destined to be the greatest country 

 in the world. There is nothing lacking. We have abundance of 

 coal and iron and wood and stone, and so much silver that our 

 creditors are afraid we shall pay our debts with it. We have rail- 

 roads running in every direction, which must depend on agricul- 

 ture largely for their future dividends. We have a rapidly increas- 

 ing population, with free schools and the ballot-box for all. 



And the taste of our people is for other pursuits rather than 

 agriculture. Those who stick to the farm, study the best methods 

 of cultivation and manuring, and aim to produce the best articles 

 at the least cost, would seem to be certain of their reward. 



We shall have periods of depression in the future as in the past. 

 But as long as people need food, the farmer is sure of a market 



