PENOBSCOT AND AROOSTOOK UNION SOCIETY. 187 



more than middling for milk or work, and fit for nothing- for beef. 

 Others say they would be very nice if they were hardy ; but in 

 this cold climate they are so tender, they are worthless. Others 

 still say that Natives would be just as large and handsome if they 

 were kept as well. In answer to these objections I reply : — The 

 cow which took the first premium at the United States Fair, at 

 Kentucky, for quantity of milk and butter, was a full blood Dur- 

 ham. The Durhams have been bred in England hundreds of years, 

 with express reference to beef, and the New York Cattle Market 

 shows the fattest and largest beeves to be Durhams. 



The Patent Office Report of 1854, gives the statement of several 

 men from Kentucky, saying the Durhams are preferred to any 

 others, are kind and good for work. The only objection is, they 

 are apt to get too fat for the yoke. I might add my own experi- 

 ence, which is, I never wintered stock more easily kept, or more 

 hardy. I have one now, two years old, which would be cheap at 

 $200, while I have others of the same age, always kept in as good 

 condition, which would be dear at $20. I was told when I got my 

 Durham stock, if I kept it as I did my Natives, it would starve to 

 death. If that was so, I wished to know it, so I kept my calves 

 together, precisely alike, on skimmed milk, poorer than I ever kept 

 any before, and the result was, the Durhams outgrew the others, 

 and in the fall was as heavy as any two of them. 



It is common where the value of Durham stock is known, for a 

 single animal to sell for one, or two, and sometimes five thousand 

 dollars, and all we need to raise animals equal to any in the world 

 is the breed and good keeping ; which is, no meal of any kind, 

 but good hay and a few roots in winter, and good pasture in sum- 

 mer. With that keeping, and the Durham breed, we may safely 

 challenge the world. Of the profit of raising good neat stock there 

 cannot be a doubt ; for good handsome working oxen and good 

 milch cows will always command a high price ; and good beef, 

 butter and cheese will always sell for cash. 



I think one other branch of stock growing may nearly equal it, 

 all things considered ; I refer to sheep husbandry. My plan would 

 be this : — on land, made smooth with the plow, I would fence off 

 an acre for every eight or ten sheep ; the land in three or four 

 years would be sufficiently rich to produce three or four heavy 

 crops without manure. When the first piece should be sown to 

 grass seed, the second would be ready to plow up. The first 

 would bear grass as long as the second would grain, and the third 



