RAISING NEAT STOCK. IJQ 



nal production of food, which the sinewy savage practices as he 

 pursues the still more sinewy cattle across the plain, and even the 

 first dawn of domestication in the management of animals— and 

 the still greater contrast which exists between the wild and flying 

 drover of the pampas — and that calm and solid and imperturbable 

 specimen of humanity, who winds his placid way from the valley 

 of the Tees, to Smithfield market, realizing, as he follows his rolling 

 and wallowing Shorthorns, the truth of the saying, "who drives 

 fat oxen, must himself be fat." There is a long interval between 

 "the five hundred yoke of oxen" of Job, and the stupendous 

 beeves which graze upon the ftit pastures of England, bred and 

 reared by rule into an exact estimate of each "pound of flesh." 



And to us who are engaged in farming, among all the modern 

 improvements, it is a matter of special interest to know the pro- 

 cesses by which the present breeds of cattle have been brought to 

 their existing proportions, and how they can be preserved in their 

 condition. An Ayrshire cow, and a Shorthorn bullock, are by no 

 means the result of accident. They have been produced by the 

 application of the highest and most intelligent skill, at the hands 

 of the Bakewells, and Parkses and Nichols and Ceilings — under 

 whose treatment, as has been truly said, — "the long-legged, slab- 

 sided, ill-bred oxen are metamorphosed into small-boned, quick- 

 fattening Devons, and elephantine Shorthorns;" and the "lean 

 hurdle-backed Norfolk rams" have become "beautiful, firkin-bodied 

 South Downs." We have the advantage of the experience and 

 the products of these distinguished and successful breeders ; and 

 it specially becomes us to inquire what advantage we can derive 

 from all they have done. We must have cattle adapted to our soil 

 and climate, cattle which can be profitably fed, cattle which will 

 make the best return for the labor and produce bestowed upon 

 them. 



I am aware that there is no breed of cattle universally adapted 

 to the New England States, or even to any one State. The valley 

 of the Connecticut, and the hills of Berkshire and Essex in Massa- 

 chusetts even, differ almost as much as the valley of the Tees and 

 the Highlands of Scotland. And we shall find that in selecting a 

 breed of cattle for each locality, we must be obedient to nature, or 

 nature will take* the matter into her own hands, and will bring 

 about a certain conformity between herself and the animals which 

 she is to nourish. When I tell you that Shorthorns have not 

 flourished in some parts of the New England States, and that 



