RAISING NEAT STOCK. 135 



successfully they may resist the influences of climate, and a 

 tendency to revert to their aborig-inal condition, 



I have already alluded to the eifects of climate and soil upon the 

 animal economy. Against these effects the good farmer arms him- 

 self as best he may. And in a climate and on a soil like ours, he 

 resorts to every means in his power, by judicious breeding and good 

 feeding, to prevent the degeneracy of his animals. It is by this 

 same process that he resists their tendency to return to an original 

 and uniform type. Let man be stricken from the face of the earth, 

 and a few generations would melt all the breeds of cattle which 

 his skill has created into one homogeneous mass, in which the 

 characteristics of each would be lost, as they all returned with 

 hasty strides to the condition of their common ancestry. Where- 

 ever man resigns himself to the hard conditions of nature about 

 him, and provides himself and his animals with scanty food and 

 insuflScient shelter, the animal product of his locality will gradually 

 approach what might be the native herds there. So true is this, 

 that I doubt not many of you can at this moment recall herds of 

 cattle driven from bleak northern pastures, so aboriginal in all 

 their qualities, as to remove at once from your mind all thought of 

 domestication. Not only had the short pastures and the cold 

 winters reduced their size, but their roving habits had brought 

 them to the very verge of their brethren on the plains and pampas. 

 It is the return of his animals to barbarism which man is called upon 

 to resist. And in doing this, he is not only called upon to raise 

 and feed them properly, but to humanize them as far as may be by 

 the gentleness and intimacy of his association. Upon him and his 

 wisdom, and good judgment, and good nature, they depend mainly 

 for all they are, in their scale of being. Let him see then that good 

 physical qualities and faculties are transmitted in his herd. Let 

 him see that a calm and quiet temperament is the inheritance of 

 his young animals. Let him teach them that they are best fed by 

 the hand of man ; and that all his care for them, and association 

 with them, will render them truly "domestic," and will enable 

 them to resist the depressing influences of soil and climate by 

 which they are surrounded, and to escape that return to barbarism, 

 which is the "second danger" of man and his flocks and herds. 

 If the hillsides and valleys of Maine are to be pastured at all, they 

 should be pastured to the best advantage and profit. The 

 struggle which the farmer has here, is, I am aware, not an easy 

 one. But that progress may be made in this branch of agricul- 



