SECRETARY'S REPORT. 53 



its admirers. He was not exclusively partial to any one. But to 

 insure success with any, both sire and dam should be good ani- 

 mals. The idea of getting good stock from mean animals was 

 absurd. Calves, to be well raised, should be kept continuous in 

 growing condition. Heifers should be milked when two 3'^ears old, 

 and be kept farrow the succeeding year, and milked as late as pos- 

 sible. Steers should be kept growing all the time, and trained 

 when mere calves. Those thus trained were worth considerably 

 more than such as were left to run wild until three years old, when 

 a man was likely to break his neck in breaking them. He had 

 various sheep, but preferred a cross from Merino bucks and Lei- 

 cester ewes. The Merinos were small, not hardy enough for our 

 climate, and not fit for market till two years old. The Leicesters 

 were hardy and coarse wooled. The ewes fed their lambs well, 

 which grew right on. But a cross the other way would result in 

 large limbed lambs that would get little food, and so fail. In re- 

 spect to cattle, the selection should be governed by the market, 

 and full bloods were our sole reliance for their maintenance. 



Mr. Anderson would recommend those who cultivated sheep 

 near good'markets to raise South Downs. They were not so large 

 as the Leicesters and Cotswolds, but hardier and larger than Me- 

 rinos. The wool was better than of the larger kinds, and finer than 

 that of any except the Merinos, and the most is of a quality supe- 

 rior to that of either Leicester, or any of the long coarse wooled 

 varieties. He thought too great importance had been given gen- 

 erally to size in animals, and that adaptation to the wants and 

 means of the farmer was of more consequence. He quoted from 

 an Agricultural Survey of Perth as follows : 



" Every kind of pasture is fitted to raise animals to a particular 

 size ; when beasts of a larger size are brought in than the quality 

 of food is calculated to support, these animals, whether cows, 

 horses, sheep or any other kind, will degenerate apace, and never 

 prove useful until they come down to the standard or size adapted 

 to their situation and suited to their food. On the other hand, 

 when a smaller breed than ordinary is brought in, they continue to 

 increase in bulk until they come up to the pitch which is suited to 

 their nourishment. But there is this remarkable difierence betwixt 

 the two progressions in respect to profit, that in the retrograde 

 process, where animals are brought from rich pastures and a com- 

 fortable situation to the reverse, they are in every instance worse 

 than the indigenous breed ; whereas the animals which are brought 



