342 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



had received premiums. We doubt even, whether any such 

 animals ever competed for premiums. 



It is very clear, therefore, that our offers of prizes have not as 

 yet had the effect to induce any systematic, intcllijicnt attempt 

 to improve the stock of the county, especially in that particular 

 most desirable, viz., for dairy purposes. Pure blood bulls of 

 the different foreign breeds have been introduced from time to 

 time into different parts of the county, and all sorts of hap- 

 hazard crossing has followed. Men do not ask themselves the 

 question, whether a bull belongs to the milk-secreting or fat 

 forming division of animals, and yet they will all admit that a 

 cow which lias a disposition to take on fat while in milk, is com- 

 paratively worthless. 



The farmer has a good cow, which he highly values and wliose 

 good qualities he desires to perpeluate. He seeks a good bull, 

 finds one well formed, a good handler, perhaps of a deep red 

 color, which is always attractive to a New England eye, and 

 having a long pedigree. He may have been imported. He 

 watches intensely for the calf. He knows that infancy always 

 influences age, and that a large and liberal herbage with care 

 and warmth during the first year, will excite growth and fine- 

 ness. He therefore rears it carefully and keeps it well. It 

 turns out a bad milker. He is disappointed and disgusted, but 

 had no reason to expect any thing else, for he made a very im- 

 proper selection in the male animal. It did not belong to a 

 milk-secreting breed, and therefore, the cross defeated the ten- 

 dencies of the cow. 



But this is one of the best examples of breeding, for the farmer 

 makes the attempt, however ill-judged, to improve. In most 

 cases the attempt even is not made. A bull calf is raised because 

 he is good looking, although his dam is far below the average of 

 dairy cows. He has a cow to suck the first summer, grows well, 

 is the wonder of the neighborhood, goes to the cattle show and 

 gets a premium. He probably never gets a heifer calf worth 

 raising. Or a bull calf is raised, l^ecause he is so lean as to be 

 rejected by the butcher. He picks his way up as best he can, is 

 always a hungry looking animal; but he is a bull, and can get 

 calves, and the majority of farmers neither care what he is, nor 

 how he is bred. Not only is it true that no principles govern 

 us in our attempts at breeding, but that we hardly employ the 



