844 MASSACPIUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



with the phosphated earth from the washings of the mountain 

 limestone, and hence he liad plenty and slept; he had abundant 

 in ammonia for his flesh and pliosphates for his bones ; he lived 

 luxuriously and easily, and he got somnolent, lethargic and fat. 

 He grew in size and in bulk — the one as regards his height and 

 the other his thickness, and hence in liis breed was formed the 

 Teeswater race. 



" The other had to pick up a scanty subsistence on the barren 

 rocks. He had long to browse for a scanty morsel. His grass 

 was poor and innutritious, and he had to be roaming all day and 

 skipping from height to height to obtain a meagre portion. 

 Here he was active and thin — he was small and flat in his 

 muscles. Animals of this kind were bred from and they became 

 more and more adapted to their climate and soil and circum- 

 stances. Jiut liis young could barely live on this poor herbage 

 — hence more milk was required to support them ; the converse 

 of the imaginary compeer in Teesdale, and the one is a good 

 milker and the other a bad one." 



Whether tlic reason given is the true one or not, the fact is 

 undoubtedly so that the descendants of the one would be good 

 milkers, and of the other, bad, and the difference in sliape 

 between the two would be very much as the difference between 

 a round, straight, upright, faultless, improved Devon, and an 

 unimproved Aldcrney, which was probably about as great a vio- 

 lation of the symmetrical points of a well-formed animal as it is 

 easy to imagine. In closing our report we can safely say that 

 the offer of prizes has not hitherto induced to any judicious, 

 systematic and intelligent attempt to improve the milch stock of 

 the county. 



That such improvement can never be effected by indiscrimi- 

 nate crossing, bvit must have at the start a definite aim, a clearly 

 ascertained object and a well-arranged, unvarying plan. 



That crossing with bulls whose ancestors, as well as them- 

 selves, have been bred entirely with a view to symmetry of form 

 and without reference to milk-secreting qualities, will work 

 deterioration instead of improvement, for thereby will be pro- 

 duced better cows for the butcher and poorer ones for the dairy- 

 man. 



The committee express no opinion as to the means best 

 adapted to improve our stock. If the breeding of oxen alone 



