166 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



will justify us in calling the attention of farmers to the subject 

 of breeding them to supply our own market, if not in sufficient 

 numbers to also encourage a demand from abroad. In England 

 two hundred years ago, the whole kingdom could not supply 

 2,000 horses to form a cavalry. By the attention given to the 

 science of breeding, English horses are become superior to 

 those of any other part of the world, for size and strength in 

 draft or work horses, for swiftness and beauty in those intended 

 for the road. While in their native country the Arabians take 

 every precaution to keep the breeds entire, experience shows 

 that in other countries they must continually change the 

 races, or their horses will degenerate. The horse has become 

 indispensable to our comfort and use. " In his native state, the 

 verdure of the fields supplies his wants, and the climate which 

 never knows a winter suits his constitution." Nature seems 

 careful for the sustenance of the meanest of his creatures. 

 Having domesticated the horse, and brought him into uncon- 

 genial climates, he demands and deserves our care. 



Mules. — There are six mules owned in Worcester County. 

 I object to the introduction of the mule. Bred between two 

 animals, not of nature's intent, but by the exercise of man's 

 stragctic art, opposed by nature, so great a deformity is pro- 

 duced in result that nature has stopped the fruitfulness of these 

 ill-formed productions. The mule is not one of the institutions 

 of New England, nor will it be tolerated in the community 

 where free schools are an established institution. "The mule, 

 instead of being a gainer by the lessons it receives, is always a 

 loser." " The ass, of all other animals, is alone rendered 

 feebler and more diminutive by being in a state of domestic 

 servitude." The argument in favor of the use of the mule 

 (its willingness to subsist upon bog grass and thistles) mislead 

 the mind. We want no excuse for permitting the growth of 

 weeds in our pastures, nor objections made to the economy 

 of draining bog lands. 



Care of Stock. — The society has offered generous premiums 

 for experiments in feeding stock. 



The following experiment made in feeding cut and uncut 

 hay and other food, by John Brooks, (who farms with a reason,) 

 to ascertain the value of different kinds of food for filling the 



