234 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



not been entirely overlooked, the quicker and greater profits in 

 the shambles have been first sought for, and to this end the 

 most recent efforts have been directed, to promote weight 

 and quick fattening in cattle. How far these tendencies con- 

 stitute a characteristic in families of Short-horns from which 

 importations of late have been made into this country, may not 

 be so well understood, but certain it is that individual animals 

 of the breed, under the same general denomination of Short- 

 horns, possess and transmit very different properties, or the 

 same properties in very different degrees ; for while the magni- 

 ficent looking cattle brought into Kentucky and Ohio are 

 remarkable for their product of beef, on account of their milk 

 they will compare with the yield of the stock of the improved 

 Durhams in the blood of Denton, Admiral, Calebs, and 

 Holderness, all formerly imported into Massaclmsetts. And 

 does not this consideration suggest the importance, when seek- 

 ing for stock animals, of regarding, not merely the general 

 characteristics of the race, but also of inquiring into the 

 peculiar properties by which, through diverse interests in 

 breeding, different families of the same breed come at last to 

 be distinguished. 



In offering the foregoing general remarks to the exhibitors 

 of the present year, the committee have to regret that, except in 

 the instance hereafter to be particularly mentioned, they were 

 without any such communication from the owners of the stock 

 as would enable them to make a discrimination in reference to 

 the qualities of the animals submitted to their inspection. In 

 appearance the display of fine cattle in the class of Short-horns 

 was altogether unprecedented, both in number and quality, by 

 any former show of this society. The committee found on the 

 books of the secretary, and in the pens, twenty-three individuals 

 of different sex and age 



Mr. Tainter's cow " Cara" was in color a light roan, of good 

 size and perfect symmetry in form and proportion — indeed, a 

 most beautiful animal. She was bred by Messrs. A. and A. 

 Clark, of Granby, Mass., and was live years old on the 24th 

 of June last. Her pedigree is traced by Mr. Tainter, through 

 thorough-bred stock to old Denton and Comet, than which, as a 

 milking breed, none is higher. Mr. Tainter certifies that the 

 product of butter from her milk for seven days, on one trial, 



