CATTLE-BREEDING IN NEW ENGLAND. 77 



ways, means and modes of its improvement. Breeding stock 

 has attracted much attention, and been often discussed. A 

 great amount of knowledge has been obtained by experience 

 and ol)servation ; but what is wanted more than anything else 

 is, that all the facts thus gathered, and the knowledge gleaned, 

 should be so arranged and systematized as to show the prin- 

 ciples which lie at the basis of all treatment, and constitute a 

 science by itself, harmonizing with the general and admitted 

 laws of physiology. 



BREEDING IN NEW ENGLAND. 



A careful review of stock-breedino; in New Ensrland for the 

 last fifty years does not present a very encouraging history, 

 or one of uniform success. In an elaborate report upon the 

 subject, made in 1861 by a committee composed of the most 

 experienced men in the State, is the following. This report, 

 in referrino- to the successful results attendino: the labors of 

 some individuals in Great Britain, says : " It is a disregard of 

 the rules they followed, in fact of all proper rules, which has 

 brought confusion to the cattle-breeding of New England, and 

 has rendered it thus far too much a profitless game of chance. 

 Amidst the many wise and praiseworthy efforts which have 

 been made to improve our herds, there has been a great deal 

 of bad breeding, which, with bad feeding, has reduced the 

 average of our stock to a very low standard. We have been 

 led to believe that there may be somewhere an universal 

 breed of cattle, suited to all purposes, of general excellence 

 for the combined business of the dairy, the stall and the yoke. 

 And with the hope of arriving at this, we have been groping 

 in the dark until we seem to have fairly lost our way. By 

 undertaking too much, and without proper rule, we have, as 

 usual, accomplished but little." 



Perhaps the last ten years may show a more favorable 

 record than what this statement represents existed previously. 

 One object in making the quotation is, to note the admission 

 that no general rules in the matter of breeding have here been 

 followed, and the results have not proved very successful. 

 Another remark in the quotation we wish to notice, viz. : the 

 "belief in an universal breed of cattle, suited to all purposes, 

 of general excellence." If we take into consideration the 



