110 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



may prove unhealthy, it may have been kept on bran and 

 overfed, and grown up like a plant in the shade, so that it is 

 not fit to raise stock from ; it may look well enough ; but all 

 those elements Avhich are so necessary to the proper develop- 

 ment of an animal may be wanting. Here, I say, are some 

 of the embarrassments which we farmers feel. Now, what 

 course shall we take, what road shall we pursue to a higher 

 and better state of things, in order that we may have a more 

 perfect knowledge of what we shall do from year to year ? I 

 only rose to open the field in this direction. 



The Chairman. We have a gentleman with us who has, 

 perhaps, given as much attention to this single point of dairy 

 farming as almost any one. I have great faith in his opinions, 

 and I should like to hear him express those opinions upon this 

 very important point at this time. I have reference to our 

 worthy Secretary. $ 



Mr. Flint. The members of the Board, and some other 

 gentlemen present, will recollect that I discussed this subject 

 at very considerable length at our last country meeting at 

 Fall River, when I gave a lecture upon "The Principles of 

 Breeding," and that I went over the ground pretty thoroughly. 

 I am happy at the outset to express the high gratification and 

 extreme interest with which I have listened to the lecture of 

 Dr. Allen. It is one of the most interesting as well as, at the 

 same time, one of the most complicated subjects that we, as 

 practical fiirmers, have to deal with. It is difficult to make it 

 perfectly clear ; it is difficult to follow any lecture or any 

 essay upon that subject. It depends very much upon princi- 

 ples, some of which are very well understood, others of which 

 are still in the dark. 



Now, I agree in the main with almost everything the lecturer 

 has said, for it is a most admirable paper ; but there are one 

 or two points to which the Doctor alluded only incidentally 

 which; it occurred to me, might usefully have been developed a 

 little more fully. One was the fact that the hereditary jiower 

 of an animal when properly bred is constantly cumulative. The 

 lecturer alluded to it, and recognized it as an established 

 principle, but it seems to me a matter of so much importance 

 as to be worthy of a more prominent place. 



Every farmer, in attempting to breed for the improvement 



