162 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



A Jersey is a "thing of beauty," and requires and will re- 

 ward a different examination from other herds for reasons 

 before given. It is gratifying to those who prize them highly 

 that they receive so much attention, and your committee 

 believe that they will attain a higher appreciation, year by 

 year, if they receive the fostering attention of agricultural 

 societies of such renown as the Worcester Society, and the 

 discrimination from breeders manifest in the herds which 

 came under the examination of your committee. 



Geo. H. Jones, Chairman. 



HAIklPDEX. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



In connection with this report the committee would take 

 the occasion to add briefly a few general remarks concerning 

 the milking qualities of our domestic cows. Without doubt 

 these qualities are the result of care and breeding, and are the 

 two essential requisites which should never be neglected in 

 producing a race of animals capable of furnishing the largest 

 amount of good rich milk. The first requisite is the breed. 

 By this we mean a class or order of animals possessing not 

 only the general characteristics of the species, but other qual- 

 ities peculiar to themselves as a class, the result of careful 

 selection and the influences of nourishment, treatment, soil, 

 climate, &c., and which characteristics they are capable, with a 

 good degree of certainty, of transmitting to their progeny. It 

 becomes, therefore, a matter of the first importance to make 

 that selection which embraces in a marked and decided man- 

 ner those peculiar qualities which are to be found in certain 

 breeds of cattle, and then by a careful discrimination to so 

 develop and increase the desired qualities, either by crossing 

 with others of similar traits, or infusing fresh strains of the 

 same breed from those which have exhibited such qualities in 

 an unusual degree, until such characteristics shall become per- 

 manently established. 



To obtain a breed of cows which shall invariably transmit 

 their milking qualities, requires close observation and thorough 

 knowledge of the rare and difficult art of breeding. It cannot 

 be accomplished by the careless, sHp-shod method pursued by 



