NEAT STOCK. 211 



stock is considered a science as well as a practice, and so per- 

 fectlj'' understood is it, that their best farmers can, with almost 

 mathematical certainty, predict what will be the progeny of the 

 cross of any given bloods of sire and dam, in its form, size of 

 bone, general muscular development, tendency to fatten, com- 

 parative expense of keeping, disposition, &c. ; and yet our old 

 fogies and mushroom farmers will laugh at the most critical ob- 

 servations, and the most extensive experience of the wisest 

 of men, because they happen to be imported. 



The best blooded bulls imported from England present to us 

 their beautiful and perfectly symmetrical forms, as the grand 

 result of a system of stock raising by the most scientific breed- 

 ing, practised by the wisest men, in this vocation, of any 

 now living. We do not hesitate to say that many of the Eng- 

 lish farmers have a more perfect knowledge of breeding neat 

 stock than any living men, or men that ever have lived. And 

 yet many would-be farmers of our own community sneer at 

 the mere mention of "imported or blooded stock." As well 

 might the little urchin of five years, who builds his tin water 

 wheel imder a fall of six inches, of the size of a pipe stem, 

 sneer at the discovery by Fulton, of the application of steam 

 to the navigation of ships ; or the young man of twenty, who 

 is just entering a law office, call in question the legal decisions 

 of a Story or a Marshall. 



We have many good stock raisers in this county that have 

 made many leagues of progress from the old haphazard mode 

 of raising neat stock, of fifty years ago, but still we are far be- 

 hind the best stock growers of England. But if our egotism 

 and national pride does not prevent our taking lessons of those 

 that are wiser than ourselves, we may hope eventually, by 

 patient progress, to arrive at as great a degree of perfection in 

 producing cows for the dairy, or beef for market, as the best 

 English farmers. 



We would suggest, also, as all neat stock is reared for the 

 dairy and for beef, that it is desirable to obtain both objects in 

 the same animal. 



Every man, therefore, who designs to raise a bull, should not ' 

 only regard the size, shape and blood of his calf, but none 

 should be raised, however promising in these respects, that is 



