276 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



heifer intended for a milch cow. The purity of the blood, the 

 fineness of the hair, the color of the skin, the expression of the 

 eye, the form of the head, the size and position of the teats, and 

 various other points, are entitled to consideration before mere 

 weight and girth. 



We have put first of all in the foregoing list, purity of blood. 

 The use of scrub bulls has been in the main discontinued, prin- 

 cipally because of the comparatively small number of bulls 

 required for a given territory, and the consequent readiness with 

 which the demand can be supplied. But the belief is still quite 

 common that great improvement will result from the use of full- 

 blooded bulls, with the best grade or native (scrub) cows ; and 

 during the existing scarcity of cows of pure blood, the practice 

 growing out of this belief must be tolerated as a necessary evil. 

 But the result in any instance will be a mere matter of chance, 

 possibly satisfactory, probably far otherwise. The future excel- 

 lence of our stock will be assured beyond peradventure, only 

 when heifers of pure blood shall alone be deemed worth raising 

 as breeders. • 



Pure stock, however, is not always and necessarily more profit- 

 able as farm stock, than that which has neither pedigree nor 

 strain of improved blood, individuals of the latter class being 

 sometimes stumbled upon, whose profit and loss account will 

 compare favorably with that of any others, of any line of descent. 

 The superiority of the former consists mainly in the certainty 

 that its peculiarities will be transmitted from generation to gen- 

 eration ; so that stock breeders may confidently rely upon secur- 

 ing and perpetuating, as the result of their care and labor, any 

 desired qualities in their herds If they would produce milk 

 abounding in cream, or butter so yellow that even saffron would 

 not tinge it, they may safely invest in Jerseys. If the value of 

 milk to them is determined by the quart measure, instead of the 

 lactometer, they may raise Ayrshires. For oxen, their choice may 

 be the Devons ; for fat sirloins, the Durhams. But in either case 

 they must be sure of the purity of both sire and dam, or grievous 

 disappointment may follow. 



Through the process of " natural selection " the monkey may 

 have descended from the tadpole, and man from the monkey ; 

 but natural selection is not to be recommended for producing 



