22 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



TREATMENT OF FARM-STOCK. 



[From an Address before the Housatonic Agricultural Society.] 



BY HENRY BERGH. 



It is an undeniable fact, which, doubtless, each one of you 

 recognizes, that domestic animals are the indispensable popu- 

 lation of the farm, and form its principal riches. Without 

 these creatures, agriculture would be impossible. It follows, 

 therefore, that it is the duty and policy of agricultural socie- 

 ties to impress upon the minds of cultivators of the soil the 

 necessity of employing the best means in their power for the 

 improvement of their stock, their care, and their humane and 

 intelligent utilization. Every living creature has assigned 

 to it a limit of endurance and power ; and whoever attempts 

 to exceed it commits a blunder and a sin wliich is certain to 

 avenge itself, at a cost vastly disproportionate to the advan- 

 tage contemplated. There is a perfectly natural accord 

 between this admirable society of yours, gentlemen, and the 

 one which I have the honor to represent. You seek to make 

 the world profit by the labors of the toiling animal ; we, to 

 protect and preserve its powers from that cruel deterioration 

 consequent on unreasonable treatment. 



That agriculture may reap full benefit of the labor of brutes, 

 it is essential to estimate carefully the distance to be trav- 

 elled, the weight to be carried, and the number of hours in 

 the da}^ and the days in the week, to which their strength 

 may be profitably applied. There is a universal law affect- 

 ing the material interests of living and inanimate things, 

 and that is, economy. Transgress this law in any of its 

 relations to this world's affairs, and it speedily avenges itself 

 by wasted physical power, deterioration of the elements of 

 production, sterility, and death. It is a stupid delusion to 



