CATTLE BREEDING IN NEW ENGLAND. 89 



The subject of crCttle husbandry has been introduced this 

 morning with special reference, so far as I have been able to 

 notice since I came into the hall, to the question of breeding. 

 It seems to me, that situated as we are in New England, that 

 part of the business of cattle husbandry is really of primary 

 importance. It is important everywhere, but it is especially 

 important in all countries where the business of farming is 

 confined to a narrow sphere, and requires the application of the 

 best rules of agriculture. The raising of cattle in the West, is 

 a common-place thing ; they grow there readily, spontaneously, 

 especially on the pastures of the South- West, and Texas and Ohio. 

 In some parts of Southern Ohio, and Southern Illinois, the rais- 

 ing of cattle is as easy as that of the black walnut, or any large 

 growing tree ; so that any keen observer, coming here from Eng- 

 land, where the business of raising Shorthorns is carried on with 

 the utmost care and without regard to rule, will find better cattle, 

 perhaps, running out of doors in Illinois, without any special 

 regard to male and female, than he would find in the best breed- 

 ing stables in England. That is not the case here. Whatever 

 we get in New England, we are obliged to get by hard knocks — 

 by virtue of study, and care, and brain work, and all that ; so 

 that the foundation of the business of cattle husbandry in New 

 England is the breeding of cattle, and the careful breeding, too. 

 It is a remarkable fact, that the raising of cattle in New Eng- 

 land, for the mere purpose of farm work or meat, and without 

 any sort of reference to the dairy, as a specific object, is not a 

 profitable business. There is not a section of New England that 

 is so far removed from a market that it is impossible to send the 

 choicest products immediately to a good market ; so that grain 

 can be transported from the spot where it is raised, anywhere in 

 New England, so readily to market, that it is worth almost as 

 much on the spot where it is raised as it is in the market where 

 it is sold. That is not the case with grain raised at the West, 

 of course, where corn is worth not much more than it will bring 

 for fuel, simply because the railroads, instead of being an avenue, 

 are almost a barrier between the grain and the market. It is 

 doubtful, therefore, whether we can raise grain here and feed it 

 it to cattle at a profit. We can raise it for men and feed it 

 profitably, but whether for beef and pork, I doubt. So with 

 hay. There is hardly a spot in New England in which hay is 

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