GRADE STOCK. 101 



be otherwise. Therefore, if you expect to do anything to im- 

 prove the character of New England stock, as members of Agri- 

 cultural Societies, never offer another premium, for a bull that 

 is not of some pure blood of a certain breed. All this talk about 

 " native cattle " is the merest prejudice ; it does not amount to 

 anything. The native cattle, are no cattle at all. They are just 

 like the dogs the Professor spoke of last night, as running in the 

 streets of Brazil — irritable, half-bred, half-fed, all sorts of shapes, 

 no uniformity, no fitness for any one of the objects of the farmer. 

 If you are going to pay premiums for male animals of that 

 description, you might just as well pay premiums for the poorest 

 crop of corn, wheat, or hay. I should as soon think of offering 

 a premium to the man who would reduce wheat down to its 

 natural condition, prior to its being wheat (if there ever was 

 such a condition,) or corn down to its condition before it was 

 corn, as of offering a premium for a male animal of what is 

 called the native breed. There is no sort of propriety in such a 

 thing. I would therefore insist upon it, that every premium 

 offered for male animals should be offered for good animals of 

 some specific breed. 



Mr. Smith says, " I forget Mr. Anderson's stock." I do not 

 forget it. I want to ask if he got his fine stock with runt bulls 

 or grade bulls ? I want to know if he started out from the hills 

 of Shelburne and went down into the Connecticut Valley and 

 purchased an animal whose pedigree he did not know well ? 

 And has he not boasted that since he has begun to breed he has 

 always kept in his stalls a bull of unquestioned pedigree, which 

 had been bred so long and so well that all good judges of cattle 

 in that neighborhood knew what kind of animals he would pro- 

 duce ? Why, the great secret of Mr. Anderson's success is, 

 that he has rejected the grade bulls, and has continued to breed 

 up to a standard by the use of a pure breed of bulls. I am now 

 talking about male animals kept for breeding, and about the 

 way to improve your cattle and secure good animals of a pure 

 and distinct breed ; and you may all land exactly where the 

 Messrs. Anderson have landed, with good herds of cattle, of 

 certain descriptions, bred up to the standard, by the use of a 

 good, pure breed of bulls. I trust, therefore, that in the selec- 

 tion of animals, and in the offering of premiums by societies, 



