118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



should put the male to the female, or what condition of the male 

 and female will produce certain sexes. It seems to me to be 

 very difficult to get at the statistics showing it, and we must 

 run for luck in that matter, so far as I know, until the thing is 

 well established. But if you can keep a cow in heat forty-eight 

 hours before you take her to the bull, I should go for letting 

 her wait ; but that is not easily done. Mares run in heat 

 longer ; and while we have no facts to show that the time of 

 impregnation in the heat will decide the sex of the offspring, we 

 have certain facts that go to show that 'mares at the latter part 

 of their nine or ten days of heat, are a little more apt to conceive 

 than at an earlier period. But that is all in the dark ; we have 

 not satistics enough to show us what rules we can lay down. 

 It is all beyond our reach. It is something more than physi- 

 ology — we hardly know what ; something that we cannot explore 

 so readily. 



But the question Professor Agassiz asked, as to the age at 

 which males should be put to females, is a question that can be 

 answered. There is no doubt that the use of young males in 

 breeding in New England, has been injurious to our stock. I 

 mean, so far as the size and condition of the animal are con- 

 cerned. You must remember that the bull has always been an 

 outcast. A bull about a farm is generally considered a nuis- 

 ance. He does not make any milk, he does not make any beef, 

 he does not do any work ; he is a sort of scullion on a place. 

 He is a bull, and that is enough to damn him ; and the quicker 

 he serves his cows and gets out of the world, the better every- 

 body is pleased. That has been the feeling with regard to breed- 

 ing animals, among the great majority of New England farmers. 

 We do not want to keep them long. "We will take them at a 

 year old, if they are big enough to get at a female, even with a 

 little assistance, and set them at work ; and if they will breed 

 at that age, let them breed and get rid of them ; but to winter 

 them is the horror of farmers. It is not surprising, therefore, 

 that our market is full of starvelings and runts ; and it is 

 unquestionably true, that one cause of the deterioration of New 

 England cattle is owing to the fact that the males have been 

 used at too early an age. Mind you, gentlemen, I have dwelt 

 upon the art of this business half a dozen times this morning. 

 Where a man gets it into his own hands, he is bound to make it 



