SCOTCH PRACTICE. 119 



governable by his own rules. Now I say, where this art has 

 been applied to the purposes of producing beef, and the animal 

 has been fed liberally for that purpose, a young male has man- 

 aged to do his work decently, and, possibly, with fair and mod- 

 erate usage, to keep himself along in good condition. That can 

 be done ; but the best Shorthorn breeders in England will test 

 what the stock may be, and then wait until the animal becomes 

 more mature before they use him to any considerable extent. 

 But there is a class of breeding where all the functions of the 

 animal are to be developed for a prior purpose ; where, in order 

 to secure the object in view, the constitution of the female must 

 be entirely developed, and that is in the production of dairy 

 cattle in Scotland. There the farmer pursues an entirely 

 different course. The Scotch farmer endeavors to raise a hardy 

 animal for the purposes of the dairy, and knowing that the wear 

 and tear upon his cow when she goes to work is to be as great 

 as that upon himself when he goes to work, and if she does 

 give from fifteen to twenty quarts of milk a day, during her 

 milking season, she is making a draft upon her system which 

 nothing but the best constitution can endure, he never uses his 

 bull until he is three years old. He desires to know that his 

 animal has reached very nearly the point of maturity in his 

 general constitutional condition. He desires to know, more- 

 over, what kind of animal he has got, and he cannot satisfy 

 himself on these points until his animal has reached that age. 

 So that the farmer who is breeding, not for the rapid production 

 of beef, which is so entirely an artificial business, but is breeding 

 to secure animals with good constitutions for specific purposes, 

 allows his male animal (just as Professor Agassiz has suggested,) 

 to reach that condition of maturity which will enable him to 

 transmit a good strong constitution to his offspring. In this 

 part of the business of breeding, I have no question that our 

 cattle have been injured by the use of young males. 



Now, in regard to the use of young stallions, I insist upon it 

 that no young horse is fit to breed until he has reached maturity. 

 I have tried it myself, over and over again. I have undertaken 

 to observe that business, and the only horses that I have known 

 that bred constantly and thoroughly well were horses six or 

 seven years old ; and I have seen the most disastrous results 

 upon a horse — who is a most sensitive animal — by reason of too 



