284 STATE BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. 



tion and highest standard of health. This is a broad subject, much too broad 

 for the time I shall occupy. It has been the policy of all nations to protect 

 the lives and health of their subjects, and no laws are better guarded than 

 those that relate to the health of citizens. All things are made subservient to 

 health. This has been a subject of great study with reference to the protection 

 of the army, the navy, and everything that relates to a civilized country. This- 

 is a matter of importance as applied to domestic animals. Most animals are 

 raised for profit. Their health is important both to the producer for profit and 

 to the consumer. No manner of feeding can produce health in an animal that 

 springs from unhealthy parentage. Animals inherit ills and tendencies to dis- 

 ease the same as do human beings. If you would have a healthy pig, you must 

 get one of healthy parentage. Measles, scrofula, etc., in hogs are handed down 

 to the young. If you have an unhealthy sow, knock her in the head; don't 

 make a breeder of her. Don't make a breed mare of a spavined, ring-boned, 

 broken-down old plug. I know in this county a family of horses that are all 

 ring-boned and spavined horses. I know their family; they came from a spav- 

 ined and ring-boned ancestry. Disease is handed down from either side. 



The Arab does not keep tlae pedigree of the male horse ; their pedigrees are 

 all on the side of the mare. The mare that is all covered with blemishes should 

 be disposed of, and the best w-ay to dispose of her is with the rifle. 



It is no wonder that the short-horn cattle have lost their milking qualities. 

 They have not been bred with a view of keeping up the flow of milk. They 

 have been bred for beauty and size for ages. 



The buffalo is bi*ed by nature, it is true; but the weak are devoured by the- 

 wolves, and their increase is only from the healthy, and that is the reason they 

 are healthy. 



Color in cattle is also bred, as discovered as early as the time when Jacob 

 herded cattle for the spotted increase, and finally owned the whole herd, as we 

 read in the scriptures. If health and color can be bred, how much more can 

 we propagate disease? Don't breed from unhealthy cows. It may not show in. 

 the first nor the second generation, but by and by it will crop out. Like the 

 saying that we hear, if there is African blood it may not show for generations,- 

 but by and by "out pops a nigger." I mean no reflection, but it illustrates 

 the point. It is true that certain crosses will produce better results ; hence the 

 importance of a healthy foundation in stock raising. The puny cannot breed 

 healthy stock. Poultry can be entirely changed in color and size in fifteen 

 years' breeding. If you do not select the healthiest fowls, you will see dwarfs- 

 and ruutlings in three generations. I could illustrate by relating an experiment 

 if I had time. 



The Arabian horse was much improved by crossing with the English horse, 

 and the result is a horse that far excels it in both speed and power of endurance, 

 and now the Arabian horse is not to be compared with the English and Ameri- 

 can horses. Proper attention to the young is of great importance. Of all 

 young, the human is the most dependent. Domestic animals require less care>. 

 but there are certain things that must be observed by the raiser. This care 

 gives results in the permanent health of the animal. The young animal should 

 not be allowed to get chilled. Caution is to be observed in a damp day. Proper 

 care at the outset is a matter of the greatest importance. If you stop the 

 Avheels of development while young, you have put a hindrance to it that may 

 last it through life. The young of domestic animals should be fed a little at a. 

 time and often. If you feed too much you paralyze the nerves by too great an 



