280 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Witliout doubt, benefit may accrue from crossing the best of 

 imported animals with the best of our own. This was recom- 

 mended by Messrs. Pickering and Lowell, before named ; and 

 this has been recommended by all intelligent men who have 

 given attention to the subject. This has been attempted by 

 the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. 

 At great expense they have imported animals, selected with 

 the best of care for this purpose. They have generously placed 

 them in tlie different counties of the Commonwealth, and called 

 on the farmers to take advantage of their offers. From some 

 of the counties they have had favorable returns, Worcester in 

 particular, but generally not so. In Essex, I remember, we 

 were favored with the offer of a Imll. After deliberation by 

 the trustees, they concluded to take an Ayrshire animal, and 

 appointed two of their most experienced men from the best 

 stock raising towns, Andover and Newbury, to select him. He 

 was received with all thankfulness — kept at an expense of 

 about two dollars a week — stationed in different towns, and 

 advertised in the Gazette, for a period of two years, and finally 

 died and was buried without ceremony. You may ask what 

 was the result of all this ? According to the best information 

 I can obtain, some of his progeny were fair looking animals, 

 but, as a whole, the value of all that remain, distinctly marked 

 as his descendants, would not pay the expense of his-keeping.* 

 The inference must be, that the farmers did not think much of 

 the animal, or that he was not worth keeping. I speak of this 

 animal, because I happened to know his entire history ; like 

 unfavorable accounts I have heard from other counties. Al- 

 though thousands of dollars have been expended by the Massa- 

 chusetts Society, in introducing and spreading abi-oad foreign 

 animals, I have great doubts whether any benefits have resulted 

 from these operations. 



Twenty-five years ago, Gorham Parsons, Esq., at the solici- 



* The reason of this was that this bull was sickly, and got but very few calves. 

 He was found to be so uncertain, (a fact that was not, and could not have been 

 known to tliose who selected him, and who had but two to select from,) that no 

 farmer dared to risk him ; not that any one lacked confidence in the breed, but that 

 he was very rarely successful. Those that he did get, of which several are still liv- 

 ing, are sujierior animals. — Ed. 



