310 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



admits that altliough the Aldcrncj " yields very little milk, that 

 milk is of an extraordinary excellent quality, and gives more 

 butter than can be obtained from the milk of any other cow." 

 And Martin, another author of credit, declares that " in pro- 

 portion to the quantity of milk, the butter it yields is astonish- 

 ing. A single cow has been known to give nineteen pounds of 

 butter, weekly, for several successive weeks." Now, whether 

 Mr. Pai-lvinson's representation of the external appearance of 

 the Aldcrney cow is exaggerated or not, (as doubtless it is,) 

 who would not prefer to take her with all these defects of 

 shape, in the assurance of " nineteen pounds of butter weekly, 

 for several successive weeks," to most perfect symmetry of 

 form, with no more than ordinary milking qualities ? Yet, in 

 the pens of a New England cattle show, it would require some- 

 thing more than the passing observation of a committee, how- 

 ever good judges of external points and appearance, for such 

 a competitor to bear away a premium. With neat stock, as 

 with a higher race of created beings, the homely and trite 

 adage, that " handsome is, that handsome does," is especially 

 applicable. It is not merely the fairest exhibition in the pens 

 which can claim the preference, but united with this, there 

 should be the product and profit of the animal for all the pur- 

 poses for which it is raised and kept. Hence the importance 

 of a compliance with the details of the rule enjoined by the 

 trustees on the committee, in the examination of this depart- 

 ment of the exhibition; and in an adherence to that rule 

 should be seen a vindication of the judgment and discrimina- 

 tion with which the premiums are awarded. 



That there exists in the County of Worcester the elements 

 for as fine a dairy stock as can be found elsewhere, cannot be 

 questioned. More than fifty years since, our race of native 

 cattle was greatly improved by the introduction of a cross with 

 the finest stock of England, imported by the Hon. Christo- 

 pher Gore, of Boston — a gentleman as justly distinguished for 

 his liberal contributions to the cause of agriculture, as for his 

 eminent accomplishments as a statesman and jurist ; — and this 

 cross, known afterwards as the " Gore Breed," was productive 

 of many animals of rare excellence, raised among us. Subse- 

 quently, the importation by our own late honored and lamented 



