JERSEY CATTLE. Ill 



be regarded only as the leaven with which the bulk of the 

 stock of the farmers generally is to be improved and kept 

 improving. 



The bulk of the horned stock of the country is made up of 

 animals of medium size and of a varied mixture of blood ; 

 namely, Devon and Durham of the old types, and of very 

 varied degrees of excellence or worthlessness, as the case 

 may be. As a ''general purpose cow" she must "step 

 down and out" at the same time with the " general purpose 

 farmer," — both are rapidly, and rightly, becoming things 

 of the past. I say " rightly" wholly from a financial point 

 of view, not from the standpoint of a philanthropist or a 

 philosopher. But not to go too far into metaphysics, what I 

 desire to insist upon is : that in the struggle for existence 

 and a decent competency to-day, it is necessary that men in 

 almost every position in life should find out what one thing 

 they can do best, and then, with the most appropriate tools, and 

 with their whole mind bent on this one thing, do it ! Such 

 general principles apply as fully to the farmer as to any other 

 worker in the community. He must specialize to live, and 

 he must select his specialty wisely ; and even then he must 

 provide himself with appropriate tools and use them carefully 

 and constantly to prosper. 



This is true in the professions and in the merchant's and 

 the manufacturer's departments. It is true of the farmer's 

 life, and especially true in regard to farming in the New 

 England States, and in none of the New England States 

 more so than in Massachusetts. 



Among the " special" branches of farming offering a cer- 

 tain and satisfactory reward to the Massachusetts farmer are 

 milk-production, the raising and marketing of small fruits and 

 the making of the better quality of butter. In the milk 

 business, whether it is the production of that sold in 

 bulk at 2 to 4 cents a quart or that of a better quality 

 sent in bottles at 6 to 10 cents, there are sure and per- 

 manent profits. 



But the milk producer must be within a moderate distance 

 of his customers or of his railway station, and this station 

 must be within a certain distance of the large cities. He is 

 thus cut ofi' from some of the most fertile farms of the State ; 



