410 
For all these improved breeds herd-books containing their genealogy, by way of 
pedigree, are kept in the United States, as well as in their native countries, and from 
them a full knowledge of their descent and blood is readily obtained by all who choose 
to inquire into their breeding. Prices might be quoted of the sale values of several of 
these breeds of cattle—some of them seemingly extravagant in amount—but such 
statistical reference is not demanded in this limited discourse, rather leaving it te the 
tastes, judgments, and fancies of those interested in their breeding. The introduction 
of these improved breeds has added enormously to the value of the neat-stock of our 
eountry, and their farther dissemination is yet to add untold millions to its productive 
agriculture. Slow as farmers, cattle-breeders, graziers, and dairymen have proverb- 
jially been in the improvement of their herds, a rapid and more intelligent interest is 
every year manifested in their increase. : 
In addition to the breeds of cattle already named may be a few others of foreign 
origin introduced at different times by way of experiment or personal gratification; 
but as they have taken no strong hold on the attention of our stock-breeders, a fur- 
ther notice of them may be omitted, while in the grand specimens of the various 
breeds which have been mentioned we may assert, without contradiction, that no 
eountry in the universe contains better herds than the United States of America can 
now exhibit. 
The subject of our neat-cattle can hardly be dismissed without an allusion to an im- 
portant item of their increasing value in fresh-beef exportation, which has recently been 
developed by the demand for fresh carcass meat from abroad, particularly in Great 
Britain. Refrigerators have been fitted up in Atlantic steamships, and, by the aid of 
ice, many tous of beef, in quarters of the carcass, have already been, and unlimited 
tons more may continue to be, transported to Earope with entire safety, and in perfect 
freshness. The prices for which it has beensold in the Londen and Liverpool markets 
have proved equal to those for the best qualities of their native beef, and profitable 
to the shippers. There is, however, a condition attached to our successful exports, 
which is, that the meat be of the best quality, and that quality can only be obtained 
from animals of improved breeds which have been partially described. We have only 
to proceed in the cultivation of those breeds, in order to add a wide, almost illimitable, 
field of production to the neat-stock interests of our country. 
SHEEP. 
‘These were early introduced into our American colonies as companions of the horses 
and cattle brought by the settlers. They were of the kinds then common to England, 
Scotland, Ireland, and perhaps the western coast of the European continent, of various 
breeds, as they then locally prevailed, but without much merit, other than a tolerable 
earcass of ordinary flesh and a moderate fleece of coarse wool. They were so kept and 
propagated, with possibly an occasional importation of a better kind from England, 
but it was not until late in the last century that Bakewell, Ellman, and other enter- 
prising breeders made their experiments in different breeds which resulted in any con- 
siderable improvement in their condition and appearance. Thus the American sheep 
were chiefly of an inferior character. 
MERINO.—In the early years of the present century the American embassadors at 
the courts of France, Spain, and Portugal, during the intense commotiouns of the Bona- 
partean wars, purchased and shipped to the United States many hundreds of Spanish 
Merinosheep. They were of the fine-wooled varieties, named as you will find in our books 
on sheep-husbandry. Their introduction here was hailed with great satisfaction, and 
as our infant woolen manufactories were then just emerging into existence, great im- 
portance was given to their propagation, not only in their own purity of blood, but as 
valuable crosses on our common flocks in increasing and refining the qualities of their 
wool. From those days forward to the present time the cultivation of the better quali- 
ties of wool has been the study of numerous flock-masters in various parts of the 
United States, suitable to their rearing, and the sheep interest now presents an impor- 
tant branch of our agricultural production and wealth. The Spanish Merino has evi- 
dently been much improved in its American cultivation, not only through the crosses - 
of more recent importation by several of our enterprising Americans from the royal 
flocks of France, Saxony, and Silesia, upon the earlier Merino ewes, but by our own 
flock-masters at home, so that at this day no fine-wool sheep in the world excel, and 
few equal, the American Merinos in the heavy products of their fleeces, or the size and 
stamina of their bodies. We might examine the statistics of their annual production 
, aggregating millions of dollars in value did time and opportunity permit, but we may 
rest content with the general facts which have been stated and the progress we have 
made in their cultivation, not only in the fine wool but in the other varieties. 
THE COARSER-WOOLED MUTTON-SHEEP, so successfully bred in England during the 
last seventy years, we have for the past thirty years adopted by frequent importa- 
tions. They have been successfully propagated in their own purity of blood, and by 
their crosses on the common flocks raised eur inferior ones to a value hitherto unknown 
