^96 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



product was stated at 27,010,048 tons, an increase of more than 100 

 per cent, in t\Yenty years. The money-value of this crop cannot, 

 therefore, be less than $300,000,000, to which is to bo added at least an 

 equal amount for the value of grass lor summer pasturage, making an 

 aggregate of over $000,000,000 for the grass and hay crop of the country. 



That the (luality, and consequently the value, of the hay made now 

 lias vastly imi^roved over that made a half-century ago, no one at all 

 familiar with the subject can entertain a reasonable doubt. A great 

 amount of thought and experiment has been directed to the best meth- 

 ods of i)roduction and of curing, while machinery has given us a greater 

 control over the seasons, or rather has enabled us to avoid the exposure 

 to the exigencies of the weather, to a vastly greater extent than was 

 possible within the memory of men still living. 



Let us see now what effect this progress has had upon the number 

 and quality of our cattle. There can be no doubt that the idea of the 

 possibility of improving the common stock of the United States was 

 iirst suggested by the great results obtained by the early improvers of 

 stock in JEngland. The present advanced position of the stock interest 

 of this country can be traced directly to the practical labors of Bake- 

 well, the Messrs. CuUy, Colling, Bates, and others, just as the first im- 

 petus which these distinguished breeders received can be traced to the 

 efforts of such men as Lord Kames, '' to improve agriciUture by subject- 

 ing it to the test of rational principles," and Jcthro Tull, (1740,) the in- 

 ventor of the horse-hoe, the drill-husbandry, and many other bold and ad- 

 vanced notions. Tull launched out bravely into the field of experimental 

 agTiculture, and boldly threw open the door of improvement never again 

 to be closed, and this new-born spirit of progress very soon appeared to 

 spread; for it was only about ten years after him, or about 1750, when 

 Bakewell began those skillful experiments in breeding and witli such 

 marked success as to impress his influence upon the progress of agri- 

 culture all over the civilized world. It was, of course, some years be- 

 fore Bakewell's magnificent results began to atti'act public notice, even 

 in England, and their influence was much slower in reaching this coun- 

 trj'. It began to be felt here toward the close of the last century, or 

 more properly, ])erhaps, directly after the close of the revolutionary war, 

 for Mr. Goff and two other gentleman of Maryland imported some 

 very large animals from England in 1783, which appear soon after to 

 have gone into the hands of Matthew Patton, of Virginia, who, about 

 the year 1794, removed to Kentucky and carried the cattle with him. 

 A part of the same stock was taken to Ohio in the year 1800 by John 

 Patton, a sou of Matthew. These cattle "vvere well known in Kentucky 

 and Ohio, where they soon gained a wide reputation. There were a few 

 other importations about that period, all of them in small lots, the most 

 important of which w^ere some cattle introduced into Maryland by a Mr. 

 Miller, between 1700 and 1705, and a few short-horns into Westchester 

 County, New York, in 1792 and 179G. These were probably the only 

 importations made with any design of imi)roviug American cattle. Here 

 and there a Jersey of that day, and i)ossibly a very few individual ani- 

 mals of other breeds, brought over by ship-masters, are known to have 

 been introduced and kcpthere, but they made no perceptible mark on our 

 common cattle. Nor were there many or frequent importations until 

 after the year 1820, though twelve head of short-horns arrived in Ken- 

 tucky in 1817, and two more in 1818. It was in that year the celebrated 

 bull CcBlebs, the founder of Colonel Jaques's " cream-pot breed," Fortu- 

 natus, owned by Gorham Parsons, of Brighton, and Young Denton, 

 owned by S. Williams, of Northborough, were imported into Massachu- 



