WHAT IS THE BEST BREED. 185 



We do not yet, in America, afford sufficient examples of the 

 kind to establish, beyond dispute, these facts. We can point to 

 districts of country in Kentucky and Ohio, and perhaps else- 

 where, but in those States certainly, where, for thirty or forty 

 years past, the course of breeding which we have pointed out, 

 has been pursued with the short-horns, (and it might have been 

 so with any other established breed, had it been selected,) with 

 the most triumphant success. The " blood " cattle breeders there, 

 have not only bred their pure bloods distinctly by themselves, 

 and sold thousands of bulls to breeders of grades, near and far, 

 in their own and other States, but have bred their grades, by 

 the persistent use of thorough bred bulls, up to a quality cows 

 for milk, and bullocks for beef equal in value for all practical 

 uses, to the pure blood itsulf ; and we see their droves of bullocks 

 year after year going to market, at double, or treble the prices 

 of common ones, and their cows, selected as milkers, at equal 

 prices. We name the short-horns in those localities, as they are 

 the only breed they have used, and those are the only consider- 

 able localities, within our knowledge, where this system of 

 breeding has been for any length of time pursued. 



So it is in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and on the 

 Continent of Europe, where the best agriculture" prevails. The 

 farmers and breeders find out what they want; they get it, and 

 having proved its merits, they hold on to it with a pertinacity, 

 which, to many of us would seem an infatuation; and even 

 when they can find a better, sometimes refuse to give up the old 

 breed at all, or do so with a doubting reluctance; and there is a 

 reason for it. They live on the same farms or in the same neigh- 

 borhood all their lives. They have either found their stock to 

 be what was needed when they first commenced their occupation, 

 or they obtained it in the vicinity of their homes, and knowing 

 it to be profitable, were content to use it as it was, or improve 

 it, without rushing off upon some strange fancy, as we Ameri- 



