84 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



improved by subsequent importation from that country and England. In 1627 cattle were 

 brought to the settlement on the Delaware from Sweden, by the Swedish West India Com 

 pany. In 1631, 1632, and 1633 a number of importations were made into New Hampshire 

 by Capt. John Mason, who, with Gorges, procured the patent of extensive tracts of land in 

 the vicinity of the Piscataqua River. These Danish cattle are described as large, coarse, and 

 of a yellow color. Many of their descendants, mixed with other breeds, though often 

 ungainly and ill-shaped, have been remarkably good milkers, especially as to quantity. It 

 will thus be seen that the native stock is a mixture of all breeds and races. Laurence, in 

 his interesting work entitled, &quot;A General Treatise on Cattle, the Ox, Sheep, and Swine,&quot; 

 published as long ago as 1805, gives the following list of English breeds of that time: 



&quot; These are the original or established species or breeds of cattle in Britain, with their 

 permanent varieties, as they are found in the beginning of the nineteenth century: The 

 Devons from these have been derived the Hereford, Old Gloucester Reds, and Sussex ; the 

 Kentish Homebreds; the &quot;Welsh Mountain and Lowland cattle; Isle of Anglesey; the Lanca 

 shire, or Northwestern, and Midland County Long-horns; the Shropshire Wide-horns; the 

 Northern Short-horns, or Teeswater, Lincoln, and Holderness, or Yorkshire Short-horns; 

 the Northern Half -Long-horns ; the Polled; the Norfolk Homebreds; the Suffolk Duns; 

 the Scottish Island, Mountain, and Lowland cattle; the Wild cattle of England, the Alder- 

 ney, and Irish cattle.&quot; 



Which of these different breeds or races were first imported to this country, or pre 

 dominated with the early settlers, is not definitely known, and will probably ever remain a 

 matter of conjecture. 



The Spanish types have been preserved in South America, and in all the country south 

 of Texas. In the northern portion of the United States will now be found the better breeds 

 and their grades, such as the Short-Horn, Hereford, Devon, Ayrshire, Dutch, Jersey, etc., 

 the different breeds prevailing according to the locality. Although the common or native 

 cattle of the country are of course very much inferior to breeds of pure blood, individuals 

 will be occasionally found among them that possess qualities of superior value, and many of 

 them are capable of great and rapid improvement. The following shows what may be 

 accomplished with only the native stock, by care and judicious selection. In 1845 a man 

 began dairy farming upon the Schohairiekill, in Greene County, New York. He was not a 

 farmer, but, on the contrary, had been a tanner in the county for twenty years. Having 

 cleared the land of its hemlock, he found it formed a fine sod; consequently when his tan 

 nery closed for lack of bark, he stocked his land with milch cows, and began to make butter. 

 For ten years he followed the old beaten track, obtaining an average of about a hundred and 

 twenty-five pounds of butter a year from each of his fifty cows. Then it occurred to him 

 that this was not enough, and he proceeded systematically to improve his herd, keeping an 

 exact account with each cow, and of his whole farming operations. He had only the 

 &quot;native&quot; stock of the country. The record of the herd begins in 1856, and closes with 1863, 

 keeping up the number of fifty cows, and breeding only for the dairy, from the best animals 

 for this purpose that he could select from among them. The main point is not the amount 

 produced, but the steady increase, under this management, of their average product year 

 after year, as hown by the record : 



Years. 1856. 1857. 1858. 1859. 1860. 1861. 1862. 1863. 



Pounds butter per cow, 125 136 161 166 183 217 223 225 



In commenting upon this case, a recent writer says: &quot;In eight years this man had 

 entirely changed his animals, although keeping the same stock, improving it by good manage 

 ment and without expense. The result was an increased product of a hundred pounds of 

 butter a year to each cow, three-quarters of which he reckoned clear gain. It was a most 

 common-sense, practical, business-like operation. Any farmer can do the like. 



