TAKING REINS IN HAND. 103 



ty to make his choice of cattle, with the same coolness 

 with which he would make his choice of ploughs or 

 wagons, and to tie up together, if the humor takes 

 Mm, animals which the breeders have been keeping 

 religiously apart for a few score of years. 



But I do not share in this punctiliousness. I be 

 lieve that these animals all, whether of the Herd-book 

 or out of it, must be measured at last, not by their 

 pedigree or title, but by their fitness for humble farm 

 services. A family name may be a good enough test 

 of any animal biped or other from whom we look 

 for no particular duty, save occasional exhibition of 

 his parts before public assemblages ; but when our 

 exigencies demand special and important service, we 

 are apt to measure fitness by something more in 

 trinsic. 



The cattle breeders are unquestionably doing 

 great benefit to the agricultural interests of the coun 

 try; but the essential distinction between the aims 

 of the breeder and farmer should not be lost sight of. 

 The first seeks to develop, under the best possible 

 conditions of food and shelter, those points in the ani 

 mal which most of all make the distinction of the 

 race. The farmer seeks an animal, or should, which 

 in view of climate, soil, and his practice of husbandry, 

 shall return him the largest profit, whether in the 

 dairy, under the yoke, or in the shambles. He has 



