269 



climates produce shallow milkers ; and where exceptions occur, 

 they get poor very fast when indifferently kept, and it becomes 

 more expensive to recover their condition than to keep it up. 

 The wear and tear of condition in deep milkers is very great, 

 and is only to be checked by abundance of succulent food and 

 roots ; or, when these are not to be had, by occasional feeds of 

 meal with their hay." 



These remarks are so well founded and so much to the pur- 

 pose that I have giveu them at large. That this highly im- 

 proved race of animals is of all others best suited to our climate, 

 soil, mode of husbandry, and general condition, is a question I 

 shall now pass over ; but on the subject of the milking or 

 dairy properties, I will give the most exact returns of which I 

 have been able to avail myself, and shall subjoin an account of 

 what we call native cows, that any one may compare them at 

 his pleasure. 



It may be said that the native cows to which I refer are all 

 select animals. I admit that they are remarkable animals; 

 some of them very extraordinary ; but, in respect to the large 

 majority of them, I have met with them accidentally : and I can 

 find in the State hundreds and hundreds equal to them, if any 

 justice were done to their keeping. But the tnUh is, that, in 

 general, nothing can be more negligent and mean than the 

 manner in which a large portion of our cows are kept. On the 

 other hand, it will not be denied that the Short Horns to which 

 I refer are selected and highly fed animals. It seems not a 

 little remarkable among the many hundreds which have been 

 brought to and produced in the country, if extraordinary dairy 

 properties are the characteristic of the breed, as many of their 

 advocates maintain, and when there is such an extreme eager- 

 ness to establish this point, that more of these distinguished ex- 

 amples should not have been given to the public. 



Let us look, however, at the facts in the case and make up 

 our judgment accordingly. In all matters of inquiry or debate 

 our object should be truth, not triumph. 



1. An improved Durham short-horn cow (Belina), imported 



