64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The Chair. I was struck with one 2:>oint Mr. Sessions 

 made in reference to the tifteen calves. He left out one 

 point, — out of the fifteen, some must have been failures. 



One other point to which he did not refer. The herd 

 must be replaced every few years, and if a farmer raises his 

 cows, he is likely to get those free from disease. This is an 

 advantage from raising calves. I think that is an important 

 point to be considered. 



Mr. Sessions. You may have read the statement made 

 by the Cattle Commission some years ago about two gentle- 

 men, both well-to-do men. About the same time they con- 

 ceived the idea of having a herd of cattle, and they both 

 decided on the same breed. The farms wxre near together. 

 They each built buildings of the same size and style of archi- 

 tecture, and bought their herds from the same parties. One 

 of them raised all his own calves, and bought none from the 

 outside. The other one, having abundant means, and desir- 

 ing to outstrip others and to be able to tell a bigger story 

 than anybody else, bought the best cows he could find, 

 regardless of cost, bringing in foreign blood all the time. 

 Four or five years ago one of the men found his herd in 

 trouble, and sent for an expert to examine the cattle. 

 Nearly every one was condemned and killed ; they had 

 tuberculosis. The other man thought he would have his 

 herd examined by the same men. He did so, and every 

 animal was free from tuberculosis. The man who purchased 

 cows brought the disease into his herd. The man who 

 raised his own cows escaped it. 



Mr. A. M. Lyman (of Montague). A dozen years ago, 

 when I was a young farmer, I listened to our ex-secretary 

 and to Dr. Twitchell at the institutes and at the State Board 

 meetings, and have tried to carry out the ideas I learned 

 from them. They have been very helpful. 



Years ago we invited Dr. Twitchell to speak to us on the 

 subject of scoring a horse. ^Ve secured as good a horse as 

 we could find, and had him on the platform. He did not 

 score the horse as high as we expected. We did not think 

 it was a perfect horse. We talked with Dr. Twitchell about 

 it, and he said in conversation that he would score no horse 

 over eiglity-tive. I think that was the number of points. 



