ESSEX SOCIETY. 87 



time as they may order him to be returned, went to Ticxington 

 on the 18th of January last, and selected an Ayrshire Bull, a 

 descendant of the imported stock, then in the care of Elias 

 Phinney, and receipted for the same. 



April 28th, he was taken to Danvers, where he remained 

 until the first of June, and while there, he was put to eight 

 cows. He was then taken to Andover, where he remained 

 until the first of July, during which time, fourteen cows were 

 put to him. He was then taken to Byfield, and is to be kept 

 there during the winter. Sixteen cows were put to him in 

 July and August, and eight since. The whole number of cows 

 put to him during the season, was forty-six. 



The cows put to the Bull have generally been of good 

 quality, — a part were of extra quality, — a part have a mixture of 

 late foreign importation, and one is described as being Durham, 

 a great milker, belonging to Charles G. Loring, of Beverly. 



The Bull is now nearly three years old, of medium size, fine 

 dark red, with a mixture of white, a sprightly, active animal, 

 from English stock, possessing more than ordinary milking 

 properties, according to English publications. It is desirable 

 that all his calves should be raised, especially the heifers, that 

 a fair experiment may be made, to test fully the difference in 

 the quality of the half blood cows, when compared with other 

 milk stock, whether of late or early importation. (By early 

 importation, we mean what is generally termed native stock.) 



If all the heifer calves are raised — say from twenty to twenty- 

 five — and compared with a like number raised under similar 

 circumstances, and in the same vicinity, where no cross of late 

 importation has been resorted to, may we not then be prepared 

 to decide, in some good degree, whether we have improved 

 upon the original stock imported at the settlement of the coun- 

 try, in the same ratio that the British breeders have done, who 

 have, by various crosses, originated the variety known there as 

 the Ayrshire ? 



Still, whatever may be the result of this experiment, it may 

 be, that the Ayrshire is not the best foreign variety to cross with 

 our present stock ; and it is to be hoped, that like experiments 

 that are now going on with the Ayrshire and the Devons, will 



