30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



year, right along, while I have no doubt that our production of 

 grain has fallen off very much of late years. 



Dr. Loring has told us the method of selecting the best kinds 

 of cattle for our different localities. I do not suppose I can 

 say anything to improve upon what he has said, as to the 

 importance of care in feeding them and in breeding them. I 

 find most agricultural societies even now offering premiums for 

 grade bulls. It is astonishing to see a miserable black bull 

 take a premium at a cattle show, with no pretence that the 

 blood was worthy of notice at all. Now, I maintain that the 

 only method of improving our stock of cattle is by using males 

 of some one of the improved breeds. I think wherever you 

 find an improved bull, of what breed you please, you will find a 

 decided improvement in the stock of that section. If you have 

 a cow for sale that had an Ayrshire, or Shorthorn, or Alderney 

 bull for her father, you would not hesitate to ask ten or fifteen 

 dollars more for her than for an ordinary, native cow ; you 

 would maintain she was all that better, and no doubt she would 

 be. Well, if we can increase the value of our stock five dollars 

 a head, we have 240,000 head of cattle in Massachusetts, and 

 you see what an addition it would be to the agricultural wealth 

 of the State. And if we did that, we should increase the 

 annual product of those animals to a like amount. 



I am satisfied that for Massachusetts, for dairy purposes, the 

 Ayrshire cow, as the doctor has told you, is the animal. There 

 are some localities, undoubtedly, where the Shorthorns will 

 thrive ; but for dairy purposes, in Massachusetts, the Ayrshire 

 is the animal ; and if we can improve the milking qualities of 

 our cows by the introduction of the Ayrshire stock, why do we 

 hesitate to do it ? If we get them, then the question is, how 

 shall we feed them ? I think there is a point where more is 

 lost in Massachusetts, than even in breeding these native 

 animals, if you choose to call them so. I have not the least 

 doubt, that ten or fifteen per cent, of the food given to cattle in 

 Massachusetts is wasted, trodden under foot, thrown away ; and 

 there is no one point where our farmers can improve so much 

 as in the feeding of their cattle. I do not pretend to say what 

 the method should be, but there is a general carelessness, a 

 general want of economy. And I agree with the doctor in what 

 he says in relation to the kinds of food. I have never used 



