166 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



of England ; so much so, that in this country, in Germany, 

 in France and in Ireland, they were known as the English 

 breed. The landlords, desirous of realizing large rents, saw 

 in these cattle the means by which their tenants could make 

 the rent and pay the heavy poor-rates and taxes. They, in 

 many instances, bought, at high prices, the best bulls, and 

 allowed their tenants to use them without fee. 



The dairy cow of England has, for many years, been of 

 the short-horn breed, and to-day it is the same story. The 

 dairy breeds, so called in America, are not crowding the 

 short-horns out of English dairies. In fact the short-horns 

 take the honors as dairy cattle at the fairs of Great Britain. 

 The champion prize cow at the London Dairy Show, in 1881, 

 was a pure-bred short-horn. And the champion prize cow 

 at the recent Islington Dairy Show, was a grade short-horn. 

 Our British cousins have created this breed for profit ; it has 

 been brought to its present state of perfection for a purpose, 

 and it serves that purpose well. England, a country of 

 little more than 50,000 square miles (but a trifle larger than 

 the State of New York), has a population of nearly 25,000,- 

 000, more than one-third of which dwell in cities of more 

 than 100,000 population each. And a very large proportion 

 of the whole population is engaged in manufactures and com- 

 merce, and are consequently dependent upon the farms of 

 England for -their supply of perishable food. Their whole 

 supply of milk must be procured from cows fed within their 

 own circumscribed territory. 



With their commercial eye wide open, with wit bought by 

 experience, with all the known breeds of cattle within their 

 own borders, the English farmers have anchored to the short- 

 horns. The cows produce large quantities of milk of good 

 quality, and when, by reason of increasing age or accidental 

 injury, they are no longer profitable as milkers, they fat 

 quickly and make large carcasses of first-class beef. The bul- 

 locks come early to maturity and furnish such beef as will 

 suit an English lord, which seems a sufficient recommenda- 

 tion. As Massachusetts is nearly like England in the situa- 

 tion and occupation of her population, the facts in England 

 will apply quite well to our own case. Here let me say that 

 the short-horns of England are not all herd-book cattle, but, 



