176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a class, are suspicious of cattle which sell at fancy prices. 

 They have learned by observation, if not by experience, that 

 the men who realize profit from such cattle, are not the men 

 who farm to live, but are usually wealthy fancy farmers or 

 speculators. 



The short-horns have passed the speculative stage among 

 us. Creditable pedigree animals can be procured for rea- 

 sonable prices, and with good care and attention to the 

 simple rule "that like produces like," every farmer may 

 have his pastures and stables adorned with herds of grand 

 cattle, — cattle which will not only pay good profits in the 

 butter dairy, but will excel in cheese-making, and just 

 what is wanted by the milk farmer ; the steers will be in 

 demand, at good round prices, for fancy matched work- 

 ers, and for the feeders of beef for exportation. Every 

 sagacious producer aims to furnish supplies which will be in 

 general demand. An old-fashioned saying is, that "it is 

 well to have more than one string for your bow." , I rec- 

 ommend to Massachusetts farmers to stock their farms with 

 cattle whose usefulness and profit have been proved by two 

 centuries of trial by the tenant farmers of England, cattle 

 which will adapt themselves to any climate, soil or circum- 

 stances, except the circumstance of starvation. They have 

 won, in the western part of our country, the same position 

 which they hold in England, and there is no good reason 

 why they should not become the cattle of Massachusetts and 

 New England as they are of old England. I believe that if, 

 at the time of the first short-horn importations into this State, 

 our farmers had been as thoroughly convinced of the econ- 

 omy of liberal feeding as they are to-day, the short-horns 

 would have gained a general recognition in all parts of the 

 State, and would now have been the universal breed of the 

 State. But they were not calculated to thrive under the 

 short feed, neglect and hardships to which our old-fashioned 

 farmers were accustomed to subject their neat stock fifty 

 years ago. At this day you can hardly find an advocate of 

 short feeding ; our progressive agriculturists all advocate lib- 

 eral feeding for all growing, producing or working animals, no 

 matter what the breed may be. With such sensible treatment 



