STOCK-HUSBANDKY IN MASSACHUSETTS. 181 



talking, telling mc of the excellence of the blue-grass lands, 

 the horses, cattle, etc., and, as usual with his people, claim- 

 ing for them all superiority over anything in their line in tho 

 world. He doubtless believed what he said, for he had heard 

 the story told, over and over again, since his childhood, and 

 he had never been far from his own State. The other gen- 

 tleman, to his honor be it said, was bound to see fair play 

 and to give credit where credit was due. He said that he 

 was well aware that Kentucky had good land, splendid 

 horses, hospitable men and handsome girls, but Kentucky 

 did not hold the monopoly of these blessings. He had seen 

 considerable of New England during his former trip, and he 

 thought he had had a good opportunity to learn of her peo- 

 ple, of her soil and its productions. He said that although 

 Kentucky had bred some of the finest horses in the world, 

 she had also bred many poor ones ; and if two territories 

 of equal size were selected in both Kentucky and in New 

 England, and the average quality of all the horses in each 

 section compared, it would ha found that the New England 

 horses would show to the best advantasrc. The averasre 

 horse of Kentucky, the horse that does the farm work, car- 

 ries the family to church, or, one at a time, in the saddle, to 

 the post office or the store, is quite apt to have a little too 

 much blue-grass in his belly to show oif well in comparison 

 with his grain-fed, stabled cousin of New England. He 

 finds hills where the New England horse would think it all 

 level road. As to cattle, if the Kentucky breeds were the 

 superior, he would not be on his way to New England to buy 

 grade cows, that the Kentucky dairymen might be enabled 

 to improve their own herds. 



Of the hospitality of the people of New England, after 

 having been driven about over the country from farm to 

 farm by men who had no expectation of making a dollar out 

 of him, he could hardly say enough. Then, if "handsome 

 is that handsome does," the average New England farm- 

 house, presided over from parlor to garret by New England 

 .wives and daughters, would present to any Kentucky visitor 

 a model of housekeeping such as he had never dreamed of. 



I should detain you too long were I to repeat one-half 

 that he said in praise of the little home of a poor laboring 



