278 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Pickering was associated with Iiim on the committee ; and I 

 myself was present, a stripling, looking on. Says he : — 



" Although the milch cows of Great Britain and the Nether- 

 lands are in general far superior to our own, I have never seen 

 an imported cow with equal merit with some of our own, that 

 have been here offered. So fully am I convinced of this truth, 

 as well as that our country possesses a very considerable 

 number of these fine cows, that I am persuaded that if Great 

 Britain or the Netherlands were to send us ten cows, selected, 

 each of the best quality there to be found. New England alone 

 would furnish twenty that would equal them in the quantity of 

 milk, butter and cheese they would respectively produce."* 



This was not a shot at random, by those who did not know 

 what they were aiming at ; but it was said by those who knew 

 what they were saying, in a manner most deliberate, and who 

 stood ready to maintain what they had asserted. Let those 

 who have had more experience, and who possess more wisdom, 

 than did these gentlemen, (one of whom was eighty, and the 

 other about seventy at this time,) come forth and declare it. 

 I beg leave to refer also to the discussion carried on between 

 Messrs. Pickering, of Salem, and Powell, of Philadelphia, pub- 

 lished in the New England Farmer, in 1825, where the argu- 

 ments on both sides of this subject are fully drawn out, according 

 to the light then existing, and I think if doubts remain on the 

 minds of any, the perusal of those papers will remove them. I 

 remember to have read them since with much instruction. 



Where can there be found an animal excelling the Oakcs cow 

 for butter making properties ? I confess I have a local pride 

 in sustaining the reputation of this animal. She was first 

 brought into notice in the humble town in which I reside. She 

 was a small-sized, ordinary looking cow, with a small head and 

 neck, straight back, and broad hind parts, with milk vessels of 



* It will be noticed that the writer of this paragraph admits every thing for which 

 the friends of improvement contend, that "i!Ae viUcli cows of Great Britain, &c., are 

 in general superior, ^c. No one would deny that occasionally we find a " native " 

 equal, and perhaps superior, to most full bloods, yet these are accidental cases, and 

 do not produce their like, .as is the case with strongly marked breeds. When oiir 

 •• nativ* " are in general equal to the races which have been built up by a long 

 course of judicious treatment, we can with justice recommend them as superior to 

 all others. — Ed. 



