TAKING REINS IN HAND 



no particular duty, save occasional exhibition 

 of his parts before public assemblages; but 

 when our exigencies demand special and im- 

 portant service, we are apt to measure fitness 

 by something more intrinsic. 



The cattle breeders are unquestionably do- 

 ing great benefit to the agricultural interests 

 of the country ; but the essential distinction be- 

 tween the aims of the breeder and farmer 

 should not be lost sight of. The first seeks to 

 develop, under the best possible conditions of 

 food and shelter, those points in the animal 

 which most of all make the distinction of the 

 race. The farmer seeks an animal, or should, 

 which in view of climate, soil, and his practice 

 of husbandry, shall return him the largest 

 profit, whether in the dairy, under the yoke, or 

 in the shambles. He has nothing to do with 

 points, but the points that shall meet these 

 ends. There is no reason why he should limit 

 himself to one strain of blood, unless that 

 strain meets and fills every office of his farm 

 economy, any more than he should narrow his 

 poultry range to peafowl, or to golden pheas- 

 ant. 



I think I may have talked somewhat in this 

 strain to my old neighbor, who asked after the 

 "squire's cattle"— but not at such a length; 



"5 



