NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Puhlbhed hy JOHN B. RUSSELL, at the rn rnPT MC'xi^rr^o anr1 l.i nfiall Strfff?. nn ^tnn THnVIAS G. FK^CRNDKN. Kpttor. 



VOL. IV. 



HilDAV, OCTOBER 14, l«2r;. 



No. 1-2. 



ORIGIN AI. COBSBfilUXXCATIONS. 



FOB, THE NKW ENOLAND FARMER. 



COLONEI, PICKERING, \ 



ON IMPROVING THE NATIVE BREED 

 OF NEW ENGLAND CATTLE. 



Letter XI. 



Tired myself wilh the rfi-'i^ussion in ivliich I 

 have t-een so lon^ eiig-ige.l, I li-.ir lUe readers 

 of the New England Fminer will feel doulily 

 weary. 1 will iherefnre eiidi-avoiir to bring 

 all that I tlunk most important now to be said, 

 within tlie compass of tiuB letter. The naluro 

 of the discussion has led to repetitions which 

 ( trust readers will consider and excuse. 



That the half-hreed otl-prinff of the improved 

 short-horns is larfcer than our native breed, ' snp- 

 j)Ose IS not to lie controverted. E'.ijriish writers 

 declare the short-horns to he the hiruesl breed 

 in England : and this, with the qnalily of fat- 

 tening at an early age, niay recommend i( to 

 farmers in (hose parts of our country where 

 oxen are raised lor beef, not ■ for labour ; and 

 where they have richer pastures than are gen- 

 erally to be found in New England— at least 

 in Massachusetts. If the improved short-horns 

 had existed two hundred years ago, and. 

 instead of the Devons, had been brought 

 hither by our ancestors, they would proball), 

 for v*ant of rich pastures, and good and abun- 

 dant keep in winter, have been gradually re- 

 duced iu size, and by this time, perhap:-, imjI 

 have outsveighed our present native slock. 1 

 refer to New England, and particularly to Mas- 

 sachusetts, where such " nch pastures" (inter- 

 vale or bottom-land) as those wh ch conlributed 

 to the growth and fatness ol'Col. Ch.ipins oxen 

 at Springfield, are extremely rare. A more 

 just description of our pastures, at least in the 

 Eastern pails of Massachusells, may be seen in 

 the first article of the last number, (being num 

 ber 4, vol. viii.) of the Massachusetts Agricul- 

 tural Repository, republished in tiie New Eng- 

 land F. inner. No. 51, vol. iii. bearing date the 

 15ih of last July. In that article, the editors of 

 the Repository suppose that the race of cattle 

 origuially imported by our ancestors, have nol 

 degenerated, but rather improved, notwith- 

 standing the heat of our summers, the severiti 

 of our winters, and the poor treatment they 

 have receiied. The committee think il a re- 

 markable f.ict, th;it under such circumstances 

 our c.iUle " are tO fine." — " In a short e.xcur- 

 sion (say the editors) made this spring into the 

 country, we lound the cows turned out to very 

 ihorl pastures (on the iClh of May) ihin. feeble. 

 and in every respect miserable. We spe.ik ol 

 the great mass of them : and we understand 

 the cojriinon practice to be, to feed the cows on 

 meadow hay, reserving ihe more sulislanlial 

 food [good English hay and some Indian corn, 

 I suppose the editors mean] for their working 

 cattle and horses." — I think I have, on some 

 former occasion, explained (he term " mea- 

 dow hay," as used in Massachusetts — at least in 

 its E.tslern Counties. It is hay made of the 

 Ha'.uial, Wild, coMse grasses growing oo weV 



undrained ffroiuids and on peat lands, on what ' good as turmp<i and straw. In Norfolk county, 

 the Scotch writers call peat mosspo. Th;s^in England, many hundreds of cattle, among 

 grass is not only miserable in its nature, hut | them great numbers of Galloways from Scot- 

 often, perhaps gpnorally, debased, by being t bind, are put loya^cji in autumn on <?/niip.t an^ 

 left to be mowed alter all Ihe upland grasses • .v'/ntt' — ol turnips as many as they will caU the. 

 (which constitute what is generally called Eng-! straw being given, as they express it, only 1* 

 lish hay,) are cut and cured. This. wet ground J c/cim their moKrA.f, — Iho" I presume (he straw 

 and peal r"»adow hay is so poor, that cattle 

 eat it reluctantly. Give them aflfTwards a fod- 

 derhia ot bright (unmildewed) barley siravv, 

 and they will devour it. 'Tis like a tine i\e.<- 

 sert to a man who has just appealed his 

 hunger on the coarsest loud. Such nild gras- 

 ses, however, if cut early in .Inly, and boused 

 the succeedinsT day (for they dry rapidly) make 

 tolerable fodder ; this 1 have exfierienced ; 

 and still belter, ! have been informed, if s.illed 

 in layers, as it is slowed avvay. 



What could be expected ofcallleso treated? 

 without grain of any kind, and without any sort 

 of roots — (lotaloes, carrots, turni|is, or beets — 

 in the winter ? and turned into such short pas- 

 tures in the spring ? Frcm such treatment, 

 what could lip expected but just such an exhi- 

 bition as the editors have described ? — These 

 short pastures, too. entered on soon alter the 

 middle nlMav, begin to fail by the last of Ju- 

 ly ; and in drv seasons (like the season just 

 passed) which frequently occur, the common 

 high ground pastures are burnt up. 



Il has heen thoueht by some persons, that 

 farmprs had better keep fewer cows — even by 

 one half — Ihan the whole number so ill fed. 



\er_> material lo chewing the cud; — and by 

 March and April following, are sent, well fat- 

 tened lo the Lon<loii market. Such is the qua- 

 lily ol the common flat turnips, and their etfer^ 

 Ml fallening, when the callle are full fed with 

 Ihem. 



Before great improvements in our native. 

 stock, by .selections of the best for breeders, or 

 by Ihe aid of foreign breeds, can be gencrattj 

 introduced to advantage, the means of snp- 

 porting them, by ample supplie? of nourishing, 

 and particularly of succiiient food, must be 

 provided. In this respect, Ihe spirit of agt*. 

 cultural improvement has heen roused. at»d iff 

 in operation ; and there is an encouraging 

 prosjpcct ol its continuing, with increasing ef- 

 fect. The improvement of our live slock will 

 naturally keep pace with those strictly agri- 

 cultural improvements. 



Mr. Fealherstonhangh (lo who=e letter (o 

 Mr. Potvel 1 have repeatedly referred^! mention' 

 ing the qualities of the improved shorl-horn=, 

 says — !n order lo keep up ihese great qtialiiies, 

 we must remember, that in their native cou.t- 

 Iry, it is considered indispensable to keep them 

 cxiremelij -j'cII, and in a very dilTeront manner 



Bui perhaps Ihe whole number may be neces- from thr general custom prevailing here 



sary to range over extensive but poor pastures, 

 lo glean the srantT herbage, which, if uol early 

 cropped, would run up into seed-slems, ami 

 «non be loathed by the cattle ; or if ealen by 

 Ihem, it would be only lo avoid starvation. 

 From dairies of cows on such keep, more than 

 92 pounds of butler per cow, in a season, could 

 not be expected. 



A farmer in my neighbourhood lately in- 

 formed me, that a few years ago he had a dairy 

 of ten native cows, w hich, after their calves 

 were disposed of, enabled him to carry lo mar- 

 ket sixty pounds of butter weekly, as v.ell be- 

 fore as after they vvere turned into his pas 

 lilies. " These cows, by Mr. PovvePs rule ol 

 calculation, would each have yielded annually, 

 312 lbs. of butter. Hut, as I have already ob- 

 served, our common pastures soon begin to 

 tail ; the cows cannot fill themselves ; and their 

 milk, ot course, sensibly decreases. They im- 

 prove on the aftermath, when the fall crop.- 

 iieing harvested, the mowing fields are opened. 

 These being eaten hare by November — per- 

 haps a week or two advanced into i; — Ihe cows 

 ire then put on dry fodiier, of the ini^^rior 

 kinds, and (heir milk is soon dried up. As the 

 lime of calving approaches, they are put on 

 better keep, and so continued, if practicable, 

 until, ^ lliiii. feeble, and miserable," they are 

 lurned out in May, " to very short pastures." — 

 The dairies yielding hi(her(o only 92 lbs. per 

 cow, yearly, would, I have no doubt, equal the 

 average of Engli'h dairies, if ihe cows were as 

 well fed during the nine months butler-makiug 

 sensoo, aod allervtards supplied with feoi -.lus 



which is, in summer, to leave callle to he'p 

 ihemselves to what they can find, even in (he 

 mos( severe droughts ; and in (he win(er to 

 give lh.'=m a moderate quantity of hay and 

 straw. In England, where they are less (roii- 

 hled with dry weather than we are, they have 

 al'^myx ereen crops and roots to give to them, and 

 they give them in alwndance.''' — This statement 

 from that intelligent English farmer, is suffici- 

 ent to account for the difference between Eng- 

 lish and New England dairies, in their producis 

 of butler. Our (armers, therefore, whatever 

 breed they may have, unless they provide bet- 

 ter keep — will continue to have scanty dairies, 

 corresponding with their " very short pastures" 

 and meagre winter fodder. 



Pul according lo the accounts given by the 

 sanguine admirers of ihe improved short horns, 

 (his race, with the change of country and cli- 

 ma'e, hnve also changed their character ; and 

 will here thrive and give abundance of milk, 

 where our native breed will merely subsist, 

 and if in milk, yield less by one half Mr, 

 Culley, however, ihe same writer whose eu- 

 logy on the short-horns 1 have before quoted, 

 improved as thej' were by a fortunale cros.s 

 with the Norman or Alderney btill'. was of a 

 different opinion — he remarked '' Il is said of 

 this kind, and he supposes very justly, 4hat 

 they eat more food than any of the other 

 breeds ; nor can we, said he, wonder at this, 

 when we consider that they excel in these 

 three valuable particulars, viz. affording Ihe 

 greatesi qttanlity of beef, tallow, and milk." 

 Here the obvious mesDing of Culley is — (ha\ 



