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breed we have, having been bred for a long period of years 

 without any intermixture of foreign blood. 



Have we a native breed ? 



There are many advocates of this so-called breed, who really 

 seem to prefer them to any other breed, and are free to express 

 their opinion to that effect. 



We do not read that our forefathers discovered Neat Cattle 

 when they landed on the shores of America, or that they ever 

 found the aborigines of the country engaged in the peaceful 

 occupation of milking cows. 



If a Darwinism was admissible, we should say that the 

 only way that a native breed could be accounted for, would be 

 that it had^ descended by natural selection from the Bison of 

 our western plains, and I must say that I have seen some Scrub 

 Bulls whose appearance would give strength to this idea. Mr. 

 Flint, in his book on Milch Cows, so well expresses my ideas 

 on this subject that I shall quote from it. 



He says, "the term ' Native ' or ' Scrub ' is applied to a vast 

 majority of our American cattle, which, though born on the 

 soil and thus in one sense natives, do not constitute a breed, 

 race, or family, as properly understood by breeders. They do 

 not possess characteristics peculiar to them all, which they 

 transmit with any certainty to their offspring, either of form, 

 size, color, milking or working properties." 



He moreover says that he can see no impropriety in the use 

 of the term " Native," when used as descriptive of no known 

 breed, but as applied to the common stock of the country. 



" But perhaps the whole class of animals commonly called 

 natives would be better described as grades, since they are 

 well known to have sprung from a great variety of cattle pro- 

 cured in different places, and at different times, on the 

 continent of Europe, in England, and in the Spanish West 

 Indies, brought together without any regard to fixed principles 

 of breeding." The first importation of cattle into New 

 England is said to have been in the year 1624. 



Under these circumstances, it would be more appropriate to 

 discard the name of " Native," and call our common stock by 

 the name of " Grades." 



