370 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



many other individuals who have repeatedly 

 testified to these facts, as a reference to our agricul- 

 tural papers lor the last five years will corroborate 

 all that 1 remark. And last of all, I will assert 

 that Colonel Jacques" fancifully ycleped " Cream- 

 pot" breed of milkers, and which I saw in com- 

 pany with Mr. Colman himself, are simply a 

 cross of a thorough bred short horn bull with a 

 native cow, then at Col. Jacques' farm, of good 

 size and appearance, of a deep red color, and with 

 an apparent dash of Devon blood in her veins. 

 His t)ull that he then used was nearly or quite a 

 thorough bred short horn, and all his heifers were 

 high in that blood. This same stock of cattle, 

 Mr. C. has himself highly recommended in one 

 of his agricultural reports, and we were together 

 living witnesses of the surpassing richness of 

 the milk and cream of these beauiilul cows. 

 With a liew selected facts, I will close this tes- 

 timony : 



[n 3d vol. of Cultivator, page 191. Francis 

 Bloodgood's imported cow (she was a Durham) 

 gave, when her calf was two weeks old, thirty- 

 three and a half quarts of milk per day. Her 

 feed was one and a hall' bushels of brewer's grains 

 per day, with hay. 



In vol. 7, same work, page 132. Mr. Gower's 

 shorthorn cow Dairymaid, for seven days gave 

 an average of thirty-three and a half quarts per 

 day. 



In New Genesee Farmer, vol. I, page 143. 

 Samuel Canby's short horn cow. Blossom, yielded 

 for seven days over thirty-five quarts per day, 

 which produces thirteen and a quarter pounds good 

 butter. 



At page 149 same vol. John WeterhuU's 

 short horn cow, four years old, gave from twenty- 

 six to thirty and a half quarts of milk per day, 

 and in one week produced eleven and a half 

 pounds butter, and in another week fifteen 

 pounds. 



In a Philadelphia paper of 1839. " Colonel 

 Wolbert's cow Isabella, a pure short horn, gave, 

 during seven days 194 quarts, or near twenty- 

 eight quarts per day, which produced Iburteen 

 and three-lburths pounds butter of the finest 

 quality." So much lor the asseriion that " Dur- 

 ham cows are not good milkers." 



In paragraph 4, Mr. Colman introduces us to 

 the distinguished English farmer, Mr. Shirrett, 

 who has made the tour of this country. If this 

 same Mr. Shirrefi', who by the way I never 

 heard of beibre, be as prolbund in his remarks 

 upon our country, its inhabitants and their pursuits, 

 as the herd of KnglJsh travellers who have hitherto 

 trundled rapidly over it for the purpose, as it 

 would seem, of writing libelous books and hold 

 ing us up to the ridicule of Englishmen at home, 

 his opinion is little to be regarded. His know- 

 ledge of the progress of short horns in his own 

 country may be well estimated, when he 

 remarks " that they are the poorest dairy stock in 

 England." To this remark I need only observe, 

 that nine out of ten of the intelligent English 

 farmers who emigrate to this country, and all 

 British publications on the subject, assert precisely 

 the contrary ; for the high grade, and olien the 

 thorough bred short horns, have been for many 

 years past taking the place of other breeds lor 

 dairy and milking purposes in the grazing counties, 

 and near the large towns and cities. ' That he 



should regret the introduction of any thing tend- 

 ing to advance our agriculture, and our wealth, is 

 altogether natural in an English book-making 

 tourist. lam only surprised that a gentleman of 

 Mr. Colman's shrewdness should be thus easily 

 deceived. As to the " distinpt race of American 

 cattle" to be yet lormed, the end of all this is to 

 be seen in the continual efforts ai blendmg in- 

 congruities by those experimenters who strive, 

 without an accurate knowledge of their subject, 

 to produce what is already better made up to their 

 hands in the improved breeds now extant. Such 

 experiments, as they live and learn, have been 

 always abandoned as impracticable and visionary 

 There is, nor can be, no such thing as a '• distinct 

 American breed," made up as all our cattle are 

 Irom eeleciioris Irom all parts of Europe ; nor, if 

 our agriculture is to be, as we hope, progressive 

 in its excellence, is it desirable. Our cattle should 

 improve with our general agriculture. The last 

 sentence of Mr. C.'s remark is very just, and 

 concedes, as we view ii, the gist of what we 

 comriiend^. 



In paragraph 5, Mr. C. gives us the only good 

 reason why Durhams should not become the 

 stock o( New-England, to wit : the poverty of 

 its soil, and the negligence of many of the people! 

 Truly a very broad admission, hardly just, indeed, 

 to the snug farmers of New-England, and not 

 at all within the desideratum lor which the 

 advocates of short horns contend : — improved 

 husbandry, improved care, and improved stock. 

 li] upon lands, a thousand acres of which will 

 scarcely graze a goose, and from which the very 

 vermin instinctively flee to escape starvation, the 

 beautiful short horns are to be doomed to pine, 

 without care, and without eympaihy, i at once 

 admit that the less of them the better. Nor do 

 the miserable animals of the native breeds even, 

 which are doomed to a wretched existence on 

 those " scanty pastures," exhibit any signs of 

 thrift as they daily suffer Irom the " negligent 

 habits of their keepers." True, a long course of 

 neglect and starvation endured by their ancestors, 

 and perpetuated Ibr many generations anterior to 

 their own existence, may render their wretched- 

 mess more tolerable than it would that of a better 

 animal ; but what advocate of any sort of im- 

 provement is content to bind himsell to such hope- 

 less sterility? Did we desire a race of animals 

 that would starve the best, we could at once make 

 an imiiortation Irom the Shetland Islands, and 

 establish a Shetlo-^^ American breed" that would 

 bid defiance to neglect and poverty, and flourish 

 amid both host and desolation! 



But this proposition is not within the category 

 of our system. We hold, that if land be worth 

 cultivation at all, it should be at least in a reasona- 

 ble state of lerlility. It should yield in any event 

 a tolerable share of its various products under 

 good and kindly attention with which to leed well 

 ihe stock of the farm. II cows are not to be 

 decently fed, by no means keep the Durhams, or 

 any other valuable breed. But if it be intended 

 to give " value received," to feed well, and pay 

 attention to your stock, and there is no other way 

 to make any kind of stock profitable, then let the 

 breed be as good as possible, and of as high'a 

 grade in blood as the nature of your soil and the 

 climate willpermit. The admissions made belore 

 the close of this 'paragraph, of the enormous 



