AND GARDENER' S JOURNAL. 



^ 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52, NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agbicultural Warehouse.) 



vol.. XVI. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 28, 1838. 



NO. 38. 



ii.^33iI£^S^J£>l?'®2a.^I£,» 



Report by Mr W. A. S. North, of Schmeclady, at 

 the New York AgrituUural Convention, on JVeat 

 Cattle. 



In drawing up the following remarks in pursii- 

 nce of a resolution of the Society, passed at their 

 ist meeting, your committee have had some diffi- 

 ulties to encounter, the greatest of which has 

 leen the want of that personal communication 

 iritii each other, which the importance of the suh- 

 jct demanded, and which has compelled them to 

 ut off the drawing up of the Report to tlie last 

 ainute. Of the many snhjects lelating to rural 

 conomy which were submitted to the different 

 ommittees at that meeting, there is none more 

 ninediately interesting to the great body of agri- 

 ultnrists, than the one intrusted to your commit- 

 36, to wit, the present state and future improve- 

 lent of Neat Cattle, ft is a subject which ap- 

 ears to be less understood, and to have received 

 •ss attention, than any other, "and is most com- 

 letely identified with our agricultural prosperity 

 nd with the comforts, and the very continuance 

 f life." That this kind of stock constitute,!^ -^ 

 reat proportion of the wealth of the country may 

 e inferred from the fact, that our state alone, ac- 

 irdiiig to the census of 183.5, contains 1,885,771 

 dttle. It will hardly be expected that your com- 

 littee should go into a particular history of all 

 le known breeds of cattle, and of all their pecu- 

 ar properties. Such a course would do in wri- 

 ng a treatise on cattle, but in the present case 

 ■ould only tend to confuse the mind of the inex- 

 srienced breeder. Your committee therefore 

 ive thought it advisable to confine themselves 

 I the performance of the duty assigned them, to 

 iving a short general description of the most 

 •mmon kinds of cattle among us, as well those 

 iported as our native stock, noting their good 

 id bad points, and by stating the disadvantages 

 id losses attending a careless and unskilful course 

 'breeding, rearing, and feeding, endeavor to get 

 J a spirit of reformation and improvement 

 nong the agricultural population ; thereby in- 

 easing their wealth, and adding to the subsis- 

 Dce and comfort of all classes of the community ; 

 id if, by means of our report and those which 

 all be read here to-day, the farmers could bein- 

 iced to employ more capital, and to exert more 

 re and skill in all the various branches of agri- 

 Iture, and particularly to the one under consid- 

 ation, it would greatly add to the productiveness 



their farms, and their wealth. Rlany books 

 ve been published, detailing the great improve- 

 ems made and still making in England in neat 

 )ck, hut th6y cannot be expected to be in the 

 nds of our farmers, and it will be our aim in 

 is report, in some degree, to make up this defi- 

 ;ncy, by endeavoring to show wherein our na- 

 e stock are deficient, and recommending to 

 3m a better and more profitable course of breed. 



least profitable breed, the native cow. " They 

 are a mixtnie of every breed, and the inielligent 

 and observing breeder, sees in them traces of al- 

 most all the English varieties, such perhaps as 

 they were before science and attention Jiad im- 

 jiroved them, such as might offer to the American 

 breeder the original materials of their most im- 

 proved and %'alued stock, but requiring more time 

 and perhaps more talent, skill and attention, than 

 the American farmer would be willing to bestow 

 on the subject, and yet necessary to enable him to 

 arrive at the same results. This mixed breed are 

 not very celebrated for any thing; .some of them 

 are good milkers as far as^quantity is concerned, 

 but as to quality of the milk and aptitude to fat- 

 ten, they generally fail. Their calves are of di- 

 minutive size, rarely giving more than 20 lb.s. per 

 qr. when killed, at fo4ir weeks old ; and if reared, 



to come prevent any permanent amelioration of 

 their condition. If at any time, the spirit of irn- 

 [iroveinent should enter into the calculations of 

 these people, they might by judicious crossing, 

 and a plentiful supply of roots and vegetables to 

 their stock for a great part of the year, attain to 

 something more respectable in this branch of busi- 

 ness. This then appears to be the character, and 

 these the qualifications of our native stock." Not- 

 withstanding their defects, "most valuable selec- 

 tions might be made from them, and these crossed 

 by bulls of the improved breed, would fiirnish 

 perhaps the most useful stock for the practical 

 man, who was not prepared to pay the high prices 

 inseparable from importerl stock." And it v/i!l 

 be advisable to select cows, either from stock feed- 

 ing in the neighborhood, or from those sorts that 

 are best calculated for the nature and situatitm of 



of slow growth, seldom coming in till the third the soil. The grand secret of breeding is tfr-suit 



year, and then requiring two or three years more 

 to give them standing and character, such as it is, 

 in the dairy. As to their characteristiq marks, 

 they are small, short bodied, thin and coarse hair- 

 ed, steep rumped, slab sided, having little aptitude 

 to fatten, or to lay the fat on the right place. — 

 Th, re is another class of the native cow, although 

 distinctly marked, (as the horns are wanting,) yet 

 this want will hardly entitle them to be consider- 

 ed a distinct breed, deserves to be mentioned in 

 the enumeration of the native breed. Descended 

 from the Galloway or Angus cattle, a long while 

 ago, they still retain among all the crosses to which 

 they have been subjected, some of the marks and 

 good points for which their ancestors are still cel- 

 ebrated — that is to say, they are a docile, thrifty, 

 hardy kind of animal, with much the same faults, 

 as to form, of those above described, though per- 

 haps more compact, shorter in the leg, a middling 

 thick hide, and withal easier, fattened. ,They are 

 few in number compared with the horned cattle. 

 There is one other sjiecies of the native cow, to 

 which it is only necessary to direct your attention, 

 as they are nearly as much celebrated in the .sandy 

 tract of country about Albany and Schenectady 

 as the improved short horns themselves, the one 

 for their beauty and good points, the other for 

 their homeliness and bad points. They are pecu- 

 liar to the sandy soils of onr country, running 

 wild in the woods in the summer, and picking up 

 a miserable subsistence in the barn yard in the 

 winter. They are a long legged, raw boned, nar- 

 row liipped, sharp hackerl, steep rumped, slab 

 sided, coarse haired, worthless race, and exactly 

 answer the description of those kind that came 

 up out of the river of Egypt in the time of Pha- 

 i-oah — "They are poor, ill-favored and lean flesh- 

 ed, such as were nevi*;r seen in all the land of 

 Egypt for badness." It is not likely that any im- 

 provement will be made in this kind of animal, 

 the nature of the soil, the habits of growing the 

 coarser kinds of grain, the foddering of straw in 

 the winter, and pasturing in the woods in summer, 

 peculiar to the inhabitants, (they ought not to be 

 To begin then with the most ouraerous and ' called farmers,) of the Pine bush, will for years 



the breed to the .soil and climate. It is because 

 this has not been attended to, that those breed? 

 which have been invaluable in certain districts., . 

 have proved altogether profitless and utterly un- - 

 worthy of culture in others. Let that breed then 

 which is most jirofitable and best suited to the • 

 farm be ascertained, and having succeeded in this, 

 strive to impri-.e it to theutiriost, by selecting and • 

 breeding from ^hose which to beauty of form, 

 unite ibc more essential qualities of possessing 

 kindly skins, of weighing most in the valuable 

 parts, together with a disposition to lay fat on the 

 best points, as well as to fatten in a short period 

 of time. The term " kindly skin " means a soft 

 mellow skin, yet firm to the touch, and is as differ- 

 ent from the hard, dry skin of some cattle, as it is 

 from the loose, flabby skin of others. The sense 

 of touch, or the art of judging of the disposition 

 to fatten, has been wrought to such perfection, 

 that any well informed breeder can, on examining 

 lean beasts, tell with tolerable certainty in what 

 parts they will or will Dot fatten. The improved 

 short horns are in all respects the most profitable 

 species of animal to cross with the native cow in 



situations where the soil is rich and luxuriant 



They are good milkers, quick feeders, arriving at 

 early maturity, and affording the greatest propor- 

 tion of good meat to its offal, from the thickness 

 and softness of hair with which this breed is cov- 

 ered, they endure without suffering the severity 

 of our weather; but to the full development of 

 all their pioperties, and to obtain their most valu- 

 able returns they should be well cared for and 

 fed upon a full bite of grass. That this valuable 

 breed of cattle have not been more generally 

 sought for as a cross with our native stock is ow- 

 ing in some degree, to their intrinsic value in 

 comparison with others. It is true the first cost 

 of pure bred animals is high, hut when it is con- 

 sidered how extensive is the influence of a bull, 

 and how many improved animals may be yearly 

 obtained by his services, the remuneration is most 

 abundant. A very fine pure breed buil may be 

 obtained for from two to three hundred dollars, 

 and such an animal at three years old, may with- 



