1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



151 



efforts of Massachusetts farmers to improve their 

 farm stock, would prove a more profitable un- 

 dertaking. 



Mr. Knowles, of Eastham, followed, discussing 

 briefly tlie subject for the evening — Farm Stock. 



Mr. CoPELAND, of Lexington, endeavored to 

 have the discussion for the evening directed to a 

 single point — What are the prominent qualities 

 to be soiigiit for in securing an American race of 

 cattle? — in order to arrive at some definite re- 

 sults ; but objection was made to limiting the 

 latitude of debate, and the subject of Farm Stock 

 was thrown open to the meeting in all its length 

 and breadth. • 



Mr. K.vowLES, of Eastham, spoke briefly, say- 

 ing that the experience of farmers had demon- 

 strated that native stock Avas infinitely preferable 

 to foreign, not only in cattle, but in horses, sheep 

 and fowls. Practical farmers, he found, placed 

 their chief confidence in native breeds. 



Mr. Proctor, of Danvers, followed. He said 

 he was one of those who believed that we have a 

 native stock of cattle, for he considered that 

 whatever was born upon our hills, whether 

 originating from foreign stock or not, was enti- 

 tled to bo called native ; but he did not think 

 them "infinitely better" than all others. For 

 beef cattle, he was satisfied that a cross of the 

 Durhams or Dovons was superior to any thing 

 else, yielding more pounds of beef, and growing 

 faster, larger and fatter. For the yoke, how- 

 ever, nothing can excel our native cattle ; he 

 asserted this from his own experience and obser- 

 vation for a long series of years. When speaking 

 of working cattle in connection with English 

 breeds, it should be borne in mind that in Eng- 

 land they do not know any such thing as oxen 

 for work ; they use horses. With us oxen are 

 use(J on all kinds of farm work, and, after a few 

 years, are killed for beef, a fact which is quite 

 important in considering their value. As for 

 animals for milk, the Jerseys produce a quality 

 of milk which cannot be equalled anyAvhere ; 

 but for dairy purposes — whether butter, cheese 

 or milk — he had yet to learn that any thing 

 better could be got than from a cross of the best 

 bulls with the best cows of the native stock. He 

 knew of a dairy of native cows in Danvers, 

 which yif-" ijj as good products as Ex-Governor 

 Lincoln's trie blood stock; and another casein 

 wliich an-iiive cow, five years old, belonging to 

 a widow 1 idy, mido 50 pounds of butter in 30 

 days, l)e..! ' ,ii fiup^J^iiig milk for a family of four 

 persons, and in addition another quart per day, 

 divided between two poor Axmilies. And this 

 with nothing but pasture feed, which he consid- 

 ered an important circumstance. 



Mr. Lrow.v, of the New England Farmer, next 

 spoke, and alluding to the complaint of those 



who do not attend, that our discussions are not 

 practical, said he would confine himself to two 

 or three particular points, each of importance, 

 and in which most farmers are immediately in- 

 terested. With regard to oxen, it used to be the 

 habit to keep a good pair of workers until they 

 were eight or nine years of age, depending upon 

 them to perform the principal team work of the 

 fiirm, and then make a busiticss of fattciiinrj them 

 for the market. Having reached this age and 

 passed the period when they take on flesh and fat 

 rapidly and naturally, tlie process is a slow and ex- 

 pensi^e one, and the profit was found to be small. 



Now, the farmer selects the finest steers, matches 

 them, feeds liberally, keeping them clean and 

 warm, subjects them to the yoke and handles 

 them when young, and by careful and judicious 

 management, makes them do the team work of 

 the farm while they are growing rapidly, and by 

 the time they are five or six years old, they have 

 come nearly to maturity, and without a special 

 stall feeding of two or three months, and when 

 slaughtered make tender, juicy and rich beef, 

 commanding the highest price. It is difficult to 

 make cattle take on fat and flesh rapidly that 

 have passed the aatural period of growth and 

 physical activity. 



In breeding cattle, he thought there was a 

 misunderstanding in the minds of some in regard 

 to the axiom, "like begets like." If a heifer of 

 any particular breed, say Durham, for instance, 

 is coupled with a Durham bull, a pure Durham 

 calf will be the certain result ; but let her go the 

 next year to a Devon male, and so year after year 

 to mixed breeds, and there will be no certainty 

 as to the character of her offspring — she will be 

 quite as likely to go back to the first type. It is 

 asked why our native cattle will not produce 

 certain characteristics in their progeny. It will, 

 as surely as a Baldwin apple stock will produce 

 that variety of apples, if the stock taken is pure 

 and kept pure. Mr. Brown said he could com- 

 municate to the farmers of the State a plan by 

 which they could add to their annual income the 

 sum of two milUons of doUarx, and he thought 

 they would readily admit that it was a practical 

 one. There are m the State 150,000 cows, whose 

 average yield of milk for the year does not exceed 

 four quarts per day. Now, from experience and 

 observation, he. was confident that in two ways — 

 either by improving the breed, or by taking 

 better care of stock, sheltering them and feeding 

 them more liberally and systematically witli roots, 

 &c. — their milk may be increased one quart per 

 day, which, at four cents per quart, would give 

 the sum of $2,190,000 — an addition to their an- 

 nual income which was certainly sometliing of an 

 object. 



Hon. B. V. French, of Braintree, gave it as his 



