172 



NEW ENGLAND FAKMER. 



April 



of Swampscott, Mass., and afterwards into the 

 hands of Mr. Osborne, of Danvers, Mass. 



We are not aware that she ever had hut one 

 heifer calf. This one was owned by Mr. Wal- 

 lace Thaxter, of Boston, and proved a supe- 

 rior dairy cow. Several of her bull calves 

 were raised in this vicinity. Nearly all her 

 progeny were without horns, showing the re- 

 markable strength of the Siijfolk strain. 



In ISo-i, this remarkable cow dropped a bull 

 calf, which was secured by Dr. Wight, of 

 Dedhani, Mass., and raised by Thomas Smith 

 and named Jamestown, after the noble ship 

 that brought his mother to this country. He 

 proved himself as remarkable in his progen)' 

 as that of his kind on his mother's side ; his 

 sire was Beverly, a thoroughbred Jersey, out 

 of Flora by the 'First Prize Bull' at the Royal 

 Agricultural Show in Jersey. Flora, the 

 mother of Beverly, was imported by Mr. Mot- 

 ley, and proved one of the most remarkable 

 of that celebrated stock, having made sixteen 

 pounds of butter a week. 



This stock hold qualities which I consider 

 very valuable in a dairy stock. They are very 

 gentle, I never having known a vicious animal, 

 unless they were too strongly crossed with the 

 Jersey. When 'Jamestown' was five years 

 old, a four-year-old boy could manage him in 

 safety ; he was worked in harness and perfectly 

 handy. They are perfectly hardy, good feed- 

 ers, and hold out in their milk remarkably, 

 which 1 consider the great recommendation. 

 1 know of several that give milk the year 

 round." 



In an essay on cattle breeding, published 

 in the Transactions of this society for 1859, 

 Mr. Sanford Howard, says : — 



"The Suffolk breed is without horns. It 

 was formerly somewhat noted for dairy prop- 

 erties, but it is not extensively kept at the 

 present time. It is not absolutely known that 

 any of this breed have ever been imported 

 into this part of the country ; but polled or 

 hornless cattle, which were formerly quite com- 

 mon here, bear more resemblance to tiie Suf- 

 folk tiian to any other breed. They certainly 

 have no claim to the title of Galloway, which 

 is sometimes applied to them, being different 

 in color, (the Galloways are almost invariably 

 black,) shape and characteristics. A cow was 

 also brought to this country from Ireland, sev- 

 eral years since, in the ship Jamestown, and 

 hence was called "the Jamestown Cow," whifh 

 cloM'ly resembled the Suffolk I have seen in 

 England. A bull from this cow by a Jersey 

 bull has been kept in Dedham several years, 

 and has left a progeny which in general ap- 

 pears to possess superior dairy properties." 



In closing their report the committee say, 

 they are glad that Col. Stone is endeavoring 

 to preser\'e and perpetuate in its purity as far 

 as possible this remarkable "Jamestown stock." 



HORSES IN" VERMONT. 

 After alluding to the statistics of horses in 

 Vermont, which show a decrease of nearly 50 

 per cent, since 1860. Mr. Ezra Meech, of 

 Shelburne, Vt., one of the most intelligent 

 farmers of that State, writes as follows in a 

 communication to the Country Gentleman: 



Our horses have been decreasing in number, 

 and I fear degenerating in those qualities that 

 make a valualde horse. It is true, we have a 

 few fine specimens remaining, but when we 

 look back fifteen or twenty years, we had then 

 many more good stock horses than we now 

 have, and it was no uncommon thing at that 

 time to find four or five pairs of nice matched 

 carriage horses in many of the towns in north- 

 ern and western Vermont. 



I am convinced that great improvement may 

 and ought to be made in the horses of Ver- 

 mont, and much is yet to be learned, in my 

 opinion, in regard to the best manner of rais- 

 ing them. I was in conversation a few years 

 ago with the late Col. Orvis, a celebrated cat- 

 tle raiser of St. Lawrence county, N. Y.. who 

 said to me that he could give me the whole se- 

 cret of success in producing good cattle, in a 

 very few words, which were as follows : — "Get 

 a good breed and make them comfortable" — 

 neither let them want for food, nor suffer with 

 heat, cold or wet. But in my experience in 

 raising horses for the last twent\-five years, 

 the same rule will not apply unless the horse 

 is comfortable where the horned animal would 

 die. 1 have no question but that better horses 

 can be produced by exposure out of doors, 

 away from sheds or barns, during the whole 

 time of their growth, getting their feed in the 

 way nature designed they should, than can be 

 produced by the way commonly practiced. 

 The horse will generally grow larger, much 

 better developed, more hardy and healthy, and 

 less liable to disease or accident, besides sav- 

 ing much expense in the way of fodder. 1 

 took from a pasture thirteen horses and colts 

 on the 14th day of January, that up to that 

 time had had nothing but grass, at which time 

 I could not see that any of them had lost flesh, 

 unless three or four breeding mares whose 

 cohs are still with them ; and ha<l it not been 

 for these mares, they might still be in the same 

 pasture, but fearing that the colts might, by 

 remaining longer on the mares, injure the next 

 foal, 1 took them up to separate tliem. There 

 is no t.rouf)le or difficulty in pasturing cattle 

 and horses here in Vermont from nine fo ten 

 months of the year in all seasons, and most 

 years longer. For the last twenty years I 

 have had from ten to twenty work horses and 

 colts that have run out, and they have not con- 

 sumed an average of 500 pounds of fodder to 

 the animal. 



I would like to be one of eight or ten to in- 

 vest $50,000 in a farm near the lake, and de- 



