THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISITOR. 



19 



wliich from early life lie had a strong and iin- 

 couquerable inclination to engage in the man- 

 agement. 



Of the imported cattle he greatly admired the 

 Durham short horns, their deep chests, tlieir 

 broad backs, and their beautiful shape. Some 

 were of opinion that our own native animals 

 might best be brought to perfection. In 1819, he 

 gave six hundred dollars for a likely imported 

 bull calf He made many inquiries and exam- 

 ined many flocks of cows belbre he could find 

 one to Ills liking, for a breeder. At length a cow 

 in the possession of Ralph Haskins, of Roxbury, 

 was shown hira, which he had obtained from 

 Groton. He never could gather any account of 

 her pedigree, but supposed her to be of pure 

 native breed. She was of good shape and of a 

 beautiful red color. She was put to the bull 

 Ccelebs, and her first calf was a female — her 

 second calf was a male. Tlie first he named 

 Young Groton — the other Young Ccelebs. From 

 that time he had improved on the breed. The 

 progeny of Ccelebs had been some of the most 

 remarkable milkers ; and the breed he had 

 changed to the name of Creampot. His first bull 

 he called Don Creampot, and the females he 

 named Betty Creampot, Dolly Creampot, &c. 



Col. Jaqucs said that the fact might be start- 

 ling to soinc, but he hesitated not to aver that he 

 could breed animals to order! Black cattle 

 would produce black cattle, and speckled would 

 be speckled. It required more time and atten 

 lion to produce an improvement in cattle than in 

 swine: a mixture of the Berkshire and Mackay 

 upon the native swine might in a few months 

 produce that race in great perfection. It takes a 

 much longer time to introduce the finer qualities 

 into the breeds of cattle. He considered it very 

 important that cattle should have large runipi 

 and small shins ; by coupling individuals of the 

 right shape, ho could bring out these qualities 

 two removes from the first stock. Col. Jaques 

 said he got his first impressions of the true mode 

 of breeding cattle from the patriarch Jacob, who 

 did something more than present before them 

 the parti-colored rods. People saw how easy it 

 was to make half-blood BIcriiio by the copidatiou 

 of a full-blood with our native sheep : it w 

 with equal ease that any quality might be intr 

 duced into the breeds of cattle, only it required 

 a greater length of time. 



Ccelebs was selected in England and brought 

 to this counti-y by a gentleman of Boston. Col. 

 J. commenced his improvement with this animal 

 upon a native cow. His course had been to se- 

 lect the best continur.lly. lu llic lliinl generation 

 he had succeeded to his liisij s;;!!.-!; rjion. Belty 

 Creampot had Immglii ilie (it:;il!iiiv~ •.!' the milk- 

 ing cow to greater pc-rlccliij!] ihaii lie had ever 

 before witnessed. Repeatedly from this cow had 

 there been taken two quarts of milk, the cream 

 from which livd churned a full half pound of 

 butter. The Ten-Hills farm which he had occu- 

 pied, was improved as a milk farm for the mar- 

 ket, and he had not been in the habit of manu- 

 facturing butter. A Scotch woman serving in his 

 family asked liberty to procure a stone jug churn. 

 She took two quarts of milk from four successive 

 milkings — set the first in a pan, and poured the 

 secohd, third, and fourth into the first. The 

 cream from this was taken off, and churned in 

 the stone jug, and produced two full pounds of 

 butter. This process was by her repeated sev 

 eral times, and never i)roduced less than two 

 pounds of butter for eiglit quarts of milk 



Col. J. said he had formerly given his cattle 

 high keeping; and their su])crior qualities had 

 been attributed to this fact. Ho considered that 

 mere kee])ing had little to do with the quality of 

 animals: bad cattle well kept could not be made 

 profitable. There was a much greater profit in 

 keeping good cattle than bad cattle. Betty 

 Creampot brought her last calf in Decemher,and 

 gives at this time, kept on ordinary feed, common 

 hay with a feeding of mangel wurtzel once a 

 day, over twelve quarts of milk a day. He has 

 this milk set thirty hours, and taking it from the 

 pan he could turn it into butter in one minute to 

 one minute and a half. To gratify gentlemen 

 present, he had brought a quantity of the cream 

 with liiiii, and would at the close of the meeting 

 show how soon this micht be changed into 

 butter. 

 Col. J. 



cows to Don Creampot, and he woidd pledge 



d he had ihia seaf.oii put l\ 



-eight 



nself that in every case he could now te 

 lat would be the precise color of the calves. 

 His Creampot breed were distinguished for their 

 fine glossy hair; and the cows for their mahog- 

 any bags and teats. There were few farmers 

 ho understood how to judge of the merits of 

 cattle by feeling of them — he would handle cat- 

 tle and judge of them as he would a piece of 

 beautiful cloth. There was no animal in which 

 there is so great a difiierence as between a good 

 cow and a bad one. Cattle may in time be made 

 to assume just such a shape as we desire — they 

 maybe improved as milkers; they may be im- 

 proved as the best travellers and workers in the 

 yoke : they may be improved as producing the 

 best meat. 



Col. Jaques applied his doctrine to the produc- 

 tion of horses. In this part of the country we 

 want not race-horses; but our object would be to 

 produce such as were useful for the various de- 

 |)artments of business. The Morgan horse had 

 become extensively known and much liked in 

 New England. This race was produced by an 

 union of the full blood English horse with the 

 Canadian mare — it was known to be a most use- 

 ful horse for all domestic uses. Col. J. said he 

 was in a train of improvement of this breed of 

 horses. By reversing the sexes, putting the 

 larger Canadian stud to the full- blood mare, the 

 height of the animal will be increased, and his 

 body may be lengthened and his legs and feet 

 become more delicate — so that we shall have an 

 ini])rovement upon both breeds. By combina- 

 tions compounded, the union of the purest and 

 best bloods, we may have animals either carrying 

 great weight, or docile, or easy of training and 

 goveinment. He had seen a horse produced by 

 combination, that run eighty rods in eighteen 

 seconds. 



Of the various kinds of sheep that he had seen 

 he knew none so good as the South Down. They 

 were the most quiet and the least disposed to 

 roam and jump fences. The breed he had ob- 

 tained presented hind quarters that would give 

 at least two cuts of the best meat beyond ordi- 

 nary shcej). They ^vere of exquisite shape, and 

 their wool, wliich was abundant, was nearly of 

 the fineness and (juality of three fourths blood 

 Merino. 



Col. J. said the public were niich indebted to 

 that di.stiuguishcd patron of Agriculture, John P. 

 CusHixo, Esq. of Waterlow 11, Ibr the introduction 

 of the \alii:il)le iiived of Ayrshire cattle, ofwhicl 

 during tlic last yrur, ho has given away and sent 

 into various ii.uts of the coutUry, lictwcen twenty 

 and thirty in mmiber. This breed he considered 

 to be among the bcL-t imported, and crossed with 

 our native brrcds would fnriii: h opportunity to 

 go forwarti in the way ot' cotitiiuied improve- 

 ment. 



Col. J. noticed a cow imported seven years 

 since by the Hon. William Gray, who was a great 

 milker.'giviiif; twenty quarts in a day, but of so 

 poor a quality tliat it would hardly make half a 

 pound of hiiltrr. He concluded by a humorous 

 illustration of his method of " breeding animals 

 to order.'' For the pur[)Ose of displaying the 

 freaks of nature, he determined to try how speck- 

 led and spotted rabbits might be (irodueed : he 

 procured rahliiis black, white, yellow and grey. 

 The first brood produced would be either all 

 black, white, yellow, or grey. A further combi- 

 nation produced rabbits with stripes of two or 

 more colors : and a still further combination 

 produced the desired result of ring-streaked and 

 speckled. This was his practice in attaining or 

 rejecting and discarding the better qualities of 

 cattle and other animals. 



[At the close of the discussion. Col. Jaques 

 produced the pot of cream taken that day from 

 the milk of Betty Creampot; and in the presence 

 of some hundreds of the sovereign legislators of 

 Massachusetts, considerably within the space of 

 two minutes, with the simple stirring of a spoon 

 into a common crockery bowl, turned the wholi 

 into butter without leaving so much as a tea- 

 spoonful of that common liquid called butter- 

 milk. 



The same day of this meeting the Editor of 

 the Monthly Visitor, on his invitation, visited Col. 

 Jaques at his farm in Charlestown. He there 

 saw the cream taken from the pan, and changed 

 into butter. Ho saw the individual Betty Cream- 

 Y>ot at the stable, from whose beautiful mahogany 



bag the milk was extracted. He saw also the 

 bull Don Creampot, standing beside the half- 

 Durham, half-native cow, girting more than seven 

 feet. He saw, also, the offspring of the Cream- 

 pot breed, young and old, of both sexes; and he 

 will suggest to Col. Jaques the idea of taking 

 drawings of these several animals, to be engraved 

 for a fiitm-e number o( the Visitor. The beauti- 

 ful South Down sheep were also exliibited, 

 answering fully the recommendation of their 

 owner.] 



Mr. Putnam of Dauvers, addressed the meet- 

 ing in confirmation of the peculiar character of 

 Col. Jaques' breed of Creampots. He had been 

 able in the dark to select from the touch one of 

 these cows indiscriminately in a herd. 



Mr. Jones of West Tisbury, 3Iassachusetts, 

 said that the rearing of improved stock was the 

 most pleasant part of the pleasing occupation of 

 the farmer. During a residence of three years 

 in Europe, he had attended many Agricultural 

 shows on the island of Great Britain. The im- 

 provements that liad been and were making in 

 cidtivation and production of the soil were such 

 as might stagger the belief of those who had not 

 seen them. Farming had there become a profi- 

 table and a sure business, and men of large cap- 

 ital were making safe investtnents by continued 

 mprovements in their land and in the breeds of 

 animals. 



Great attention was paid to the rearing of 

 flocks ; and peculiar pains were taken for the 

 propagation of uniformity of the best breeds. It 

 was a common thing to see difterent kinds of 

 sheep on farms adjacent to each other: — on one 

 farm the sheep will be found all with yellow fac- 

 es — on another, not far off, they will all be found 

 with black faces. He had seen upon the British 

 farms large flocks of sheep, none of which would 

 weigh less than one hundred and fifty pounds. 

 The finest and the largest flock he had ever seen 

 was that of the Earl of Leicester, the Prince of 

 English farmers, who has carried the palm for 

 more than fifty years, kept upon the Holkam es- 

 tate; this single flock numbered between five 

 and six thousand. Mr. Jones thought highly of 

 the South Down sheep — they would live and 

 thrive upon jioorer land, and were peculiarly 

 adapted to en Jure the climate of New England. 

 Driven to the market, they are the most valuable 

 kind for mutton : their meat was a great favorite 

 to those who prized good eating, and always bore 

 a high price. 



The failure of American farming was eminent- 

 ly caused by the want of investing capital : cap- 

 here has not yet taken the turn it should 

 take. 



He believed no cattle could he made better 

 than our own native breeds . And he had seen 

 iiined the various kinds in England and 

 Scotland. Our pure red cattle, which he consid- 

 ered our best cattle, were evidently derived from 

 the English Herefords. 



Mr. .Tones spoke in warm commendation of 

 agricultiu-al associations. He believed the agri- 

 ctdtural surveys in Great Britain had added many 

 hundred millions to the capital of that country. 

 That country was ahead of every other nation. 

 The subject was there treated as a science by 

 men of eminent wealth and talents. Sir Arthur 

 Young, who.se writings had enlightened not only 

 that country but the whole civilized world, he had 

 been informed, had been paid twenty thousand 

 pounds sterling by the government for his agri- 

 cultural surveys and services. Mr. Jones was in 

 fevor of establishing a Board of Agriculture in 

 the State of Massachu-setts, andof continuing the 

 Agricultural survey : he believed the benefits of 

 these measures would be incalculably beyond 

 their expense. 



Mr. BncKMiNSTER considered the discussion of 

 this evening to be of great importance, and he 

 had been much gratified with the information he 

 had gained. He was pleased to find gentlemen 

 who had taken pains and had opportunity io in- 

 form themselves of the value of difterent kinds of 

 cattle, express so high an opinion of our native 

 breeds. Of the foreign cattle, he thought the 

 Ayrshire breed better for New England than any 

 other. Great improvement mi^ht be made in 

 tins countiy by crossing the native breeds with 

 the best foreign bloods. Improvements might 

 be made with much greater facility upon .stock 

 farms like that of Col. Jaqucs, patronized by as- 

 soci.itiuns of gcnlleinen wlio coidd afford it — he 



