24 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Hampshire, as fine specimens were exhibited as have ever been 

 bred. 



The county of Suliblk in England had for centuries been cele- 

 brated for its dairy produce, which was chiefly obtained from a 

 polled breed of cattle, the prevailing color of which is dun or 

 pale red, from whence they were and still are known as the Suf- 

 folk Duns. In the days of Henry VIII., they were held to be 

 royal animals, and the effigy of a fine cow of this breed was 

 painted on the national flag of England. Many of this race were 

 brought into Massachusetts by its first settlers, and introduced 

 into the counties of Norfolk, Essex and Middlesex, and from 

 thence into Worcester, whence the known superiority of those 

 counties in dairy products. 



As the modern " Shorthorn " was not in existence until after 

 the improvements upon the old herd by the Colling brothers in 

 and after 1780, it was only the old Durham cattle that came 

 over with the emigrants from the north-eastern counties of 

 Northumberland, Durham and York, and many cattle from these 

 counties were brought into the counties of Essex and Middlesex 

 in Massachusetts, and crossed to the benefit of all herds with 

 those then there, or subsequently brought there. 



The Normandy and Alderney cattle were very common in 

 those counties of England opposite the coast of France, and were 

 noted for producing an excellent quality of milk, and were 

 brought over in large numbers by the early emigrants from 

 those counties. In addition to these well-known breeds, other 

 varieties of cattle not so well known to us, and most of which 

 are now extinct, being either merged into other breeds or 

 allowed to die out, were brought over, among the most prom- 

 inent of which were the Leicestershire and Sussex the Glouces- 

 tershire and Somersetshire cattle of England. 



The Welsh, also, who emigrated so strongly into Rhode Island.^ 

 southern part of Massachusetts and eastern part of Connecticut, 

 brought with them their Anglesea, Glamorgan and Montgomery- 

 shire cattle, dark, hardy, vigorous and easy to fatten. The Irish 

 (Puritans from the north of Ireland) and the Scotch, who first 

 settled the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, brought 

 with them the Argyle and Ayrshire cattle, and other herds 

 peculiar to the places the emigrants came from, and the Danes 

 and Swedes introduced some of their own country stock. By 



