CATTLE HUSBANDRY. 25 



the year 1640 the price of a cow had fallen to X5, and in 

 addition to the picked men and women from the old country, we 

 had a selected assortment of cattle in New England, and if the 

 latter had been as well attended to as the former were able to 

 attend to themselves, we might have to-day animals superior to 

 all others for useful qualities of dairy and shamble. Beside these 

 direct importations into New England, the cattle of Berkshire, 

 Massachusetts, came partly from the Hudson River, and included 

 many of the Dutch or Holland stock. These latter were im- 

 ported largely by the early settlers of New York. The Huguenots 

 ajso brought French cattle into the Carolinas and Maine, but as 

 none except a few breeds have been kept distinct, we call the 

 admixture wherever found " homebreds or natives." 



Like their owners they have become Americanized, and to all, 

 the climate, bracing air and fresh pastures have proved ben- 

 eficial — they have become more docile than their progenitors, 

 more healthy and hardy, and when taken care of properly, large 

 milkers, great travellers, and able to put on fat with ease, mak- 

 ing them excellent stock for the dairy, the grazier and the 

 butcher, as well as fine working animals on the farm. 



The experiments of Colonel Zadoc Pratt at his dairy farm in 

 New York, with fifty native selected cows, for a period of three 

 years, showed that in the production and quality of milk they 

 equalled the same number of selected Ayrshires in Scotland, 

 and would probably have found no superiors in dairy qualities 

 among any of the improved breeds. Why, then, you may ask, 

 are not these cattle just what the dairymen and farmers in New 

 England want, and why trouble ourselves about the Shorthorns, 

 Ayrshires, Jerseys, Devons, &g., concerning which so much 

 noise is now made, and for which such large sums are demanded 

 and obtained ? The difficulty arises from the laws of breeding, 

 which are as certain as all the other natural laws, and cannot 

 be cast aside any more than we can pretermit the laws of cli- 

 mate, the effects of feeding, or any other causes which change 

 the size and qualities of animals. The sins of the fathers (and 

 mothers too) are visited upon the children, and the deformities, 

 the bad qualities of the preceding generations, are more apt to 

 crop out in the descendants than the good ones in mixed races 

 of impure stock, and therefore we find our native cattle are gen- 

 erally faulty in form, slow in maturing, poor handlers, heavy- 



