32 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



disagreeable to do. Martin Luther is not the only person who 

 instead of dying a natural death has been excommunicated by 

 a bull ! 



In our treatment of domestic animals, it is best to compare 

 their condition with our own, and vice versa, and we shall find 

 that in the main they need about the same care, attention and 

 requisites that we do. I have also found in relation to horses, 

 for instance, that when there was any doubt as to their need of 

 drying, rubbing and clothing, after a long and hot drive on a 

 chilly day, I had only to put myself hypothetically in the same 

 condition, and all doubts vanished. So as to eating immediately 

 after quick work, or being fed irregularly, or driven on a full 

 stomach, the same inconveniences or evils that would be felt or 

 result in our case would so act on the lower animal, and what 

 was good or bad for the man was good or otherwise for the beast. 

 We often hear about cows being mere machines, as if their whole 

 duty was to stand in a stall, be crammed with all they could eat 

 and drink, milked by machinery if possible — treated in fact just 

 like a pin manufactory, bars of metal being thrust in at one end 

 and pins coming out at the other. I believe with Mr. Beccher, 

 that the cow is the saint of the barnyard (and if homeliness is 

 necessary to goodness, our native cow has this prime qualifica- 

 tion), the very ideal and pattern of a saint, giving her whole 

 strength to lacteal benevolence, patient, gentle, guileless, con- 

 tented, and instead of being in any manner ill-treated, she should 

 be worshipped Let us keep a niche in our hearts for St. Dur- 

 ham, St. Ayrshire, St. Jersey, and St. Homebred, and a memory 

 for their capacious udders, patient disposition, mild eyes, home- 

 loving desires, and the pure milk, which, like that of the 

 " word," is conducive to godliness, and we shall not err in our 

 care of these harmless natural saints. 



A young lady who was rebuked by her mother for kissing her 

 intended husband, justifies the act by quoting scripture, "What- 

 soever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so unto 

 them." And if we would carry this golden rule into not only 

 our treatment of each other, but our dumb brethren and sisters, 

 we should but do justice to their merits and our own duties as 

 their conservators. Our cows need, equally with ourselves, good 

 shelter and food, proper ventilation, pure water and plenty of it, 

 clean bedding and daily exercise. It is all folly to think of 



