SECRETARY'S REPORT. 37 



height of cultivation before your begin upon the former. This 

 can wait for^its turn. Cultivate well, then, the best land directly 

 about your homestead. And let your good farming radiate as 

 it were from that centre. 



Stock your farm to its utmost capacity, with good animals — 

 the best are the cheapest — feed well, and enlarge your manure 

 heap by every means in your power, with compost, with muck, 

 with loam from the roadsides. 



In the selection of animals, too much care cannot bo exer- 

 cised to avoid those which are not adapted to your farm. There 

 is no more pitiable object than a half-starved animal, laboring 

 to supply itself with food on a short pasture, or on herbage not 

 suited to its wants ; nor is there anything more unprofitable. 

 If we look about us, we shall find that some breeds or families 

 of cattle thrive in one locality, others in another. There are 

 sections of our State, in whicli Shorthorns have for many years 

 been profitable, and in which tlie introduction of pure blood 

 of that bfeed has vastly improved the quality of the cattle pre- 

 viously existing there. There are others in which such attempts 

 have proved utter failures. In some localities the Ayrshire has 

 found an abundance of suitable food, and without developing 

 an overpowering tendency to fatten, has preserved all the milk- 

 ing qualities for which it is so remarkable in the land of its 

 birth. And without any well-known breeding, some parts of 

 New England, some single farms, have succeeded in developing 

 families of cattle peculiar to themselves, and possessing very 

 considerable merit, and all the qualities which make them espe- 

 cially useful in their own location. It is the animal which 

 thrives well, which is the best choice of every farmer. And 

 whetlier it be Sliorthorn, or Devon, or Ayrshire, or native, it 

 6an only be profitable when it possesses its health and strength, 

 and increases easily in growth on the farm where it is to be fed. 



It is not size, but quality, which should be consulted by the 

 farmer in his choice of animals. On the luxuriant pastures of 

 the West and. South-west, large animals thrive easily, and small 

 ones soon develop a tendency to increase their proportions from 

 one generation to another. But in New England, we can feed 

 smaller animals more profitably ; they bear our cold winters 

 better ; they subsist more easily on our short pastures ; they 

 are usually stronger, more enduring, perform more labor, and 



