SECRETARY'S REPORT. 119 



• 



Europe. The traveller through Switzerland is sometimes aston- 

 ished to find that the mere boundary between two cantons will 

 make as much distinction in the cattle to be found in those two 

 cantons as if that dividing line were a thousand miles wide. It is 

 owing partly to the fact, that for a long series of years the cattle 

 planted upon these various sections of Switzerland have estab- 

 lished for themselves a distinct identity, and adapted themselves 

 to the special agricultural peculiarities of the cantons in which 

 they are produced. Now, the same^law, of course, applies to 

 New England ; and when I hear any gentleman advocating any 

 distinct breed as adapted to all New England, I have only to 

 point him to that country, where they have been planted, and 

 where they have established distinct families, adapted to the 

 peculiarities of soil and climate in which they live. 



I suppose that in New England, especially, the dairy is about 

 the most important point to which the breeding of cattle can be 

 devoted. I tliink a dairy cow, a cow adapted chiefly to the 

 purpose of producing the most butter and cheese, or milk, if you 

 are near a milk market, from the least amount of food, is, in 

 the long run, the best cow for a New England farmer to own. 

 I have no doubt that there are certain sections of the States, 

 perhaps, of Massachusetts, in which large, heavy cattle can be 

 raised to profit. There are unquestionably certain sections 

 where butter and cheese especially are manufactured, where it 

 is an object to the farmer to reduce his feed, with due regard 

 to thrift, to that point which will most economically carry a cow 

 through the vacation of winter, — that is, from the end of tlie 

 dairy in autumn to the beginning of the dairy in spring, — and in 

 those sections, larger-sized cattle are advantageous. There are, 

 therefore, certain sections in which the heavier animals can be 

 reared with profit; — large milkers, beginning in the middle of 

 May, and going on until the last of feed in autumn, producing 

 a great quantity of milk, whicli are profitable cows to the farmer, 

 and which can be wintered economically upon the rough fodder 

 which grows so abundantly in many parts of this State. That is 

 one branch of farming that is unquestionably attended with 

 profit. It enables the farmer to furnish himself witli manure 

 in winter, and at the same time it furnishes him with an oppor- 

 tunity, in case of accident to such a dairy cow as that, to convert 

 her into an abundance of beef during the next season following. 



