SECRETARY'S REPORT. 121 



Then we have another class, and that is the smaller animal of 

 which I spoke in the beginning. Not exactly the kind of 

 animal we now have. This question is of different " kinds " of 

 animals. Now, sir, we have one kind of animal in New Eng- 

 land, the special utility of which I have never been able exactly 

 to ascertain. I think they may be pronounced the poorest 

 " kind " that was ever heard of. We are told that they sprung 

 from ccrtai* animals brought here by the Puritans. If the 

 Puritans did bring them here, they were the poorest thing they 

 brought. They have no sort of shape that is satisfactory to a 

 judge of cattle ; their whole external outline is in violation of 

 every rule of breeding ; their whole physiological condition in 

 violation of every law laid down by those who have studied the 

 animal physiology, with reference to breeding. Their prominent 

 point, apparently, is their horns. No intelligence in their eyes, 

 nothing fine about their muzzles, no indication that they have 

 any qualities except those dull, heavy, stupid, inanimate qualities 

 which enable them to go through the dullest toil on the poorest 

 conceivable farm known on earth. Their heads and horns will 

 almost outweigh all the rest of their carcases. You find them 

 with bad crops, broken off behind the shoulders, raw-boned and 

 rough ; their skins as hard as a stove-pipe, nothing mellow about 

 them ; their hair as hard and inexpressive as the stubble of the 

 grass that was mown in the middle of the drought of last 

 summer. Now and then you find some person who owns one 

 of these animals, who will say to you, " I have got a cow that 

 will give twenty quarts of milk, and she is a native, too." He 

 never tells how much it costs to get the milk, or how much food 

 it takes to keep her in that condition. She presents herself 

 with a tremendous capacity to carry food, and she ought to do 

 something in return for it ; but she is an exception. If you 

 will examine the picture of the Oakes cow, which, fifty years 

 ago,, was a famous cow in New England, you will find that 

 although she was a profitable cow for the dairy, she had no 

 point to recommend her. She was a mere accident, and never 

 transmitted any of her qualities. You will find there is not a 

 single representative of that cow now that is of any sort of value 

 to any farmer of New England. 



Now, that is not an extravagant description. Those gentle- 

 men who were with me on the pleuro-pneumonia commission, 



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