122 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



know perfectly well the kind of cattle they too often met with. 

 There were some herds of good cattle, but I would like to ask 

 you, sir, [Mr. Lathrop,] how many scores of yearling and two- 

 year old steers and stags that would have had but little to 

 recommend them, were found in the region visited by that 

 dreadful disease. It seemed to me that they would hardly pay 

 for wintering. They undoubtedly converted a large quantity of 

 coarse food into manure ; but I doubt if they themselves were 

 worth much more in the spring than they were in the autumn. 

 Any of you may find the same thing in other parts of the "State, 

 and too often in the hands of farmers, who, in other respects 

 manage their farms well. 



I do not think these animals are creditable to the agriculture 

 of Massachusetts. There is no reason why, from the eastern 

 boundary of Maine to the southern boundary of Connecticut 

 and Rhode Island, there should be found animals of that 

 description, for we have scattered all over New England male 

 animals of the "best description, offered to farmers at the most 

 reasonable prices ; and if gentlemen examine those places where 

 the best animals have been produced, they would find that it has 

 been done by the infusion of good blood, brought there by some 

 enterprising and careful man. Go up to Berkshire — not a very 

 promising part of Massachusetts — not a place in which you can 

 plant corn and sit at your doors and see it grow ; not that part 

 of Massachusetts where the frosts cease so early in the spring 

 and keep off so late in autumn, that the farmer has a long and 

 luxuriant season before him ; where there are good pastures, it 

 is true, but not what would be called an easy, fine, or luxuriant 

 farming country, — go up there, and what do you see ? Why, in 

 one of those towns, by the introduction of a good Shorthorn 

 bull, has been established a race of animals which has brought 

 wealth into the town, and has made the farmers prosperous. 

 Go, not four miles from here, and what do you see ? By the 

 careful introduction of that kind of blood which has been so 

 prudently bred and husbanded in this valley, a herd of cattle 

 has been secured, which, although not in the Herd Book, will 

 vie with any herd in or out of it that can be found in the world. 

 In New Hampshire, in. Connecticut, and in Eastern Massachu- 

 setts you find the same thing. 



