508 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of it must be impaired constitutions. All of the cows of any 

 given breed cannot be expected to excel as milkers, for their 

 ancestry were reared to too much extent in England, as they 

 now are in the Western States, with more reference to their 

 flesh for the shambles, than for their milking properties. 

 Hence it is obvious, from the principles here laid down, that 

 to produce a superior milking herd, we must select for breed- 

 ers, such animals as have descended from tribes which have 

 this valuable characteristic rendered inherent in them by breed- 

 ing. When cows are deficient in any one point, (and few are 

 entirely perfect,) care should be taken to breed them to bulls 

 which are full in the points thus defective in the female, so 

 that in the produce the defect may be corrected. The great 

 average increased weight of bullocks, slaughtered in the prin- 

 cipal markets of England and this country, since the beginning 

 of the present century, is doubtless to be mainly attributed to 

 the introduction of the short-horn blood. Yet this is not the 

 only advantage gained by this improvement, for in the Smith- 

 field, as well as our own markets, up to the close of the past 

 century, animals were judged of almost alone by their bulk; 

 whilst since that period, science applied to breeding has so 

 changed the structure of animals, that the ofFal and less valua- 

 ble parts of the beast are greatly reduced, and in the same pro- 

 portion the most valuable parts of the carcass are augmented. 

 The late Thomas Bates, of Kirkleavington, England, one 

 of the most eminent breeders of that country, said, in a publi- 

 cation a few years since, ''• Nearly fifty years ago, I adopted 

 the plan of weighing my cattle and their food, so as to ascer- 

 tain tlie improvement in proportion to the food consumed, and 

 from a minute and close attention to this subject, I obtained 

 that knowledge of cattle which enabled me to judge of their 

 real merits by their external character, and which I have never 

 known to fail, in my experience as a breeder, for about forty 

 years. From that knowledge, thus acquired, I selected the 

 Dutchess tribe of short-horns, as superior to all other cattle, 

 not only as small consumers of food, but as great growers, and 

 quick grazers, with the first quality of beef, and also giving a 

 great quantity of very rich milk." 



