28 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. 



my observation, which has been extensive, I have never known 

 it to fail of producing cows of more than ordinary quality. I do 

 not, therefore, object particularly to this cross. 



But 1 take the ground Jhat it is the duty of our public insti- 

 tutions to adopt the breed of cows best calculated to meet the 

 wants of the locality where the institution is situated, and to 

 keep and increase that, both for their own advantage and for the 

 benefit of the people. Much as I like the Jerseys, in their place, 

 in the butter dairy or on the gentleman's lawn, I do not believe 

 them the best for the supply of milk for these institutions, and, 

 therefore, I would not have them bred there. The Ayrshire is 

 the animal of the greatest thrift on common pastures, producing 

 usually a large quantity of milk ; easily kept and very easily 

 turned into beef. Since the breaking up of Peters's herd, last 

 spring, we have no large breeding establishment devoted to them, 

 and attention to the selection and multiplication of pure Ayr- 

 shires would prove a source of profit, but more especially a great 

 public advantage. 



I admit that for practical purposes, on an ordinary farm, the 

 grades are as profitable as pure-breds ; that is, they will give 

 quite as much, perhaps more, if the cross is judiciously taken. 

 But something more should be kept in view by all our public 

 institutions than the mere product of so many quarts of milk or 

 so many pounds of butter. In Europe they do these things 

 better. Large breeding establishments, both of horses and neat 

 stock, are kept up in many countries at the expense of the gov- 

 ernment, or of the crowned heads who rule, and this is regarded 

 as of great public importancb. 



Queen Victoria, for instance, has a herd of nearly two hundred 

 Shorthorns established by Prince Albert in 1850, at the Home 

 Farm, quite near to Windsor Castle, and bred with extraordinary 

 care. Another herd of pure-bred Herefords, numbering about 

 ninety, are kept on the Flemish farm, a couple of miles off, and 

 still another large herd on the Norfolk farm, adjoining, of four 

 hundred acres, a hundred head of pure-bred Devons. At the 

 Frogmore dairy, established by Prince Albert, a few Jerseys are 

 kept. 



As early as the year 1824, the noble old King William, of 

 Wiirtembcrg, became a purchaser, through agents, from some 

 of the most famous herds of Shorthorns in England, and his 



