SECRJ^TARY'S REPORT. 31 



minds what breed of cows, what breed of hogs, what breed of 

 sheep, if they keep any, and what breed of poultry is best for 

 the people, say within a radius of ten or twenty miles, and 

 adopt that exclusively, and breed it with the utmost care. It 

 will cost no more to keep pure breeds than grades or scrubs. 

 The product may not be greater in milk, but there is greater 

 certainty of results, and the animals, when they have them to 

 sell, will bring prices enough higher to pay any extra expense of 

 raising, instead of relying upon the public markets to replace 

 their stock as it grows old. 



The Deer Island farm, under the superintendence of Thos. E. 

 Payson, Esq., began this with a choice selection of Jerseys, 

 which were designed to form the nucleus of a most valuable 

 herd. It was broken up by an unfortunate visit of the 

 pleuro-pneumonia. I regretted it at the time, and I still say it 

 is a great public calamity to have any such effort nipped in 

 the bud. • 



I have alluded to the results of my observation of cross breed- 

 ing between the Ayrshire and the Jersey, as producing generally 

 good milkers, retaining, more or less, the characteristics of both 

 breeds as to quality and quantity. This I think is the general 

 opinion in this country, though it is proper to state that the 

 female has seldom been a pure-bred animal. Few men of any 

 true notions of breeding would attempt the cross on a pure-bred 

 cow. It may be that the base blood in a grade Ayrshire, how- 

 ever high the grade may be, wo.uld add something to the good 

 milking qualities of the offspring of this cross, and this is 

 probably the case. 



I have in mind, at this moment, two cows of this cross, both 

 of which I once owned, whose dams were high grade Ayrshire, 

 high as three-quarters or seven-eighths, and both of which were 

 remarkable milkers. The sire of the two cows I speak of as 

 coming from such dams, was a pure-bred Jersey. The result 

 was highly satisfactory, but it would probably have been equally 

 so, perhaps more so, if the sire had been Ayrshire, because the 

 dams of both were remarkable milkers. 



But the cross has not been successful on the pure-bred Ayr- 

 shires in Scotland, where attempts have been made for some 

 years to cross the Jersey with the Ayrshire, in both ways, with 

 the view of imitating the form of the Jersey cow. The results 



