34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



heifer calves, and to kill or castrate all males, from grade or 

 "native" cows, or cows of any other breed. In this way the 

 whole stock of the neighborhood might be changed and improved 

 in a few years. I submit these suggestions as worthy of careful 

 consideration. The expense of carrying out the plan need not 

 be great, and the good would be incalculable. 



Nor do I see any practical difficulty, of any account, in carry- 

 ing out the plan I have proposed : that of making the farms 

 connected with our public institutions serve two purposes ; first, 

 that of furnishing the supplies of milk for the institutions, which 

 they must have; second, that of breeding establishments for a 

 high class of stock, in which the farming community is so largely 

 interested. To me it seems perfectly feasible. The expense, in 

 addition to the present management, would be too trifling, on 

 the part of the State, to constitute any obstacle. It would 

 mainly consist in getting a right start at the outset, for, as I 

 have said, the cost of raising and keeping pure-bred stock is no 

 greater, or if any, not essentially greater, than raising and 

 keeping grades or "natives." 



Indeed, if the system were rightly managed, it might be made 

 a source of absolute profit to the State, if not for the first three 

 or five years of trial, at least in the long run, for everybody who 

 has read the reports of the sales of pure-bred stock, knows it has 

 brought prices far larger and more remunerative than any grade 

 stock would bring under the same circumstances. Take the 

 recent sale of Ayrsliires and Jerseys, at the farm of John Giles, 

 at Woodstock, Connecticut, for example, where the six months 

 Ayrshire calves brought on an average $70 apiece, which was 

 admitted to be extremely low, and the Jersey calves $85 apiece. 

 Is there anywhere an instance of a sale of common calves, which 

 brought such prices? Or, take the Ayrshire cows, which sold 

 remarkably low, on account of th(? adverse circumstances of the 

 sale, and yet they went at an average of over $193, while the 

 yearlings went at the low average of $90. The Jersey cows, at 

 this sale, brought an average of $293 a head, and the spring 

 calves an average of $85, including one bull at $50 ; or, if we 

 turn to Peters' sale of Ayrsliires, last spring, we have a larger 

 average than any of them. 



Now, if our State institutions can breed a high class of stock, 

 and have animals of undisputed pedigree to sell, is it not clear 



