1858.] SENATE— No. 4. 67 



erally are, convey no informalion and are often detrimental to the 

 cause which they attempt to defend. We shall therefore advance no 

 theories, nor attempt to draw inferences, but confine ourselves to a 

 brief statement descriptive of the prize animals in this class. 



It is a fact worthy of note that the number of young cows entered, 

 was small. Scattered all over the Commonwealth are very many 

 superior cows, and is it not a matter worth consideration, whether 

 some method cannot be devised to bring them out at a State exhi- 

 bition, even if their owners cannot be persuaded to exhibit them at 

 the County shows? 



As it is supposed by many, that some breeds of cattle are very much 

 superior to others for dairy purposes, and that these superior breeds 

 are all foreigners, and in order to be superior must have a long family 

 record, we will give such facts as we could ascertain respecting the 

 pedigree of the cow to which we have awarded the first prize. 



Her dam and grand-dam, both very superior cows, were kept until 

 they faltered by reason of old age. The grand-dam was calved before 

 pedigrees were in vogue, but her ancestors on both sides and for 

 many generations, probably lived and died in this State. Her dam 

 was sired by a bull, supposed to have a fraction of short-horn blood 

 in his composition. She herself was got by a red bull, which might 

 or might not have had a mixture of Devon blood. Her color is red, 

 but she has no other Devon characteristic. In fact it is of a less florid 

 shade than the North Devon, and approaches more nearly to the color 

 of the Sussex cattle. She was three years old last spring, and dropped 

 her second calf the 9th day of June, last, and her record of milk com- 

 mences the loth. Butter has not ordinarily been made from the 

 milk ; but the little which has been churned commends its quality. 

 She fed in a good pasture during the thirteen weeks of which an 

 account is given, and had very little beside — not the equivalent of 

 one quart of meal per day. Her condition abundantly evidenced this 

 fact. 



With a thin chap and rather long face, horns not large and not 

 purely white ; ewe- necked; skin yellow, thin and delicate to the 

 touch ; narrow in the breast and hollow at the back of the shoulder ; 

 ribs wide apart ■ and flat-sided, rather than barrel-shaped ; a large 

 belly, broad hips and thin thighs, in every part the opposite of com- 

 pactness in form ; large, crooked, sub-cutaneous veins extending well 

 forward; an escutcheon of high order, and a capacious, fleshless 

 udder, looking as if it was made on purpose to contain milk, — she 

 was, to the unpracticed eye, a homely, lean, ill-looking beast, to be 

 passed without notice other than wonder that she should have been 

 sent to the show. Yet, although she was not above ordinary medium 



