80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



who eats the steaks that come out of her ; it is bad all round. 

 The best animal to feed is one with a clean, well-shaped head, a 

 luxurious mouth, loose shoulder, straight quarter, broad back 

 and great depth of carcase. The tail should be long and the 

 rump level. 



Now go with me to one of the best dairy regions in the Com- 

 monwealth of Massachusetts — one of the best, so far as skill is 

 concerned, in this country. I think, with all due respect to the 

 gentlemen who are at work in that section, that the cattle they 

 are feeding are too large and heavy. There is a little too much 

 bone about them ; they are too coarse ; and so, as I have had 

 the pleasure of going through their stables several times, I 

 found that those stately cows, in March, looked as if the winter 

 had not exactly agreed with them. They are too large for cold 

 weather. Strength of constitution does not always go with size. 

 There is too much bone about them. Muscle should always 

 preponderate. In northern latitudes a man wants a little more 

 cellular tissue and muscle than bone in order to keep warm. 

 So it is with cows. These large animals, notwithstanding they 

 had had a little meal, or perhaps a good deal, to help them 

 along, did not look exactly as they sliould ; they were not quite 

 satisfactory. But among these animals would be a medium- 

 sized cow, that had got through the winter pretty well, and did 

 not require any meal to keep her going. Give her a little 

 meadow hay at night, and a good quantity of English hay in the 

 daytime, and she would carry herself along pretty well. So I 

 argue, from that observation, that the best way for us is to bring 

 cattle within the limits of our soil and climate and the feed 

 that has been provided for us. We know perfectly well that a 

 pound of meal put into the mouth of one animal will do more 

 to improve that animal than a pound of meal will do for another ; 

 and knowing this, we can judge for ourselves what it is best for 

 us to do in regard to this whole system of feeding. 



I have told you that we ought to engage in the business not 

 only of feeding dairy stock but of raising them. We ought to 

 have an annual increase of the number of cows as well as of 

 the amount of milk. We ought to have 300,000 cows in Mas- 

 sachusetts to-day. There is profit enough in the business, and 

 if we had 300,000 cows we should have just twice the amount 

 of manure we have. I think the fields would smile a little. 



