726 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



NEAT CATTLE. 



^ BY SETH SPRAGUE. 



'^^ The small reward the farmers of Massachusetts obtain for 

 their labor, and the lack of due return for the capital invested 

 in the business of farming, is a source of much discontent 

 among those employed in agriculture, and calls for all possible 

 improvement in every department. 



Hitherto our attention has mainly been directed to improved 

 modes of culture, with little attention to the cattle best suited 

 to our condition. A few enterprising individuals have, for a 

 number of years, been importing pure blood cattle. The Mas- 

 sachusetts Agricultural Society, for many years, has employed 

 its funds to improve the cattle of our State, and with a liberal 

 hand has distributed gratuitously her importations of the best 

 bloods of Great Britain. Our farmers have not been success- 

 ful with them, and have been unwilling to give them a fair 

 trial. Little progress has been made in their general introduc- 

 tion. It is a common remark among farmers esteemed for 

 their experience and intelligence, that " there are as good cattle 

 among our natives as can be found anywhere." Without dis- 

 puting the fact that we have some good native cattle, and 

 some superior cows, it must be acknowledged that we have a 

 great many poor cattle. Among the few well-built, fine-limbed, 

 thrifty, good-feeding cattle, we have thousands narrow-chested, 

 ill-formed, or deficient in some essential point, and such as 

 nature forbids giving us good returns for the food consumed. 

 It would be strange if it were otherwise. The course pursued 

 since the first settlement of the country, has been directly cal- 

 culated to deteriorate and run down the best cattle the world 

 ever produced. The breeding of cattle has been reduced to a 

 science in Great Britain. They produce cattle that do not 

 vaary in color and form, with as much certainty as any effect 

 follows cause. 



We have no distinct breed of cattle — none on whom we 

 can rely to produce offspring like sire or dam. The famous 

 cows that have happened among us have failed to leave any 

 progeny like themselves, or that sustained their reputation. 



