MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 727 



Our native catlle have been bred promiscuously together for 

 more than two hundred years, without the least attention to 

 sire or dam. We have a motley race, of every form, color, 

 and size. 



Without attention to the laws of breeding, we can never 

 have cattle that give proper return for our care and food. The 

 prevailing practice of selling our calves to the butchers at four 

 weeks old, and replenishing our stock from the droves from 

 Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, must tend to per- 

 petuate, to coming time, our degenerate race. There are few 

 cattle raised in the eastern part of the State, and such is the 

 indifference on the subject, that few, even of those who con- 

 template raising a calf, would be at the trouble of sending a 

 cow a few miles to the best blood bull, if they could get a calf 

 near by, from an ill-formed male, the meanest of his race. 



Our cattle bear a much larger relation to the profits of the 

 farmer than we are generally aware of. The capital invested 

 for the feeding and accommodation of our cattle cannot be 

 estimated at less than three-fourths of the whole cost of our 

 farms. If we estimate the value of the labor bestowed in 

 producing a winter stock of food for them, and the time we 

 spend in feeding and. caring for them in summer and winter, a 

 less portion than three-fourths would not accomplish that part 

 of a farmer's work. We therefore see at a glance that much 

 may depend on the quality of our cattle in making up our 

 year's accounts. The greatest object of the farmer is to have 

 those cattle that best serve his interest in beef and milk. 



The disposition to use horses, and the general practice of 

 devoting the oxen of last year to the shambles, and buying 

 from the droves in autumn, renders the working quality of / 

 oxen of less consequence. 



The average life of our neat cattle does not exceed five 

 years. A large part of those raised, especially steers, go to 

 the butcher at two and three years old, and those that escape 

 the knife seldom exceed seven. Our cows are turned oft' to 

 fat, for various causes, at all ages. It seems evident that the 

 great object of the farmer should be to obtain cattle that 

 mature early, and lay on the most flesh for the food consumed. 

 The difference in the value of cattle that are as mature at two 



