64 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



island of Great Britain. And when we have secured such a 

 breed and have recommenced our dairy system, I trust our 

 farmers' wives and daughters will find that they are strong 

 enough to return to that old system of domestic dairying which 

 added so much to the nicest cares of the household, brought 

 large profits to the farm, benefited the health of our women, 

 and gave us that priceless blessing in these degenerate days, 

 good sweet butter. A clean, sweet, well-ordered dairy room is 

 fully as pleasant and useful an appendage to a farm-house as a 

 piano, a sewing-machine or a melodeon. 



The remarks which I have made with regard to our cattle are 

 also true with regard to our horses. It is conceded by the best 

 judges that we have a New England horse, the growth of our 

 hill-pastures and our sharp, clear climate, which is unsurpassed 

 for his vigor, endurance and strength, and whose value is esti- 

 mated not by his size and weight, but by his docility and power 

 and by the economy with which he can keep himself in condi- 

 tion for work. It is found that New York and Pennsylvania 

 can furnish the heavy draught horse for drags and teams and 

 the slow, stylish carriage horse for the adornment of the luxu- 

 rious equipage. But it is also found that the compact, strong, 

 medium-sized horse of New England has a peculiar fitness for 

 the farmer, and for that rapid driving on the road of wliich we 

 are all so fond. We are looking back over the history of the 

 New England horse, and we find that the introduction of the 

 " Justin Morgan " is counted as the great step in the improve- 

 ment of horses here, and that that little horse gave more profit 

 to the farmer and more reputation to New England than has 

 ever been derived from thoroughbred, or " Cleveland Bay," or 

 " Percheron," or from the heavy, clumsy animals of Pennsyl- 

 vania and the West. The b(jst horses at the agricultural exhi- 

 bition are small or medium-sized horses, bred in New England. 

 I think the future prospects of horse-breeding in New England 

 are flattering, if we may judge from the signs of the times. 



Tlie sheep husbandry of New England has reached a degree 

 of excellence of which we have reason to be proud, and by 

 which it is destined to become one of the most important and 

 profitable branches of farming. For many years the West has 

 been drawing its most valuable animals from the flocks of Ver- 

 mont. It has been discovered that the kind of sheep bred 



