SECRETARY'S REPORT. 



19 



are sufficient to satisfy any one that females thus impressed 

 cannot be properly used for breeders. And it is very doubtful 

 whether a female may not be thus impressed, any time during 

 her breeding life, by a bull of stronger blood than her own. 

 We have seen an Ayrshire cow, which, after having brought 

 three calves by an Ayrshire bull, was coupled with a Jersey, 

 and all of whose subsequent calves bore distinct marks of the 

 Jersey — the older and stronger blood of the male having 

 gained an ascendency. And we have heard many a careful 

 and enterprising farmer wonder that the progeny of his superior 

 cows, bore the marks of the common and inferior bull, with 

 which they were thoughtlessly coupled, in early life, notwith- 

 standing the care he had afterwards taken. It is, indeed, 

 possible that this obstacle may be overcome by two or three 

 generations of breeding ; but time may be saved and the 

 difficulty avoided, by a little trouble in the beginning. The 

 expense will be amply repaid. 



^--^^-j^^ -" 



Short-horn Bull, "Double Duke.' 



THE BULL. 



There is no doubt that the stock of New England has 

 suffered more from the use of inferior and badly bred males, 

 than from inferior and badly bred females. Tlie bull is usu- 

 ally looked upon as the least profitable animal on the farm. 

 He is treated as an outcast, and his presence is too often con- 

 sidered a necessary calamity. His immediate benefit is not 

 perceptible. He neither earns his living by labor, nor by the 



