SECRETARY'S REPORT. 25 



The best beast for him is that which suits his farm the best, and with a 

 view to this, he studies, or ought to study, the points and qualities of 

 his own cattle and those of others. The dairyman will regard the 

 quantity of milk — the quality — its value for the production of butter and 

 cheese — the time that the cow continues in milk — the character of the 

 breed for quietness, or as being good nurses — the predisposition to garget 

 or other disease, ov dropping after calving — the natural tendency to turn 

 every thing to nutriment — the ease with which she is fattened when 

 given up as a milker, and the proportion of food requisite to keep her 

 in full milk or to fatten her when dry. The grazier will consider the 

 kind of beast which his land will bear — the kind of meat most in demand 

 in his neighborhood — the early maturity — the quickness of fattening at 

 any age — the quality of the meat — the parts on which the flesh and fat 

 are particularly laid — and, more than all, the hardihood and the adaptation 

 to soil and climate. 



" In order to obtain these valuable properties, the good farmer will 

 make himself perfectly master of the characters and qualities of his own 

 stock. He will trace the connection of certain good qualities and certain 

 bad ones, with an almost invariable peculiarity of shape and sti-ucture ; 

 and at length he will arrive at a clear conception, not so much of beauty 

 of form, (although that is a pleasing object to contemplate.) as of that 

 outline and proportion of parts, with which utility is oftenest combined. 

 Then carefully viewing his stock, he will consider where they approach 

 to, and how far they wander from this utility of form ; and he will be 

 anxious to preserve or to increase the one, and to supply the deficiency 

 of the other. He will endeavor to select from his own stock those 

 animals that excel in the most valuable points, and particularly those 

 which possess the greatest number of these points, and he will unhesi- 

 tatingly condemn every beast that manifests deficiency in any one 

 important point. He will not, however, too long confine himself to his 

 own stock, unless it be a very numerous one. The breeding from close 

 affinities has many advantages, to a certain extent. It was the source 

 whence sprung the cattle and sheep of Bakewell, and the superior cattle 

 of Colling ; and to it must also be traced the speedy degeneracy, the 

 absolute disappearance of the New Leicester cattle, and, in the hands of 

 many agriculturists, the impairment of constitution and decreased value 

 of the New Leicester sheep and of the Short-horns. He will therefore 

 s^k some change in his stock every second or third year, and that 

 change is most conveniently effected by introducing a new bull. This 

 bull should be of the same breed, and pure, coming from a similar pas- 

 turage and climate, but possessing no relationship — or at most a very 

 4* 



