64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



SELECTION OP BREEDS. 



Mail is governed by this law in his agricultural operations, 

 all the world over. Instinct teaches him, long before experience 

 has led him through her many paths, that he must be obedient 

 to Nature in that business which depends for its prosperity 

 upon her smiles ; to Nature upon whom he leans for support, at 

 the same time that he endeavors to direct her course for his 

 own benefit. The boasted agricultural wealth of England, with 

 all its enterprise, ignores the favorite crop of America, because 

 the skies of that island so command. The vegetable growth of 

 tropical latitudes allows no intruder to take its place — and 

 sugar, and coffee, and rice, and cotton, have their place on the 

 earth, while they resign to their appropriate spheres the grass, 

 and grain, and root crops of the north. The farmer of the 

 north of Scotland is compelled to satisfy hims|lf with the small 

 and hardy cattle which his lands can feed, and has learned neither 

 to envy nor imitate his neighbor of the southern counties, whose 

 Short-horns revel in the luxury of a fertile region, the agriculture 

 of which they represent. In Massachusetts, every locality has its 

 own capacity, its own natural laws, its own adaptation to certain 

 crops, and certain breeds of cattle. And here, as elsewhere, 

 any attempt to violate these natural laws is sure to be compelled 

 to pay the penalty. While the West has found in the improved 

 Short-horn, a source of revenue which has, together with its 

 grain crops, furnished the foundation of its agriculture, while the 

 mild climate and verdant pastures of Kentucky have developed a 

 race of cattle at last almost indigenous, and have raised them to 

 such a degree of excellence, that the most careless observer 

 knows that other breeds have no proper place there, the various 

 sections of New England also designate the kind of cattle they 

 can produce ; so that the lesson may be easily learned. 



In selecting that breed of cattle adapted to each locality, we 

 must understand the agricultural capacity of that locality. We 

 know very well that while the Durhams of Mr. Gore did not 

 succeed in eastern Massachusetts, they laid the foundation of a 

 most valuable stock in the centre of the State, and, together 

 with the importation of Mr. Williams, have made the farmer's 

 cattle of the Connecticut River, equal to the choicest specimens 

 of the amateur breeder. We have been unable thus far to 

 establish an uniform breed throughout the State, and it is 



