56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



was not an improvement on the dam, so far as early maturity, 

 size, or thrift are concerned ; we are well aware that Devons and 

 Herefords have laid the foundation of some of our best families 

 of working oxen ; and an Ayrshire bull has thus far always 

 benefited the dairy of the region into which he has been intro- 

 duced. Many breeds have had no chance here ; but of those, 

 other than the already mentioned, which have been tried, 

 the Jerseys, although admirable animals in themselves for 

 the production of butter, and although the crosses are now 

 and then excellent, still lack that substance which a New 

 England farmer needs, and have not yet become any thing more 

 than the choice and valuable animal of the gentleman's stable ; 

 the Kerries are not yet largely introduced ; and the early 

 importations of Dutch cattle have produced no results, that 

 we are aware of, satisfactory to the intelligent farmer and 

 breeder. 



COMPARISON OP BREEDS. 



As a description or history of the breeds which we have 

 selected is wholly unnecessary, so well are they now known, 

 and so often have they been delineated, we shall simply, in a 

 brief manner, present a comparative view of their merits. 



It seems to be generally conceded, that either accidentally or 

 designedly, certain qualities have been combined in the improved 

 Short-horn breed, which enable them not only to take a high stand 

 of themselves, but to improve the stock of almost every region 

 into which they are introduced. In earlier times, when the 

 foundation of the the Short-horn, the Durham or Yorkshire 

 blood was brought into this country, very considerable benefit 

 arose from it to the dairy stock of the United States. This can 

 be satisfactorily proved, by selections of cows from those sections 

 into which this blood was introduced. The dairies of Worcester, 

 Hampden, and the Kennebec Valley, all bear witness to the 

 original value of this blood, as an admixture for the so called 

 native stock of those sections. That there was a valuable strain 

 in this old race is not only manifested by the fact now mentioned, 

 and by the fact, moreover, that they are the origin of the 

 modern breed of Short-horns, but also by many evidences that 

 the introduction of this blood into the inferior cattle of Scotland, 



