188 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



HAMPDE^f. 



Slock Improvement in Hampden County. 



Wliile as a whole the farmers of this comity have given but 

 little attention to the improvement of stock, tliere have been 

 honorable exceptions, and Hampden County has long been 

 noted for occasional choice specimens. 



More than fifty years since, or as early as 1810, Col. Abel 

 Chapin, of Chicopee, bred a pair of steers which he sold in 1817 

 for one thousand dollars. Tiiesc were exhibited in Boston, and 

 afterwards slaughtered at Brighton. Others, but little inferior, 

 were sent to New York market in 1822. These like others of 

 his breeding, were (in part) of what was known as the Gore 

 breed. It derived this name from being imported by Gov. 

 Gore, of Massachusetts, and is believed to have been the unim- 

 proved Short-horn. 



Col. Chapin was a man of uncommon sagacity in judging of 

 neat stock, which, with his enterprise and ample means, secured 

 for him the renown of possessing the best herd in this Valley, if 

 not the best in New England. 



In 1822, Col. Harvey Chapin, then residing at Chicopee, 

 procured from Cornelius Coolidge, Esq., of Boston a bull called 

 "Comet." He was grandson of "Comet" (155) which was 

 bred in England by Charles Colling, Esq., and sold by that 

 gentleman in 1810 for one thousand guineas. This is believed 

 to be the first introduction of improved Short-horn blood. 

 Some of this strain of blood is still found in the herd of Mr. 

 Sumner Chapin, of Chicopee. 



A few years later the Hon. Samuel Lathrop, of West Spring- 

 field, purchased a bull and one or more cows from Hon. John 

 "Wells, of Boston. By crossing these with his previous stock, 

 Islw Lathrop became possessed of a herd of fine animals, some 

 of which possessed nearly all the characteristics of the thorough 

 bred. The stock of that neighborhood was much improved 

 by the use of his bulls, Dr. R. Champion still retaining some of 

 their more direct descendants. 



In 1832, ^[r. Horatio Sargent, of Springfield, purchased a bull 

 called " Red Comet," bred by Henry Watson, Esq., of East 

 Windsor, Ct. This bull was son of " Wye Comet," who was 

 begotten in England, but calved in Maryland in November, 



