28 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



We hear a great deal of the " old red stock of New Eng- 

 land." It has many warm admirers ; and in the literary devo- 

 tion of some of its highly intelligent historians and friends, (I 

 had almost said apologists,) it promises to become as classic in 

 the bovine annals, as the " Old Red Sandstone " has become in 

 geological pages, under the pen of Hugh Miller. I suppose 

 there is such a breed of cattle — but what it is and where it 

 originated, I have never found any investigator who could 

 inform me. The first cattle brought into New England, were 

 imported in the Charity, in the care of Mr. "Winslow, the Agent 

 of the Plymouth Colony, early in the spring of 1623. To 

 what breed they belonged it is impossible to tell. But as a 

 large proportion of the early immigrants were from Devon- 

 shire and the South of England, where the Devon cattle were 

 even then popular, and where that breed had long been estab- 

 lished, it is very probable that the earliest arrivals here were 

 strongly tinctured with this blood. It is not very probable 

 that they were of pure blood, for the circumstances of our 

 ancestors did not admit of their entering very largely into 

 fancy stock. It is more likely that the animals were purchased 

 as advantageously as possible in the section of country whence 

 tlie travellers debarked. The color of their descendants would 

 indicate that they were Devons more or less pure. 



There is every reason to suppose that the class of animals to 

 which I am referring had their origin, as I have suggested ; 

 and that in the same manner a larger sized and coarser animal 

 was early found in New York, and a smaller and less thrifty 

 breed, analogous to the Jerseys, were planted in the southern 

 parts of Maryland, and are found there to this day. 



Whatever may have been its origin, it has really no charac- 

 teristics left, which would recommend it to an intelligent 

 breeder. The " old red stock of New England " is acclimated 

 it is true — so is the second generation of any imported Short- 

 horn or Ayrshire or Jersey. But the difficulty is that they are 

 a series of accidents. There is no prevailing type about them. 

 Long-horns and short-horns and no-horns; straight-backs and 

 crooked ; shoulders as compact as those of a Sutrolk pig, and 

 shoulders as loose and coarse as the fore-quarters of a drome- 

 dary ; fine, silky hair, and hair as coarse as bristles ; the " feel" 

 of an air-tight stove, and skins as soft and elastic as wash- 



