THE STOCK ON OUR FARMS. 29 



leather ; a heap of offal on the one hand and that superabun- 

 dance of flesh nicknamed " sandwich," on the other ; pocket 

 editions of cows and huge folios of oxen growing side by side 

 in the same family ; cows that will give milk the year round, 

 and cows that go dry four or five months out of the twelve, 

 both of one parentage ; these constitute the " old red cattle of 

 New England," which are recommended to our farmers for 

 their special care and attention. There are meritorious animals 

 among them, it is true. It would be extraordinary were there 

 not. But let any man undertake to collect a herd of twenty 

 cows, of superior quality, out of this great New England 

 family, and how long do you suppose it will take him to do it ? 

 As I have said, the good ones are the exceptions — they are for- 

 tunate accidents. And although there may be in these animals 

 — some of them — a basis for good native stock of our own, still 

 I must confess that I conceive the farthest remove from them 

 the best position to gain with any prospect of uniformity and 

 superior excellence. 



The observation of every man of experience will teach him 

 this. "Wherever in New England, or in fact, in the United 

 States, you may find a locality famous for good cattle, the high 

 quality of that stock has come from some pure importation. 

 More than fifty years ago, Mr. John Vaughn, a liberal and in- 

 telligent gentleman, who conceived that England without Priest- 

 ley was no place for a Christian to live in, followed that great 

 philosopher and divine in his flight to our shores, and settled on 

 the banks of the Kennebec. He imported the Durham cattle 

 of that day, the improved Short-horns of ours ; and you may 

 find to this day, grazing in the valley of that river, a large, 

 thrifty, quick-growing, solid, massive breed of cattle, the indige- 

 nous Short-horns of that region ; indigenous, because they have 

 become adapted through generations to that soil and climate, 

 and are now among the most profitable products of the State. 

 Go to Portsmouth and the surrounding towns, and you will find 

 cattle of similar quality and description, the fruits of the more 

 recent importations of Colonel Pierce ; a native stock now, but 

 possessing certain characteristics, wliich they neither lose either 

 in succeeding generations or in various families. An importa- 

 tion into the valley of the Connecticut, by the late Mr. "Williams, 

 whose herd has been transmitted with as much judgment and 



