88 LIVE STOCK. 



ON IMPROVEMENT OF LIVE STOCK. 



To the President of the Essex Agricultural Society : 



My Dear Sir — I lay before you the following, not 

 from an opinion of my competency to inform the 

 public, but purely out of deference to yourself. You 

 requested me to write upon some subject. I have 

 fixed upon the following, and submit what I have 

 written to your judgment. If you deem it worthy of 

 insertion among the annual doings of the Society, 

 you have my consent ; if you think otherwise, you 

 have mv concurrence. 



I am ever yours, obhged, 



GEORGE KEELY. 

 To Hon. J. H. Duncan. 



The 'improvement of Ne'at Stock is to the dairy 

 farmer of great importance. Something has been 

 done already in this department of rural economy, 

 but yet there is room for further progress, and more 

 attention. Cattle of a superior breed have been im- 

 ported, but this, without skillful attention, will avail 

 but little. After a few generations of them have 

 passed, there will be a danger of their deteriorating, 

 and becoming of no more value than our native 

 stock. Those imported from foreign countries have, 

 by superior skill and great attention, been brought to 

 what they are, and the same skill and attention will 

 be necessary to keep up their value. 



There is one fact, if I mistake not, in the physiol- 

 ogy of animal nature, which is frequently overlooked ; 

 namely, the perpetuation of a good breed depends 

 more upon the choice of a sire, than the dam. 1 do 

 not recollect that I have seen a bull in this County, 



