50 "NATIVES" OR GRADES. ORIGIN. 



The term " native," or " scrub," is applied to a vast 

 majority of our American cattle, which, though born on 

 the soil, and thus in one sense natives, do not constitute 

 a breed, race, or family, as properly understood by 

 breeders. They do not possess characteristics peculiar 

 to them all, which they transmit with any certainty to 

 their offspring, either of form, size, color, milking or 

 working properties. But, though an animal may be 

 made up of a mixture of blood almost to infinity, it does 

 not follow that, for specific purposes, it may not, as an 

 individual animal, be one of the best of the species. 

 And for particular purposes individual animals might 

 be selected from among those commonly called natives 

 in New England, and scrubs at the West and South, 

 equal, and perhaps superior, to any among the races 

 produced by the most skilful breeding. There can be 

 no impropriety in the use of the term " native," there- 

 fore, when it is understood as descriptive of no known 

 breed, but only as applied to the common stock of the 

 country, which does not constitute a breed. But per- 

 haps the whole class of animals commonly called " na- 

 tives " would be better described as grades, since they 

 are well known to have sprung from a great variety of 

 cattle procured in different places and at different times 

 on the continent of Europe, in England, and in the 

 Spanish West Indies, brought together without any 

 regard to fixed principles of breeding, but only from 

 individual convenience, and by accident. 



The first importations to this country were doubtless 

 those taken to Virginia previous to 1609, though the 

 exact date of their arrival is not known. Several cows 

 were carried there from the West Indies in 1610, and 

 the next year no less than one hundred arrived there 

 from abroad. 



The earliest cattle imported into .the Plymouth col- 



