WANT OF UNIFORMITY. 55 



naturally made a dark brindle. Crosses of the Denmark 

 and Devon often made a lighter or yellowish brindle, 

 while the more recent importations of Jerseys and 

 short-horns have generally produced a beautiful spotted 

 progeny. The deep red has long been a favorite color 

 in New England ; but the prejudice in its favor is fast 

 giving way to more variegated colors. 



But, though we have already an exceedingly valua- 

 ble foundation for improvement, no one will pretend to 

 deny that our cattle, as a whole, are susceptible of it in 

 many respects. They possess neither the size, the sym- 

 metry, nor the early maturity, of the short-horns ; they 

 do not, as a general thing, possess the fineness of bone, 

 the beauty of form and color, nor the activity, of 

 the Devons or the Herefords; they do not possess 

 that uniform richness of milk, united with generous 

 quantity, of the Ayrshires, nor the surpassing richness 

 of milk of the Jerseys : but, above all, they do not pos- 

 sess the power of transmitting the many good qualities 

 which they often have to their offspring, which is a 

 characteristic of all well-established breeds. 



Equally certain is it, in the opinion of many good 

 judges, that the dairy stock of New England has not 

 been improved in its intrinsic good qualities during the 

 last thirty or forty years. Cows of the very highest 

 order as milkers were as frequently met with, they say, 

 in 1825, as at the present time. Any increased product 

 of our dairies they ascribe to improved care and feed- 

 ing, rather than to improvement in the dairy qualities 

 of the stock. 



This may not be true of some other sections of the 

 country, where the dairy has been a more special 

 object of pursuit, and where the custom of raising the 

 best male calves of the neighborhood, or those that 

 came from the best dairy cows, and then of using only 



