6 



wc have met to honor, that which lies at the foundation of 

 all farming, that which includes the very first step 'in Agri- 

 culture, I have, of necessity, been led to the consideration 

 of the animals which support us in our business, and are 

 the active force of all husbandry. 



Besides, I have regretted with you all, the necessary 

 absence, from most of our exhibitions, of those old friends 

 whose presence has always given the chiefest interest to 

 our shows, who have given them their name, and whose 

 condition tells as nothing else can, the story of soil, and 

 climate, and agriculture. The ravages of a dangerous 

 distemper, which threatened to extend throughout our 

 country, and which nothing but the most energetic and 

 decided measures have succeeded in checking, and I hope 

 removing, have appealed to our prudence ; and the public- 

 exhibition of cattle, has, for this season, been almost uni- 

 versally suspended. Our thoughts are directed, therefore, 

 more particularly to our cattle ; and out of consideration 

 for their misfortunes and our own, I propose to discuss 

 our dumb companions in this world, open as I may be to 

 the charge of repeating a "twice-told tale." 



The subjugation of the animal kingdom to the wants 

 and luxuries of man constitutes one of the most interest- 

 ing chapters in the history of practical human advance- 

 ment. In the beginning, man was created "to have do- 

 minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the 

 air, and over the cattle;" and when, by his "first diso- 

 bedience," he was obliged to resign the enjoyment of 

 reaping the spontaneous productions of the earth for an 

 unequal contest with thorns and thistles, no decree went 

 forth to release the beasts of the field from their predes- 

 tined bondage. The "bleating flocks" which welcomed 



