the dawn of creation were sacrificed to furnish the two 

 first human sinners with "coats of skins" after their ex- 

 pulsion from Eden into the chilling influences of the other 

 world; and we are told that the second horn on the face 

 of the earth occupied those primeval hours, amid new and 

 oriental luxuriance, as a "keeper of sheep." 



From that day to this the production and care of ani- 

 mals adapted to human wants has been one of the most 

 important branches of husbandry. We have no means of 

 judging of the quality of Abel's sheep, "of the firstlings 

 of his flock, and of the fat thereof." We only learn of Ja- 

 cob's herds that they were "ring-streaked and speckled," 

 and amidst all the elevation of Taurus, the bull, into the 

 heavenly constellations, of Apis into the catalogue of 

 heathen deities ; amidst the poetic fancies which created 

 the white bull of Europa, and adorned the ancient gate- 

 ways and arches with the gaunt forms of stately oxen, and 

 gave the name Boopis (ox-eyed) to the fairest goddess, 

 and filled the classic song of Virgil with the voices of 

 thronging cattle, and gave to the English poet the sub- 

 dued and quiet picture, as 



" The lowing herd, winds slowly o'er the lea," 



and expressed the climax of luxuriant possession in " the 

 cattle upon a thousand hills;" amidst all this we have 

 never yet learned what skill and practical experience pro- 

 duced the foundation of such pleasing imagery, nor what 

 rural economies guided the earliest farmers in their rais- 

 ing of cattle. 



There is, it is true, an old French proverb, "no cattle, 

 no farming ; few cattle, poor farming ; many cattle, good 

 farming;" and we learn that when Cato, the wise and sa- 



