12 



in the care of Mr. Winslow, the agent of the Plymouth 

 Colony, early in the spring of 1623. To what breed they 

 belonged it is impossible to tell; but as a large proportion 

 of the early immigrants were from Devonshire and the 

 south of England, where the Devon cattle were even then 

 popular, and where that breed had long been established, 

 it is very probable that the earliest arrivals here were 

 strongly tinctured with this blood ; for the circumstances 

 of our ancestors did not admit of their entering very large- 

 ly into fancy stock. It is more likely that the animals 

 were purchased as advantageously as possible in the sec- 

 tion of country where the travelers debarked. The color 

 of their descendants would indicate that they were Dev- 

 ons, more or less pure. 



There is every reason to suppose that the class of ani- 

 mals to which I am referring had their origin as I have 

 suggested, and that in the same manner a larger sized and 

 coarser animal was early found in New York, and a 

 smaller and less thrifty breed, analogous to the Jerseys, 

 were planted in the southern part of Maryland, and are 

 found there to this day. 



"Whatever may have been its origin, it has really no 

 characteristic left which would recommend it to an intelli- 

 gent breeder. "The old red stock of New England " is 

 acclimated, it is true ; so is the second generation of any 

 imported Short-horn, or Ayrshire, or Jersey ; yet the diffi- 

 culty is, that they are a series of accidents. The (Jakes 

 cow, with the fame of which all New England was filled 

 nearly half a century ago, was driven from Kandolph, 

 Vermont, to Dan vers, Massachusetts, won a high reputa- 

 tion, and left none of her good qualities to her descend- 

 ants. She is said to have descended from a race of good 



