18 



dent that even the most careless farmer became anxious 

 to avail himself of the improvement, for he found in the 

 confusion of shapes and sizes and colors by which he 

 was surrounded that "blood will tell," and that an ani- 

 mal intended for a specific purpose possessed qualities 

 and powers unknown to any mere accident. The old- 

 fashioned Yorkshire cow, the great cow of the London 

 dairies, whose immense frame has served as the foundation 

 of a most valuable race of animals in England, did much 

 to increase the dairy products of our farms, belonging as 

 she did to a race of milkers. And it now became evident 

 that the most rapid and economical way to arrive at any 

 desirable point was to begin at once at the fountain head 

 wherever that had been fixed. 



Whoever at the present day desires a dairy herd can 

 find animals bred for that special purpose, for many gen- 

 erations, on the farms in Ayrshire, and which have been 

 brought by care and cultivation to the highest standard of 

 a milking cow. He cannot find that breed in this coun- 

 try ; he must go abroad for it; so also for animals for beef, 

 work, &c. There are better breeds of cattle in England 

 and Scotland than there are in our own country, with the 

 exceptions of those imported by us, or descended directly 

 from our importations. Now, this is not the case with 

 regard to our horses. The American trotting horse is an 

 animal after his own kind; and, I venture to say, une- 

 qualed by any horse on the face of the earth, in all that 

 makes such an animal truly valuable for all kinds of work. 

 It takes true equine genius to make a trotting horse. His 

 mechanism must be as w T ell balanced and as symmetrical 

 as a locomotive ; propelled as he is by one quarter at a 

 time, his progress is the result of nerve and strength and 



