particular breed, will give more wool and much better 

 mutton, than if invested in ten of the ordinary lean, 

 thin-wooled, long-legged fence-jumpers, better for his 

 pockets, and for the dispositions of his neigJibors, to pur- 

 chase the five. If a few good cattle, of superior breed 

 and qualities, wdll furnish more milk and butter, or more 

 and better beef, than twice their number of " the com- 

 mon run," and if their increase is worth more, at three 

 months old, than the progeny of the latter at six months 

 or a year old, then the profits, to say nothing of the sat- 

 isfaction enjoyed by the proprietor, would indicate the 

 desirableness of having the better breed of animals. 



There are men in Florida whose herds of cattle are 

 numbered by the thousand, and one proprietor, about 

 fifty miles south of Jacksonville, is said to own about 

 forty thousand. But the animals, like all those of that 

 region, are poor, little starvelings, scarcely equal to re- 

 spectable goats ; and, it is said, a- dozen of them give 

 not much more than a gallon of milk. This is worse 

 than anything in New England ; but we might find, in 

 our own Commonwealth, perhaps, examples as little de- 

 serving of commendation. Concentration of capital in 

 animals is evidently as wise as the concentration of ex- 

 pense in the cultivation of a few acres well, rather than 

 spreading it over many acres. The advice of Virgil — 

 " Praise large farms but cultivate a small one," — is as 

 applicable to our age and country as to Italy in his day. 



It is time this matter was pondered by our farmers. 

 The cheapness of land in this country has led to an am- 

 bitious mode of extending a superficial tilth over large 

 surfaces, and congregating worthless animals on lean 

 pastures, without proper regard to appearance or to 

 profit. The consequence is a slovenly style of conduct- 



