ADDRESS OF Mil. LORtNG. 



17 



There is no prevailing type about them. Long-horns, 

 and short-horns and no-horns ; straight-backs and 

 crooked ; shoulders as compact as those of a SuHblk pig, 

 and shoulders as loose and coarse as the forequarters 

 of a dromedary ; fine silky hair, and hair as coarse as 

 bristles; the "feel" of an air-tight stove, and skins as 

 soft and elastic as wash-leather ; a heap of offal on the 

 one hand and that superabundance of flesh nicknamed 

 " sandwich," on the. other ; pocket editions- of cows, and 

 huge folios of oxen growing side by side in the same 

 family ; cows that will give milk the year round, and 

 cows that go dry four or five months out of the twelve, 

 both of one parentage ; these constitute the " old red 

 cattle of New England," which are recommended to our 

 farmers for their special care and attention. There are 

 meritorious animals among them, it is true. It would 

 be extraordinary were there not. But let any man 

 undertake to collect a herd of twenty cows, of superior 

 quality, out of this great New England family, and how 

 long do you suppose it will take him to do it ? As I 

 have said, the good ones are the exceptions — they are 

 fortunate accidents. And although there may be in 

 these animals — some of them — a basis for a good native 

 stock of our own, still I must confess that I conceive 

 the farthest remote from them the best position to gain 

 with any prospect of uniformity and superior excellence. 

 The observation of every man of experience will teach 

 him this. Wherever in New England, or in fact in the 

 United States, you may find a locality famous for good 

 cattle, the high quality of that stock has come from 

 some pure importation. More than fifty years ago, Mr. 



