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of nearly fifty cows of native stock, almost as productive as these. 

 I do not mean to undervalue the impoited stock. Far from it. I 

 deem the introduction of the Ayrshire stock and the improved Dur- 

 ham short-horn, a great benefaction to the country. Their tendency 

 to fatten, their early maturity, their beautiful proportions, highly com- 

 mend them to our good will and our interests. As yet, we have not 

 had, by any means, a sufficiently fair trial of their dairy properties so 

 as to determine fully, either for or against them ; and it has been found 

 here, in repeated instances, as it has proved abroad, that a cow, from a 

 cross of an improved Durham, with the Devon, has given a valuable an- 

 imal for the dairy. But among the great advantages which is to result 

 from the introduction of this improved and beautiful stock, is this : 

 to give our farmers a knowledge of what can be done by skill, intel- 

 ligence, care, selection, and perseverance in the art of breeding ani- 

 mals for any purpose ; in obviating defects of form, constitution, and 

 habit; and in perpetuating and transmitting excellent and desirable prop- 

 erties. In the Ayrshire stock, and in the improved Short Horns, 

 the most shrewd and persevering efforts have been exerted, and the 

 highest practical ^kill and philosophy have been taxed to carry this 

 race to as great a degree of perfection as any thing of the kind can 

 be ; and the success- has been decisive and wonderful. Excepting in 

 one instance, to which I shall hereafter refer at large, perhaps there 

 cannot be found in the whole of New England, a single instance of 

 any enlightened, determined, and systematic attempt to form a race of 

 animals of particular and desirable properties. It is most important 

 that this should be attempted in different parts of our country, with 

 what are called our native stock, who have become, in various ways, 

 so crossed and mixed up, that there is in truth no particular race 

 among them. A large portion of them are as ungainly, unthrifty, and 

 unproductive as can well be represented or imagined. Yet there are 

 among them so many extraordinary animals, — extraordinary for their 

 produce in milk, butter and cheese, — that a few years of careful and 

 intelligent selection from the materials already to our hand, and a 

 strict observance of those philosophical principles of breeding which 

 are well ascertained and understood, would undoubtedly give us a 

 breed of animals, a stock or race of animals, greatly superior to that 

 which now exists among us. This has been attempted in one in- 

 stance by a highly intelligent breeder among us ; and he is now able 



