No. 149.] 231 



native, aud that have been so for many generations in both lines 

 of ascent, but the various mixed breeds, or as they are usually 

 called, grade sfock^i, obtained by crossing the pui'e native with 

 the best foreign breeds, and creating a new race or class of na- 

 tive breed, and having their origin here and with a view of im- 

 proving borh. The best native American breeds fifty or sixty 

 years ago without a particle of intermixture with any of foreign 

 origin, or any thing of a recent foreign origin were properly 

 bred, reared, and taken care of equal for all important purposes 

 to any in the world. As milkers, as working cattle, they were 

 certainly not inferior to any of that day; perhaps for butchers 

 meat they might have not been equal to some foreign breeds, and 

 this, not so much because they were not susceptible of it, but we 

 were a young country, and could not generally afford to spend 

 the time and money which the Englisli and some otlier foreign 

 nations did in feeding and preparing their animals, and making 

 them hog fat for market. We could not get so well, or not well 

 enough paid, at that day, for the labor and expense of such a 

 system. Single cases are recollected and could be cited, where 

 oxen, coAvs, heifers, and steers, more than fifty years ago, Avere 

 made as fat and as fine beef, in every way, and with expenditure 

 of as little time and money in doing it, as in any European coun- 

 try of that day. The original stock came from Europe, and 

 more especially England, perhaps nine-tenths of it, and at dif- 

 ferent periods of the last two or three centuries. Some of these, 

 no doubt, were of the best breeds then known in England, and 

 the race were supposed, by some, to have improved here after it 

 got acclimated, and with the care and attention bestowed upon it 

 by our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, not only as milkers, but also as . 

 beef or butchers' meat. 



Such a foundation would be the best in the world to build' 

 upon, either by perpetuating the old race without any mixture 

 of foreign, or by crossing it witli the best foreign breeds ; either 

 would do, as either would make a good race. The great object 

 with all animals, liuman or brute, on emigration, or importa- 

 tion, is to acclimate them ; to accustom them to the climate to 

 which they emigrate or are removed. It is usually observed by 

 the best physiologists, that there is a shade of difference in all 



