No. 149.] 475 



were considered far superior to the Dnrhams in all the quali- 

 ties of a good animal. To this day in England, and also here, 

 the original Durham blood often shows itself, their milk although 

 abundant is thin, nothing like as rich as most other good breeds, 

 they are delicate and require more feed and care to keep them in a 

 thrifty, improving condition . Hence without this extra care, they 

 would soon loose the title to the name of " Improved Durham." Still 

 they are an admirable race and possess some excellent qualities 

 which some other good breeds do not. This race it is here main- 

 tained might be further improved, in our country, by crossing 

 some of our best breeds with them, such as our American Devons 

 as our red cattle are called, or any other good breed as we have 

 numbers of them, whose good properties are known and been 

 proved by years or ages of profitable use and service. By such a 

 cross the Improved Durham might no doubt be further amelio- 

 rated, especially in the original defects of delicacy of constitution 

 and thinness of milk, and this would appear more striking in 

 the second or third generation, after the new mixed race gets 

 enured to our climate and habituated to the kind of fieed and care 

 here bestowed upon them. These circumstances from what I 

 have seen and heard have considerable influence on the health 

 and thrift of neat cattle, air, water, or such as they have not been 

 accustomed to, often affects tlieir health. Our western States, 

 especial Ip Kentucky and Ohio, have for some time cultivated this 

 Durham breed, or this more than any other, and they find that it 

 improves in the second or third generation. They are not so 

 delicate in their hoofs ; they are subject to a disease called foul 

 hoofs; not so often affected in the liver, which latter is ascribed to 

 the water. The old native breeds are scarcely ever affected with 

 these complaints. Our western friends have suffered at times 

 from these causes, especially when driving their cattle to a 

 distant eastern market. I suppose though ultimately they have 

 been gainers by introducing the Durham breed among them ; 

 still I think, if at the time they went to the great expense of im- 

 porting this breed from a foreign land, they had brought from the 

 North some of its best and more hardy breeds, like the American 

 Devons, and crossed them with their natives, they would have 

 been greater gainers. Such a race would have been sooner ac- 



