1860, 



NEW ENGLAND FAIlIVrEIl. 



195 



LEGISLATIVE AGRICULTUBAL 



MEETING. 



[Reported for the New England Farmer by Thos. Bradley.J 



The eighth meeting of the session of the Legis- 

 latiiie Agricultural Society Avas held in the Repre- 

 sentatives' Hall at the State House, on Tuesday 

 evening last. Hon. N. Eddy, of Oxford, occu- 

 pied the chair, the subject for discussion being, 

 "What are the best measures that our Agricultu- 

 ral Societies can adopt to satisfy the public con- 

 clusively Avhich are the most profitable breeds of 

 cattle for the farmers of New England to keep on 

 their farms; 1, for the daiiy ; 2, for the yoke ; 

 3, for the shambles ?" 



The chairman said he occupied his position un- 

 expectedly, and was not conversant with the sub- 

 ject for discussion practically, yet he considered 

 it one of the utmost importance to agriculturists. 

 He thought that some breeds of cattle Avcre good 

 for dairy purposes that were not good for the oth- 

 ers named, and thus it would be necessary to dis- 

 cuss the subject in this manner. The Ayrshires 

 he considered, as did many others, as among the 

 most profitable for dairy purposes, but that to put 

 them into beef they paid but a small sum for the 

 cost of feeding. Many considered the Durham 

 breed as good, and he thought that where they 

 had rich, heavy feed, as was got in the Connecti- 

 cut Valley and the more fertile portions of our 

 State, they might do well ; yet with the feed to be 

 had in three-fourths of our State, he felt satisfied 

 they were not the best breed for farmers to raise. 

 In his opinion, a cross between the Devon and Na- 

 tive would be found the best breed for the three 

 purposes named in the question for discussion, 

 over three-quarters of the territory in New Eng- 

 land, as they were good milkers, hardy for the 

 yoke, and, when well fatted, good for the shambles. 

 He should recommend the improved Devon breed, 

 or, as an equivalent, the best native breed, as in- 

 cluding all the qualifications desired. 



Mr. Asa Sheldon, of Wilmington, thought the 

 subject one of the utmost importance, and said 

 that he considered the milch cow of more impor- 

 tance than most people, but he would say that the 

 majority of persons did not understand that milk, 

 butter and cheese were not all a milch cow pro- 

 duced. After these, said he, we get a little pork, 

 veal and skins, all made from the milk. There 

 are 500 head of cattle butchered every day in 

 Massachusetts, said the speaker, and the first $3 

 in each of these is made from milk, thus giving a 

 product of $1500 a day from this source alone, 

 and making it highly necessary that we should get 

 the best cows. The State has been liberal to the 

 various county societies, and the public, he 

 thought, had a right to seek information from 

 them, but the way they were going on he did not 

 Bee that the people were likely to get it. Pre- 



miums are offered for the various breeds of cattle 

 separately, Herefords, Durhams, Ayrshires, De- 

 vons, &c., &c., and the same encouragement is 

 given to the breeder of the poorest as to him 

 who exhibits the best breed. 



He thought the only true way was to let all 

 compete together on equal terms for the premium, 

 and let the best cow take the highest premium, and 

 then we should know what breed was the best 

 and most profitable to raise. He compared the 

 present method of awarding premiums for cattle 

 to that of giving premiums for mowing machine, 

 allowing the maker of each kind of machine to be 

 considered as a class by himself. He concluded 

 his remarks by expressing a hope that a resolve 

 would be passed that all breeds of cattle should 

 compete together, and on their merits. Foreign 

 breeds, said he, are kept better than Natives, and 

 unless we let them compete together we shall nev- 

 er be able to decide which should have the prefer- 

 ence. 



Col. Heard, of Wayland, differed from the pre- 

 vious speaker in the matter of separating the dif- 

 ferent breeds of cattle ; he thought the great trou- 

 ble among our farmers was, that they were too 

 negligent in breeding stock — that when they get 

 a good cow they don't pay the attention they 

 should to the animal they select to raise by. If 

 agricultural societies are going to ascertain which 

 are the b-^si breeds of cattle, they must be par- 

 ticular and keep them separate, and thus induce 

 farmers to exercise care in getting the best ani- 

 mals from which to raise stock. He considered 

 that there was nothing that kept our native stock 

 down more than this negligence in selecting good 

 blood. The Ayrshire and Alderney were consid- 

 ered the best cows for milk, and perhaps the latter 

 for butter, and he considered this was entirely 

 owing to keeping the blood pure, while if we 

 could keep our own native stock iip, we could, he 

 felt assured, get them to be as profitable as the 

 imported cattle. He spoke of the great necessity 

 there was that agricultural societies should im- 

 press this matter of the selection of blood stock 

 on farmers. 



Mr. Gale, of Heath, said there was not this 

 trouble in regard to the various kinds ;of cattle in 

 Franklin county, as they had very few except of 

 the Durham breed there. They found that the 

 best and most profitable cattle they could keep 

 were a grade from the Native to the Durham, as 

 these were finely proportioned, good and hardy to 

 work, kind and docile, and mature quickly, mak- 

 ing good beef. As an idea of the size of the stock 

 raised, he mentioned a pair of steers, owned by 

 a neighbor of his, that were three years old this 

 spring, which were called 3600 lbs. live weight. 

 Most of the farmers in his section thought it de- 

 cidedly better for their interest, not selling their 



