196 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



April 



milk, but making butter and cheese, to cross the 

 breed in the way mentioned, than to keep the 

 imported breeds pure. 



Hoii. JosiAH QuiNCY, Jr., of Boston, said that 

 at the great agricultural show at Paris, the great- 

 est that ever took place in the world, the question 

 was presented, — "what class of cattle were to be 

 considered the very best, or the representative 

 breed, for all purposes." The committee to de- 

 cide this question was equally composed of Eng- 

 lish and French, the chairman having the casting 

 v^e, being a Frenchman. The French insisted 

 that all three of the points, milk, yoke and sham- 

 bles, should be considered in the award, while the 

 English did not look at it in that light. He be- 

 lieved the matter was decided that it was necessa- 

 ry to look at the requirements of the animal, 

 and what you wanted it for, in awarding the palm 

 of excellence- Ho spoke of the interest manifest- 

 ed at the Paris exhibition, and mentioned the fact 

 of $2500 being paid there for one cow. In a re- 

 cent agricultural exhibition in Albany, Mr. Quin- 

 cy said, he had seen what was said to be the best 

 bull in England, the property of Col. Thorne, and 

 for which he paid $5000 there. This was a Short- 

 horn ; and there was a singular incident connect- 

 ed with his purchase which he related as follows : 

 Some years ago, Mr. Thorne commissioned his 

 agent in England to purchase for him the very 

 best bull in the country, as also a cow. The agent 

 paid $5000 for the bull, and bought a cow which 

 happened to be in calf. As she was near her 

 time of calving he did not ship her until after the 

 biilh of the calf, and not desiring to send the 

 weakly offspring, he shipped the cow alone, mak- 

 ing a present of the calf to the man of whom he 

 purchased the cow. In course of time the bull 

 died, and Mr. Thorne announced the fact to his 

 agent in England, at the same time commission- 

 ing him to buy another, also to be the best in 

 the country. The agent went to work and select- 

 ed an animal for which he paid, as before, $5000, 

 and which, on investigation of pedigree, proved to 

 be the very calf he had given away at the time of 

 his former purchase for Mr. Thorne. 



In Kentucky, where they had abundance of 

 feed, Cassius M. Clay considered the S4iort-horns 

 the most profitable breed to raise for the sham- 

 bles, but in our own State, Mr. Quincy thought 

 they were not so favorably looked upon. He 

 thought that the Alderneys and Ayrshires were 

 well deserving the attention of our farmers as 

 producing milk, butter and cheese, and a cross 

 from these might be found to answer the other 

 requirements named. 



He thought our native breeds of cattle were a 

 good deal like some of our native American citi- 

 zens, if you looked back to the grandfather, and in 

 some casfes to the father, you would find they 



came from "Ould Ireland." A good deal, said he, 

 depends on feeding a cow, in the profit you can 

 derive from her, and the use you can put her to, 

 and this is a matter of weighty importance. He 

 closed by relating in an amusing manner the con- 

 troversy at the Paris show in the matter of award- 

 ing the first premium on hogs, showing that this 

 was given to the French, on the ground that their 

 hogs were able to take care of themselves in a 

 great measure, while the English had to be taken 

 care of. 



Mr. Howard, of Boston, said that at the Paris 

 show the premium for the best beef was awarded 

 to the Scotch cattle, and the Durham Short-horn 

 came the seventh in the award. He thought that 

 if we looked at the comparative estimate in which 

 the Short-horn is held in England, we should find 

 it was much over-estimated here, as it was only 

 in the richest parts of England they were kept. 

 What is known here as the Herdbook family of 

 Short-horns are not kept in England to any ex- 

 tent, and he had never seen one there. At the 

 London show, the year before last, there were 150 

 cattle shown for dairy purposes, and last year a 

 less number. Among these there were no Short- 

 horns, no Devons, no Herefords, and last year only 

 two of the latter. The contest was between grade 

 Short-horns, grade Herefords, Jerseys and Welch. 

 The South Devon breed, said he, is kept some- 

 what for dairy purposes, and on fan- pasturage 

 it is said to fat easy and to make good beef, and 

 is considered as among the best for the shambles. 

 Scotch is also considered good, and Herefords sell 

 at about the same price. The Smithfield Club 

 was formed, he said, about the commencement of 

 the present century, whose object was to ascertain 

 what breeds of cattle were the best, and could be 

 raised at the least expense, and their plan of as- 

 certaining this had been changed about five years 

 since, when they concluded to make two sweep- 

 stakes, the prizes to be a valuable gold medal in 

 each — one for cows and heifers, and the other for 

 oxen and steers. In addition to this they gave 

 prizes to the classes separately. This he thought 

 was a good plan, and would work well with us, 

 and he hoped to see it adopted. 



Mr. Flint, Secretary of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, said, in reply to the remarks of Mr. Sheldon, 

 that at tlie last State Fair, held in Boston, sep- 

 arate premiums were offered for all breeds, in- 

 cluding natives, also premiums for the best cows 

 for milk purposes. He was not prepared to make 

 any lengthy remarks on the question under dis- 

 cussion, but he saw a gentleman from North 

 Brookfield present, and he thought it would in- 

 terest the meeting to hear a statement from him 

 in relation to the disease at present prevailing 

 among cattle in his neighborhood. 



Hon, Freeman Walker, of North Brookfield, 



