422 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Ian tic to the Pacific ocean. The grantees subsequently united 

 merchants with them from London, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth^ 

 Shrewsbury, and Dorchester, England. 



A great many ships came out to Maine in the spring, year after 

 year, bringing from various ports in France, England, Scotland 

 and Ireland, more or less emigrants and cattle, and taking back a 

 cargo of fish in the fall and winter. Tliese ships would introduce 

 cattle from almost every seaport in the realm. The people around 

 Biddeford bay, in Devonshire, England, were, at an early day^ 

 engaged in fisheries along the shores of Maine and Newfoundland. 

 Here were found the old North Devons, Cornwall and Welsh 

 cattle. Thus we find the cattle of New Hampshire and Maine 

 a more thoroughly mixed race than those of any other part of New 

 England. They are the best of oxen for heavy work, and when 

 fed well, for beef. 



In almost every part of Europe and England, skulls of cattle 

 have been dug up and found far exceeding in bulk any now 

 known. There is a fine specimen in the British Museum. Such 

 skulls have been found in the vicinity of the mines in Cornwall, 

 England, showing types of the Devons, East Sussex, and Welsh 

 cattle, as well as of the Scotch Highland cattle. Calves, when 

 permitted to run with the cow, will suckle two years and longer. 

 Mr. Pell, of the American Institute, killed a calf which had run 

 and suckled two years ; it then weighed, when slaughtered^ 

 2,000 lbs. 



The largest cattle can only be raised by letting the calves 

 suckle until they wean themselves j at about two years of age the 

 teeth have now become a new set, the milking teeth fall out, and 

 the animal is now able with its large, firm teeth, to crop the grass 

 and obtain a living for itself without the aid of its mother. 



W^e violate the laws of nature when we wean the calves and 

 feed them on skimmed milk, or undertake to control their feedj 

 the stock now becomes stunted and dwarfish. There is no tam- 

 pering with the laws of nature without producing injury, and 

 breeders only want to follow those laws to secure the largest, the 

 best, and the most profitable stock. 



