46 THE COW 



cruel and careless methods allow cattle to perish 

 from starvation and exposure. In exceptionally 

 severe winters the loss has been appalling both 

 from a financial standpoint and from the animal 

 suffering involved. As a matter of fact, all our 

 farm animals exhibit extraordinary ability to with- 

 stand — or more correctly to live through — ^hard 

 conditions. It was long a fireside tradition of the 

 Susquehanna Valley that when the Cherry Valley 

 massacre took place in the autumn of 1778, involv- 

 ing the captivity or murder of most of the settlers 

 and the extinction of the community, some horses 

 wandered off into the woods and one of them at 

 least was not reclaimed until three years later, 

 having somehow survived all the vicissitudes and 

 rigors of the winters of the central New York 

 plateau. It is certain that a race of hard ponies, 

 descendants of horses, shipwrecked there long ago, 

 can thrive perfectly on the coastal islands of tide- 

 water Virginia. 



There are stUl many parts of the world, includ- 

 ing our own western range country, where prac- 

 tically all animal industry depends on pasture — a. 

 type of agriculture which is primitive and ineffi- 

 cient and must eventually give way to a wiser and 

 more careful husbandry. This system can survive 

 only on lands that are very cheap and abundant or 

 else so steep, rocky, or unproductive as to forbid 

 regular rotation and the use of the plow. 



Viewed in the light of present-day methods, our 



