32 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



much in their subsistence. Families of considerable wealth from 

 "home," began to add their numbers to the earlier emigrants, and 

 brought with them domestic stock of various kind, provided them 

 forage, and gave them shelter, and in some instances, probably, 

 selected choice specimens from favorite breeds in the localities 

 from whence they came, with which to improve those previously 

 imported, or their descendants, the then native herds. But in a 

 new country, harrassed by hostile savages, difficult of locomo- 

 tion and intercourse with each other in distant settlements, their 

 cattle were localized and confined to their own immediate neigh- 

 borhoods, pushing out into new districts only with the adventur- 

 ous parties forming settlements, where they could, of necessity, 

 pay little attention to selection or " improvsment " in their herds. 

 They took such as they had, or such as they could get, at the 

 least possible cost, as "browse" for the first few years was their 

 principal forage in winter, "leeks" in spring, and coarse grass 

 in summer and autumn for pasturage. The best they could do 

 was to provide food for their famihes, and let their cattle shift 

 for themselves. We presume however, that the earlier colonists, 

 having become well settled and thrifty in circumstances, cared 

 well for their herds and measurably improved their quality. 



Thus, undoubtedly, stood the condition of the neat cattle of 

 the colonies down into the years 1700, and after. "We have 

 accounts that, as the merchants of the sea-coast towns grew 

 rich, some enterprising ones made importations of choice breeds 

 from England, which were driven into the country neighbor- 

 hoods, and very considerably benefited their common stock. 



In the year 1608, Quebec, in Lower Canada, was founded by 

 the French, and soon afterwards, colonists came in consider- 

 able numbers from the western coast of France, -and brought 

 with them the little Normandy, or Brittany cattle, closely allied 

 in blood, appearance, and quahty, to the "Alderney " cows of the 

 Channel Islands. They are now propagated in all Lower 



