PREFACE. » 



Stock to the desii-ed standard of excellence, the better way 

 was to resort to such European breeds as, by a long course 

 of intelligent culture, already possessed the properties 

 required. It was so with our dairy, or milking stock. 

 As a race, they were lamentably deficient in the uniform- 

 ity of their milking qualities, and the yields they pro- 

 duced. "We needed better ones, and to undertake to build 

 them up from the miscellaneous herds, composed of all 

 congregated mixtures, as they are, without any certain 

 basis to commence 'upon, was a hazardous, and almost 

 interminable labor, as well as uncertain mode of proced- 

 ure. Hence, numerous importations of the choice breeds 

 of foreign cattle have been made, involving an outlay of 

 millions of dollars in the aggregate. The propagation of 

 these cattle, the success that has attended them, and the 

 popularity which they have achieved among our intelli- 

 gent farmers, and breeders, has confirmed the wisdom of 

 those enterprising men who embarked their capital and 

 labor in their introduction. 



Further knowledge in relation to these foreign breeds, 

 of their breeding, and rearing, together with their benefi- 

 cial uses in elevating the qualities of our old native stock, 

 through their adaptability in crossing their blood upon 

 them, has now, beyond a question, decided the necessity 

 of a book on "American Cattle." Therefore, such as it 

 is, this volume goes forth to the public. 



