24 THE CULTIVATOR. 
and lean fleshed, such as were never seen in all the land 
of Egypt for badness.” It is not likely that any im¬ 
provement will be made in this kind of animal, the na¬ 
ture of the soil, the habits of growing the coarser kinds 
of grain, the foddering of straw in the winter, and pas¬ 
turing in the woods in summer, peculiar to the inhabi¬ 
tants, (they ought not to be called farmers,) of the Pine 
bush, will for years to come prevent any permanent 
amelioration of their condition. If at any time, the spi¬ 
rit of improvement should enter into the calculations of 
these people, they might by judicious crossing,and a plen¬ 
tiful supply of roots and vegetables to their stock for a 
great part of the year, attain to something more respecta¬ 
ble in this branch of business. This then appears to be 
the character, and these the qualifications of our native 
stock.” Notwithstanding their defects, “most valuable 
selections might be made from them, and these crossed 
by bulls of the improved breed, would furnish perhaps 
the most useful stock for the practical man, who was 
not prepared to pay the high prices inseparable from 
imported stock.” And it will be advisable to select 
cows, either from stock feeding in the neighborhood, or 
from those sorts that are best calculated for the nature 
and situation of the soil. T^he grand secret of breeding, 
is to suit the breed to the soil and climate. It is be¬ 
cause this has not been attended to, that those breeds 
which have been invaluable in certain districts, have 
proved altogether profitless and utterly unworthy of 
culture in others. Let that breed then which is most 
profitable and best suited to the farm be ascertained, 
and having succeeded in this, strive to improve it to the 
utmost, by selecting and breeding from those which to 
beauty of form, unite the more essential qualities of 
possessing kindly skins, of weighing most in the valua¬ 
ble parts, together with a disposition to lay fat on the 
best points, as well, as to fatten in a short period of time. 
The term “ kindly skin” means a soft mellow skin, yet 
firm to the touch, and is as different from the hard, dry 
skin of some cattle, as it is from the loose, flabby skin 
of others. The sense of touch, or the art of judging of 
the disposition to fatten, has been brought to such per¬ 
fection, that any Avell informed breeder can, on examin¬ 
ing lean beasts, tell with tolerable certainty in what parts 
they will or will not fatten. The improved short horns 
are in all respects the most profitable species of animal 
to cross with the native cow in situations where the soil 
is rich and luxuriant. They are good milkers, quick 
feeders, arriving at early maturity, and affording the 
greatest proportion of good meat to its offal, from the 
thickness and softness of hair with which this breed is 
covered, they endure without suffering the severity of 
our weather; but to the full development of all their 
properties, and to obtain their most valuable returns 
they should be well cared for and fed upon a full bite 
of grass. That this valuable breed of cattle have not 
been more generally sought for as a cross with our na¬ 
tive stock is owing in some degree, to their intrinsic va¬ 
lue in comparison with others. It is true the first cost 
of pure bred animals is high, but when it is considered 
how extensive is the influence of a bull, and how many 
improved animals may be yearly obtained by his servi¬ 
ces, the remuneration is most abundant. A very fine 
pure bred bull may be obtained for from two to three 
hundred dollars, and such an animal at three years old, 
may without injury to himself wait upon fifty cows. In 
those neighborhoods where such an animal is kept, the 
half bred yearlings bring from ten to twenty dollars, 
and in some cases thirty dollars. Our farmers only 
want to believe this fact to act upon it. But how make 
them believe itl Why let those gentlemen whose tastes, 
whose consideration for the farmer, whose love of do- 
itig good and whose means are sufficient, purchase such 
an animal, and allow his neighborhood a discriminative 
use of his services till conviction followed the evidence 
thus brought home to them. This has been the practice 
of your committee, who have allowed the industrious 
and inquiring farmer the use of their bulls for a few 
years past, without collecting the amount professedly 
charged for their services, and they now generally pay 
the service fee cheerfully, and the work of improvement 
is in our sections of the country rapidly going on. Ano¬ 
ther reason why the improved short horns are not more 
eagerly sought for by the great mass of farmers, is the 
idea that they require more food and will not keep so 
easy as the native cow. Now, if they pay better, and 
in proportion to the extra feed they require, and no one 
will deny that they do, this objection falls to the ground. 
The truth is, that as long as the slovenly style of farm¬ 
ing of the present day prevails, as it does in too many 
districts of the state, this objection will continue to be 
urged. There is yet very little good farming or syste¬ 
matic rotation of capping pursued, either by our large 
or small farmers. The land is taxed to its utmost as 
long as it will bear an average crop of any thing, and 
when completely exhausted, it is seeded down with five 
or six pounds of Timothy and Clover to the acre, and 
Oats or Buck Wheat, and if, as is generally the case, 
the grass is light, it is pastured until it recovers again 
in some measure by the manure dropped upon it, or till 
it is covered with a heavy growth of moss, which turn¬ 
ed under in the right time will, after a fashion, enable 
it again to undergo the process of cropping. Until this 
system is abandoned, and more attention paid to keep 
pasture lands in better tilth, and the growing of root 
crops for winter fodder for neat stock, it is almost use¬ 
less to attempt to improve the breed of cattle, or any 
thing else. Even the aristocratic race of the short horns 
in such cases would be compelled to knock under, and 
in process of time, by hard fare and inattention, would 
get back to the point from which skill and science, and 
care and attention first rescued them, and gave them 
their present elevated station among the brute creation. 
Let it be remembered, that a good bite of grass in sum¬ 
mer, and generous feeding in winter, is necessary to the 
full development and profitable culture of the short 
horns. Where this cannot be had, and the land is light 
and subject to drought, the beautiful little Devon will 
best find its value, and though not so good a dairy cow, 
yet she is the source of the finest working oxen, perhaps 
in the world. The Devons have also a claim to quick feed¬ 
ing, and a maturity much earlier than any unimproved 
breed. They are said to be the Aboriginal breed of Great 
Britain, and are there highly valued, and make most deli¬ 
cate beef when fatted. On lands of the above charac¬ 
ter, the cross between the Devon bull and the native 
cow would no doubt succeed admirably. These two va¬ 
rieties, the Improved Short Horns and the Devons be¬ 
long to different soils, and are suited to different purpo¬ 
ses, and both are extremely valuable in the situations to 
which they are adapted. The Galloways are also a 
breed well fitted, by reason of their hardihood, kindly 
feeding, and much endurance to the severity of our win¬ 
ters, and the misery of our barn yards. They are a 
very handsome breed of cattle, straight and broad in 
the back, round in the barrel, and full in the rib, in 
which points they will compare with any breed. They 
lay their fat upon the most valuable parts, and though 
the feed be short, and the winters long, they will do 
well and thrive. The Ayreshire breed are also said to 
feed kindly and profitably, in districts where others 
could not be made to thrive at all, uniting to a greater 
degree than any other breed, the supposed incompatible 
properties of yielding a great deal of milk and beef.— 
They are new comers, but bring with them a good re¬ 
port, and if they maintain the same excellent character 
for the dairy in our warmer climate, which they have 
gained at home, they may become the favorite stock of 
the country, though it is more than probable that when 
transplanted from their moist climate and poor soil to 
our warmer climate and richer soil, they will lose their 
superiority as milkers, and begin to accumulate flesh. 
The Hereford and Holstein breeds are partially known, 
in this country, and what little is known is not much to 
their credit. The former is no milker, the latter gives 
abundance of milk, but it is very poor; they are slow 
to feed, slow to move, and j^et slower in attaining matu¬ 
rity. The Alderney, though ill-shaped, is emphatically 
a better cow than either of the two last mentioned, al¬ 
ways poor herself to enrich the milk pail, and though 
a great feeder yields very little milk; that milk, how¬ 
ever, is of an extraordinary excellent quality, and gives 
more butter than can be obtained from any other cow. 
The above enumeration contains the description of all 
the breeds of cattle that we are familiar with, either 
personally or by reputation, that have been imported 
into the country for the purpose of crossing with our 
native stock. Of them all, your committee are of opi¬ 
nion, that the Improved Short Horns, for the rich and 
fertile valleys, and the North Devons, for the lighter 
but sweeter feed of the uplands, are the most profitable 
of all to cross with our native stock. They have been 
the longest in the country, and experience has proved 
their worth. The Galloways are probably next in im¬ 
portance, and the day may yet come when the hills of 
Franklin and Essex, and the whole Northern Frontier, 
for which they are admirably calculated, may be cover¬ 
ed with them. It only remains to conclude this report, 
and in the words of a Lincolnshire farmer, we would 
say to those who are, or would be, engaged in the busi¬ 
ness of rearing stock of any description—“ It should be 
an invariable rule to breed from small boned, straight 
backed, healthy, clean, kindly skinned, round bodied, 
and barrel shaped animals, with clean necks and throats, 
and little or no dew lap, carefully rejecting all those 
which may have heavy legs and roach backs, together 
with much appearance of offal.” 
W. A. S. NORTH, 
Chairman of the Committee on Neat Stock. 
Mr. H. S. Randall, of Cortland, from the committee 
on sheep, submitted the following report, which was ac¬ 
cepted. 
Report on Sheep. 
The principal breeds of sheep in the United States 
are the “native,” (so called;) the Spanish and Saxon 
Merinos, introduced from the countries whose names 
they bear; and the New-Leicester or Bakewell, the 
South Down, and some minor importations of Cots^wold, 
Lincolnshire, &c. from England. Chancellor Living¬ 
ston also speaks of two races as “indigenous” to this 
country, which we have pot enumerated, as it is not 
known to the committee that they are now bred in any 
portion of the United States, viz. the Otter and Smith's 
Island sheep, breeds said to have been discovered on 
two islands on our Atlantic coast. An almost infinite 
variety of crosses have taken place between the Spa¬ 
nish, English, and “native” families. To so great an 
extent indeed has this been carpipfl, that there are, com¬ 
paratively speaking, few flocks in the United States, 
that preserve entire the distinctive characteristics ofany^ 
one breed, or that can lay claim to unmixed purity ol 
blood. 
NATIVE SHEEP. 
Although this name is popularly applied to the com¬ 
mon coarse woolled sheep of the country, which existed 
here previously to the importation of the improved 
breeds, there is, properly speaking, no race of sheep 
“native” to North America, Mr. Livingston, in speak¬ 
ing of a race as “Indigenous,” only quoted the language 
of another,* and his informant was either mistaken as 
to the fact, or misapprehended the term. The only ani¬ 
mal of the genus Ovis, originally inhabiting this coun¬ 
try, is the Argali,f known to our enterprising travellers 
and traders who have penetrated to the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains, where the animal is found, as the Big Horn. 
Though the pelage of the argali approximates hut little 
to the avooI of the domestic sheep, they are, as is well 
known, considered by naturalists, to have belonged ori¬ 
ginally to the same species; and the changes which 
have taken place in the form, covering, and habits of 
the latter, are attributed to his domestication, and the 
care and skill of man during a long succession of years. 
The common sheep of the United States were of fo¬ 
reign, and mostly of English origin. The writer of the 
volume on sheep in the “ Farmer’s Series,” (Mr. Youatt,) 
speaks of them as “although somewhat differing in va¬ 
rious districts, consisting chiefly of a coarse kind of 
Leicester, originally of British breed.Others have 
seen, or fancied they saw, in some of them a strong re¬ 
semblance to the South Downs. Mr. Livingston was of 
this number.§ But it is far more probable that they 
can claim a common descent from no one stock. Our 
ancestors emigrated from different sections of the Bri¬ 
tish dominions, and some portion of them from other 
parts of Europe. They brought their implements of 
husbandry, and their domestic animals to fertilize the 
wilderness. Each, it would be natural to suppose, made 
choice of the favorite breed of his own immediate dis¬ 
trict, to transport to the New World, and the admixture 
of these various races formed the mongrel family now 
under consideration. Amid the perils of war and the 
incursions of beasts of prejq they were preserved with 
sedulous care. As early 1676, Mr. Edward Randolph, 
in a “Narrative to the Lords of the Privy Seal,” speaks 
of New-England as “abounding with sheep.”|| 
The common sheep yielded a wool only suited to the 
coarest fabrics, averaging, in the hands of good farmers, 
from three to three and a half pounds of wool to the 
fleece. They were slow in arriving to maturity, com¬ 
pared with the improved English breeds, and yielded, 
when fully grown, from ten to twelve pounds of a mid¬ 
dling quality of mutton to the quarter. They were usu¬ 
ally long legged, light in the fore quarter, and narrow 
on the breast and back, although some rare instances 
might be found of flocks with the short legs, and some 
approximation to the general form of the improved 
breeds. The common sheep were excellent breeders, 
often rearing, almost entirely destitute of care, and with¬ 
out shelter, one hundred per cent of lambs, and in small 
flocks a still larger proportion. These, too, were usu¬ 
ally dropped in March, or the earlier part of April. 
Restless in their disposition, their impatience of re¬ 
straint a lm ost equalled that of the untamed argali, from 
which they were descended, and in many sections of 
our country it was common to see from twenty to fifty 
of them roving with little regard to inclosures, over the 
possessions of their owner and his neighbors, leaving a 
large portion of their wool adhering to bushes and 
thorns, and the remainder placed nearly beyond the 
possibility of carding by the burs of the Tory bur, so 
common on new lands. 
The old common stock of sheep, as a distinct family, 
have nearly disappeared, having been universally cross¬ 
ed, to a greater or less extent, with the foreign breeds 
of later introduction. The first and second cross with 
the Merino, resulted in a decided improvement, and 
produced a variety exceedingly valuable for the farmer, 
who rears wool only for domestic purposes. The fleeces 
are of uneven fineness, being hairy on the thighs, dew¬ 
lap, &c.; hut the general quality is much improved; the 
quantity is considerably augmented; the carcase is more 
compact and nearer the ground; and they have lost 
their unquiet and roving propensities. The cross with 
the Saxon, for reasons which we shall hereafter allude 
to, has not been generally so successful. With the Lei¬ 
cester and Downs, the improvement, so far as form, 
size and a propensity to take on fat are concerned, is 
manifest. 
SPANISH MERINO. 
The history of this celebrated race of sheep, so far as 
it is known, has so often been brought before the pub¬ 
lic, that it is deemed unnecessary here to recapitulate 
it. The first importation of them into the United States, 
took place in 1801. Four rams were shipped by Mr. 
Delessart, a banker of Paris, three of which perished on 
the passaged The fourth arrived in safety at Rosen- 
dale, a farm owned by that gentleman near Kingston, in 
this state. In 1802, two pair were sent from France by 
Mr. Livingston, the American minister, to his estate on 
the Hudson; and later the same year, Mr. Humphreys, 
our Spanish minister, shipped one hundred, on his depar¬ 
ture from that country, for the United States. But they 
attracted little notice until our difficulties Avith England 
led to a cessation of commercial intercourse with that 
power in 1808 and 1809. The attention of the country 
being noAV directed towards manufacturing and wool 
growing, the Merino rose into importance. So great 
indeed Avas the interest excited, that from a thousand to- 
fourteen hundred dollars a head, was paid for them. 
Other and numerous importations soon followed, and 
unfortunately some of the cargoes arrived in the worst 
condition, bringing Avith them those scourges of the ovine 
'* Livingston’s Essay on Sheep, pages 58, 59. 
f Godman’s American Natural History. 
X Vol. on Sheep, page 134. 
§ Essay on Sheep, page 53. 
I] Colonial papers of Massachusetts. 
f “ Arclii\ r es of Useful Know ledge.—Cultivator, Vol. i, p. 
183. 
