398 
Wisconsin - State Agricultural Society. 
Cole, of Indiana, and other successful dairymen testify^ to the great 
benefits derived from introducing superior two-year-old male Jer¬ 
seys to selected native dairy-herds. Mr. Cole has, after twenty 
years of careful attention to the dairy business, brought his entire 
native herd of cows, under the Jersey treatment, up to an average 
of three hundred pounds of butter for each cow per season. Mr. 
Harding, of Louisville, Kentucky, also a successful dairymen, has a 
high opinion of, and great confidence in, native cows for great re¬ 
sults in dairying. 
The Massachusetts Agricultural Society, after many years of ex¬ 
periments, has not been able to decide the point of excellence be¬ 
tween the competing breeds of cattle. The Hampshire, (Mass.,) 
agricultural association has declared, after numerous tests, in fa¬ 
vor of the Devons. But all agree on one point, viz., the policy 
of generous feeding and careful treatment. If the climate is not 
what is desired, make one that will keep the cows from being once 
chilled; as the expenditure or waste of food in counteracting frost 
destroys the profits, and the cold impairs the milking capacity of 
the cows. Any animal carefully housed is half fed. A cow that 
has been poorly wintered will scarcely be fit for business before 
mid-summer. Equal temperature, pure atmosphere, good ventil¬ 
ation, abundant food, and clear water are essential in pushing a dairy 
up to a profitable standard at which a sound dairyman aims. 
It would, I respectfully submit, be desirable to avoid introducing 
and multiplying in this country a breed of cattle which would not 
be of general utility or serviceable to the average American farmer, 
who wants stock that will enable him to carry on his farming opera¬ 
tions advantageously and comfortably, especially as there is no lack of 
land or food for man and beast, and therefore, inasmuch as it is a well 
established or demonstrated fact that the short-horns and Devons 
generally thrive well and have achieved desirable results, our pre¬ 
ferences should be confined to a choice between those two breeds, 
in efforts to improve native cattle for the general purposes of the 
farm, as no one can go wrong if he takes either. Their vigor or 
vitality commend them as sound breeding-stock; and in all cases 
they have toned up the grade of our native cattle. For the yoke 
only, the Herefords, as seen in England, seem to be entitled to 
preference, in consequence of their great size and enormous strength; 
and in our pineries, where large oxen are in demand, they would be 
