food. They unite, perhaps, to a greater degree than any other breed, the supposed incompatible properties of yielding a great deal of milk and beef. It is, however, on the inferior soil and the moist climate of Ayrshire and the west of Scotland, that their superiority as milkers is most remarkable. On their natural food of poor quality they give milk abundantly and long, and often until within a few days of calving; but when they are moved to richer pastures, their constitution changes, and they convert their food more into beef. In their own country, a cow of a fleshy make, and which seldom proves a good milker, may be easily raised to forty or fifty stones- five hundred and sixty or seven hundred pounds and bullocks of three years old are brought to weigh from fifty to sixty stones. seven hundred or eight hundred and forty pounds. There is a lurking tendency about them to fatten, which good pastures will bring forth; so that when the Ayrshire cow is sent to England, she loses her superiority as a milker, and begins to accumulate flesh."

Since our farmers generally breed for all purposes, a cross of the Ayrshire with our own natives would be more likely to produce stock better adapted to the wants of New England than is the thoroughbred Ayrshire. The oxen of this breed are not rated as superior to those of other breeds, either for strength, activity or docility, all of which qualities are important in working cattle.

In England the art of breeding cattle has been carried to great perfection, and some breeds are traced back nearly a hundred years. There are seven distinctive leading breeds, which are generally ranked in that country-Improved Short Horn, Long Horn or Lancashire, Hereford, Devon, Sussex, Suffolk and Welsh. This order of rank for good qualities is by no means universal, there being much controversy among breeders as to the position which each should occupy. With this, however, soil, climate and circumstances have much to do.

Probably no breed has been carried to such a degree of perfection as the Improved Short Horned. A Herd Book is periodically published containing the pedigrees of all pure-bred animals of this class. Mr. Dickson, in his book on "English Cattle," says: "No breeder of the present day need attempt to sell young bulls unless the pedigrees of the sire and dam are recorded in the Herd Book."

By some breeders in New England Devon stock is highly prized; and, judging from their leading characteristics, and from the country of their nativity, they may be introduced and bred

pure here with profit. In a climate congenial to them- and this principle must not be lost sight of when considering any of the different breeds - they mature at an early age, fatten kindly, and make fine beef. Youatt says that in their disposition to fatten, very few rival them. They do not, indeed, attain the great weight of some breeds; but in a given time they acquire more flesh, and with less consumption of food, and their flesh is beautiful in its kind. The cows yield a less quantity of milk than those of some other breeds, but it is of excellent quality, and produces more than an average proportion of cream and butter, and some select in preference to other breeds for the dairy, though they are not generally regarded as the best. One of the chief recommendations of this breed is the superiority of its oxen as workers. Youatt says: "They have a quickness of action which no other breed can equal, and very few horses exceed. They have a docility and goodness of temper, and stoutness and honesty of work, to which many horses cannot pretend."

In Holland dairy farming has for many years been a very important branch of husbandry, and great care has been bestowed upon the selection and breeding of dairy stock. Cattle known as the Dutch breed have been imported into this country from Holland by several gentlemen, who claim for them superiority as dairy, fattening and working stock, over most other foreign breeds, and that they cross well with our own native cattle. The Ayrshire breed is said to have been derived, in part at least, from animals imported into Cunningham districts from Holland. Mr. Rawlin, writing of these cattle in 1794, says that they "are allowed to be the best race for yield of milk in Great Britain or Ireland, not only for large quantities, but also for richness and quality."

The first importation of Dutch cattle into this country was made by the Dutch West India Company in 1625. Subsequently importations were made by the early Dutch settlers of the state of New York. More recently, in the year 1810, the late Hon. William Jarvis of Weathersfield, Vt., brought from Holland a bull and two cows, which were placed upon his farm. These cattle soon acquired an enviable local reputation, which has been maintained down to the present time, for all the qualities desirable for an American farmer. They were kept pure for many years, but it is doubtful if any can be found at the present day, though the stock on many farms in that vicinity was greatly improved by

crossing with them, and traces of the blood can be easily distinguished wherever it exists, though in remote degree.

The Alderney, or Jersey cattle, have been imported into this country from their native islands in the British Channel, and are celebrated for the richness and butter producing qualities of their milk. They yield but a small quantity in comparison with the amount of food consumed, but it is very rich and delicious. The animals are small and not valued as fattening or working stock. The Alderney must be regarded as almost exclusively a dairy breed, but not profitable for general purposes.

It is hardly necessary to allude to other foreign breeds, each of which has its friends, admirers and advocates.

The first object of every farmer should be the improvement of his stock of cattle. This may be done by carefully selecting and breeding from his best, successively; or what is more sure and easy, by crossing the best of his own stock with some pure bred stock possessing, in an eminent degree, the qualities he would secure. For this purpose, as before remarked, the breeder should have a definite idea of the improvements he wishes to make, and then steadily pursue his object. If he would improve his cows for dairy purposes, he will first procure a bull of some thoroughbred milking stock, and one of the best of his kind, possessing in an eminent degree the characteristics of his best ancestors. He will then select such heifers from his own stock as possess, and whose ancestors possessed, the qualities he desires, and cross them with the thoroughbred bull. In this way the progeny will, without an exception, be better than his original stock, because the characteristics of the bull will greatly predominate, since his have been well established by breeding from the best stock for generations, while the heifers have really no well established and settled traits of character. He has the advantage of the good qualities of the heifers selected from his own stock, mixed largely with the pure blood of the bull he crosses with them. From these half bloods the best, or those possessing in the greatest degree the qualities he desires, should be again selected and crossed with another good bull of the same pure blood of the first. After the first cross, the breeder should return again to the original thoroughbred stock, and so continue until the herd is brought to the degree of perfection aimed at in the start. If this course is steadily pursued, a few years will produce a herd of great value for the purpose for which it is bred.

When one dung-hill is bred to another, no one can foretell what the progeny will be. It may take back and be entirely unlike either parent, in form, color, description, etc. Such, however, is not the case when one or both of the parents are well bred. If you cross two well bred animals, you can tell what the progeny will be with a great degree of certainty. When the parents are both of the same pure breed,—on the principle that "like produces like "- the progeny will possess the same form, color, disposition and traits of character that have for a long time marked its ancestry.

No farmer can afford to breed from inferior animals of any kind, or from good ones in an improper way. And although he may follow the well established rules of breeding or crossing, his animals will not be superior unless they are given proper food, care and attention. If the dam is poorly fed and cared for while carrying her young, the progeny will be a starveling, and its life will not be long enough to erase from it the evidence of the ill treatment or neglect of the parent.

It is of great importance that the animals selected for breeding purposes, on both sides, should be sound and healthy, free from structural defects and disease, or predisposition to disease, as both defects and diseases appear to be more easily transmissible than desirable qualities. Indeed, Youatt says: "There is scarcely a malady to which the horse is subject, that is not hereditary. Contracted feet, curb, spavin, roaring, thick wind, blindness, notoriously descend from the sire or dam to the foal." Cattle being less exposed to the existing causes of disease, are not subject to so many of them, and what they have are less violent than in the horse, but they are equally transmissible, and should be avoided. with the same care by the breeder.

The extent to which structural defects, diseases, habits and dispositions are transmissible in the human species as well as the brute creation, is almost incredible to those whose attention has not been called particularly to the subject. In the human race this is exemplified in a marked degree in the Jews and gypsies. S. L. Goodale, Secretary of the Maine Board of Agriculture, in a little book on the principles of breeding, says: "The Jews, although exposed for centuries to the modifying influences of diverse climates, to association with people of widely different customs and habits, they never merge their peculiarities in those of any people with whom they dwell, but continue distinct. They retain

the same features, the same manners, customs and habits. The Jew in Poland, in Austria, in London, or in New York, is the same; and the money changers of the Temple at Jerusalem, in the time of our Lord, may be seen to-day on change in many of the larger marts of trade. How is this? Just because the Jew is a thoroughbred. There is no inter-marriage with the Gentile, no crossing, no mingling of his organization with that of another. When this ensues 'permanence of race' will cease and give place to variations of any or all sorts."

Pritchard, in his "Natural History of Man," says that the horses bred on the table lands of the Cordilleries are carefully taught a peculiar pace, which is a sort of running amble, and after a few generations this pace becomes a natural one; young, untrained horses adopting it without compulsion.

T. A. Knight, in a paper read before the Royal Society, says: "The hereditary propensities of the offspring of Norwegian ponies, whether full or half bred, are very singular. Their ancestors have been in the habit of obeying the voice of their riders, and not the bridle; and horse-breakers complain that it is impossible to produce this last habit in the young colt. They are, however, exceedingly docile and obedient when they understand the commands of their masters.

I have occupied the full time allotted me, and have but very imperfectly touched upon a few points that seem to me essential to be observed in the selection of breeds, and the breeding and management of neat cattle, which contribute so considerably to the success of a large share of our New England farmers.

NEAT STOCK FOR NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[Address by Hiram R. Roberts of Rollinsford.]

It is an interesting consideration that the annual income of neat cattle in the United States amounts to $600,000,000. There are not less than ten distinct breeds of cattle in Europe, and nearly, or quite all of them have been introduced into this country, viz: the Devons, Herefords, Long Horns, West Highlands, Galloways, Ayrshires, Short Horns, Holstein or Dutch, Spanish and Channel Islands cattle, including Alderneys, Jerseys and Geurnseys. We