use to keep him." I am told the same thing with regard to the Ayrshire calves. The grade calves are larger than the pure bloods, but all the grades of these crosses are small in comparison with the grade Shorthorns. If you want to make as light a drain as possible upon your herds in that direction, it is certainly a very great saving to adopt such animals, rather than the common run of native stock, of which you never know what the produce will be.

I have little further to say, except to insist once and again upon this power of transmission of their good qualities in thoroughbred animals as stronger than the power of transmitting their bad qualities. If they have any faults, they are not as sure to be transmitted as their good qualities. Take these principles to guide you, and you can build up a herd that will be continually improving in the desired direction.

MR. HERSEY of Lincoln. There have been some Dutch cattle imported into this State this year, and I am aware that Mr. Chenery of Massachusetts, has been importing Dutch cattle into that State for several years. They have not been extensively used yet. I see by the record of the New England Fair this year that there were some full-blooded Dutch cattle sold by Mr. Chenery at that Fair at a very high price-a great deal higher than any others that were sold at auction. I would like to ask if the gentleman has any information in regard to that breed.

MR. GOLD. My knowledge is confined entirely to seeing those animals on exhibition, and from what I see in the reports that are circulated in regard to them. They are doubtless, some of them, enormous milkers, but they must be also enormous consumers of food. They are very large, and generally rather coarse in their forms, indicating not the finest organization, nor well adapted to give the highest returns for the amount of food consumed. The quality of the milk of the larger animals is considered to be inferior to that of the smaller ones, and Mr. Flint goes so far as to say that there is a regular gradation in the quality of the milk and when you get down to the Brittanys, which he has inported (those little animals three feet high; "cowlets," some call them, not cows) the milk is as much superior in richness to the milk of the Jerseys as the Brittanys are smaller than the Jerseys; that the size of a breed indicates in a good degree the richness of the milk. Taking that view, the Dutch cattle would stand at one end of the scale, and the Brittanys at the other.

MR. PARRIS. There is one breed of cattle that I should be very glad to hear the gentleman's opinion about, if he has had any experience with them; I mean the IIerefords, which are regarded in some parts of our State as being the first breed of cattle.

MR. GOLD. I have had no personal experience with the Herefords. In my remarks I have confined myself almost entirely to my own personal experience. I have bred Shorthorns, Devons and Ayrshires, and their grades; I have not bred Jerseys. As for the Herefords, they are celebrated as beef-producing animals rather than as milkers.

I would remark, that in the valley of the Connecticut, there has long been bred a family as it was supposed of Shorthorns, grade Durhams, in fact, that were famous milkers. They were admitted into the first edition of the old Shorthorn herdbook as thoroughbred Shorthorns. I owned one of these cows. She gave, before I owned her, thirty-six quarts of milk a day, and made. eighteen pounds of butter a week. More recent discoveries have proved that on one side that class of animals were descended from the Ayrshires, and they have been excluded from the Shorthorn herdbook. Still, they did more to establish the milking quality of the Shorthorns and their reputation in the valley of the Connecticut, probably, than anything else.

MR. PEIRCE. Is the Ayrshire cow better adapted to wettish pastures, of which we have a great deal in Maine, than other cattle?

MR. GOLD. It is claimed and admitted, that the Ayrshire is one of the most hardy breeds of cattle that exist; they will bear as much neglect, ill-treatment and abuse as the native stock, although they thrive better if they have good keeping. You can only expect the highest result from any breed when you place them in the most favorable conditions. But still if you have a place where you want hardy animals the Ayrshires are as well adapted to it as any other.

MR. GOODALE. I would inquire of Mr. Gold if, in his description of Shorthorns as a milking breed, he based his remarks, as I supposed he did, on their general character throughout the country, or whether he took into consideration anything exceptional with regard to the history of the breed in this State?

MR. GOLD. I based my remarks solely upon the general history and reputation of the breed throughout the country. I remarked that we had some families of Shorthorns that were claimed to be

good milkers that have been bred with this object, and with a good degree of success. But in many cases the calf has been worth more than the milk, and therefore it has been the object to get as many calves in a period of years as they could from an animal, and the milking properties have been in such cases thrown. out of sight. Dry up your cow and have another calf; twelve calves in ten years; of course you will breed out the milking properties of your herd in that way if you follow it up.

SEC. GOODALE. Mr. Gold's statement regarding the milking properties of the Shorthorns, as a breed, is undoubtedly quite correct. Yet there is ground for the belief that milking properties attach to the animals of that breed, generally, in Maine, to a degree considerably beyond what holds true in many other sections. I am satisfied of the fact from personal observation, nor is it difficult to account for it. The very first thoroughbred Durham, as they were formerly called, brought into this State was "Young Denton," a bull imported by Mr. Williams of Northboro', Mass., in 1817, more than half a century ago, and before milking properties had been "bred out "from the breed. This animal was bred by Mr. Wethereli of Leicestershire, and was sired by "Denton," he by "Comet," Comet by the famous "Favorite," and so back to " Hubback," familiarly known as the father of Shorthorns. His stock proved remarkable milkers. After some years service in Massachusetts, he was presented by Mr. Williams to the late Dr. E. Holmes, and was kept, first in Gardiner, then in Livermore and afterwards in Somerset county, where he died of old age in 1830. The next full blood was "Jupiter" which was introduced not much later by Mr Davis of Augusta, together with two full blood cows, which were sired by the famous "Colebs," the same with which Col. Jacques began his "Creampot" breed. Jupiter's stock were also excellent milkers. Subsequently, Col. Greene, Sanford Howard and others, brought in milking strains of the same breed, and from that day to this I believe that special care has been almost uniformly exercised by breeders to retain as far as possible, in the animals brought hither, the milking characters which all acknowledge to have been possessed by this breed, in olden time as a common inheritance. It is very natural and proper that this should have been done, for we cannot compete with some other sections in the growth of animals for beef alone, while we have grazing lands from which we can profitably produce milk and butter and cheese in connexion with meat.

MR. GOULD. The very best herd of milkers I have ever seen is one kept at the Lunatic Asylum at Brattleboro', Vt. The dams of the present race of cows kept there were carefully selected by Gov. Holbrook, who is one of the best and most intelligent farmers I ever met, from what is termed, erroneously, native stock. He had been familiar with the cattle of that region, had kept the track of the best milkers, and selected none but those that were both the daughters and grand-daughters of superior milkers. With these, he selected a bull from Mr. Thorne's herd, containing strong strains of the "Princess" blood. He has bred from those cows, and they are the largest milkers I have ever seen among grade cows.

MR. GOODALE. My impression is that if you seek for cows giving the greatest amount of milk, you will still find them among large sized grade Shorthorns, and yet Ayrshires have done very well indeed. I bad an Ayrshire which weighed, within a few days of the time of trial, as she came in from pasture towards night, (which was the only time I ever weighed her) 815 lbs.; that cow gave me 49 lbs. of milk daily for a while, or at the rate of her live weight in milk in seventeen days. She afterwards went to Massachusetts and may be one to which reference has been made. Her only fault was, and it is one that I have found occasionally among Ayrshires, that she was a hard milker.

The gentleman spoke of the Jerseys as being nervous. I have never noticed that peculiarity with our Jerseys, except among the males, which are very apt to become vicious at an earlier age than other bulls. The cows are usually very gentle. Some trouble in respect to nervousness has been observed among our Ayrshires. Wherever they receive such treatment as cows should have, they are perfectly gentle, and there need be no difficulty; but if they are treated as too many milch cows are, they develop a degree of nervousness and it is nothing to be wondered at.

MR. PERCIVAL Of Kennebec. I have listened with a great deal of pleasure to the remarks of Mr. Gold and others, and they only confirm me in the opinion that different people in different localities want different things, and that people in different localities come to different conclusions. I agree with Mr. Gold in the main, but I should take some exceptions to his statements, perhaps on account of my limited knowledge.

Every man should possess intelligence enough, in making his selection of animals, to know what he wants; what animal is adapted to his locality; what he wants to produce, (I think that

is the first requisite), and then, whether he can produce it in his locality. This gentleman has ranked the several herds of cattle. as he has gone along. I felt, while he was speaking of the butter qualities of the Shorthorns, that he might find men in Maine, who would take exceptions, from the fact that breeders here have bred for different purposes, made their selections when they started for different objects. They have bred, perhaps, in a different direction from the men in Connecticut, and of course the results would be different. Mr. Gold would not recommend the Shorthorns as butter stock, while the gentleman from New York regarded them in a different light.

I regard an animal as a machine, possessing certain qualifications. If you want to manufacture cotton goods, you will not attempt to do it from wool; and you must apply the material which you manufacture to such machinery as will manufacture what you want to produce. If you want milk, you must put food into a machine that will produce milk mainly. If you want to produce beef, put it into a machine that will produce beef mainly. Now, if it is possible to get a machine that will produce a number of articles from the same materials, it may be very desirable to do so. For instance, you want to produce beef, working oxen, and milk; and a certain proportion of each. Then you want to select a machine that will convert the material with which you furnish it into what you want. The main question is, what breed of cattle will produce just what the farmers of Maine want? If you want a little of several things, that is one thing; if you want only one product, that is another.

The exception which some might take would be here: that some animals will live and thrive where others will not succeed. It is a law of nature, that animals require food according to their size, although there are exceptions to this as there are to all general rules. No man supposes that a pasture upon which a nice little Jersey could gather her fill in a few hours, and lie down and be secreting rich milk, would carry a Shorthorn, girthing seven or eight feet. Now, let an animal of any of these larger breeds get food according to its size, and be as happy and contented and lie down as quietly as the Jersey, the question is, whether that large animal will not do as well, thrive as well, and pay the owner as well, or better, for the amount of food consumed, as the smaller animal.