Thomas's Massachusetts spy, or, Worcester gazette. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1811-1821, 1821-05-09
AGRIcuETURAL.-

promote The breed Of Cattle, By janis Mease.
NJ. u. Vsce-Presideat of The Phaadelphaa
Society for promoting agriculture.
Now that the recent splendid show of fat
cattle has passed, it may be well to reflect
upon the exhibition (; to examine the business
Of the claims it had to the imposing titlesof its
alleged object and utility fo ask ourselves
whether that object and that end will be in
the least promoted by such a procedure. FIRST
and last, as we have witnessed and whether
there are not other measures more calculated
to attain both, at much cheaper rate than
those which have been adopted.
The exhibition was entitled, & Pennsylvania
against The acord - IS oxen, 4 hogs, IS sheep,
10 kids, 3 deer, a bears; had been kept for
different periods at an extra allowance of pas
ture and short feed, for the purpose Of seeing
how much flesh and fat could be put ON their
bodies, and how much fat be made to cover
their mtestines. The object, as alleged. is the
improving the breed of cattle.'' Let us re-
fleet moment, and ask how such an end can
be obtained by the measures pursued.
1t is apprehended that it will not be difficult
to prove that the desirable objects contemplate
ed will not be effected that the zeal and spir-
it OF the concerned have been most egresious-
ly misapplied; that the exhibition was calcu-
lated to keep up bad fashion and ruinous
practice among graziers, and that more ra-
tional plan must be adopted before the desira-
BILE end Of the s improvement of the breed Of
| CATTLE" can be effected.
The same principles which are so well es-
| tablished with regard to the human race, APP
| ply with full force to the brute creation. How
| then, it may be asked, is the form of mankind
| improved? Is it by long continued oIerfeed-
/ ing them, when in the decline of life, to clothe
their bodies and line their INTERIORS; with loads
! of fat I. What would be thought of people
| who ayowed that such means were the best to
mend the shapes of a badly formed commune
| ty? And yet the fashionable practice among
grazers, with their cattle, is not less absurd
| Excluding the bears, deer, and kids, from con-;
slderation, let us conine our remark to cattle,
sheep and hogs. number of large framed
oxen, with capGcious bodies, some of them
or 8 years old, are selected, and after the full.
est allowance of the finest pasture, either
hired or given to them TO the exclusion of the
| rest of the stock on the farm, are put up in the
winter, and fed at regular hours with as much
Indian corn-meal, ground oats, potatoes,
pumpkins, and hay, as they can possibly d.
gest, and until they groan from the oppression
they suffer, and their hides carded and rubbed
with as much attention as is bestowed upon a
southern race-horse. Sometimes corn-meal
and the other articles are given to the animal
while at pasture. From one to even four years
of such treatment are required to bring the
animal to the S sticking point" Sheep, OF the
New-Leicester or Bakewell breed, are also Sc
lected for similar experiments. This breed,
from its admirable form, is known to take on
fat with great ease, and individuals of it, with
good pasture. will always in one season become
as fat as any reasonable man ought to desire /;
but by the treatment mentioned, they are so
overloaded with fat as scarcely to be eatable.
The same remark is applicable to hogs,
some of which, upon the late occasion, were
absolutely blind from the projection OF fat over
their eyes, and required to be raised from their
beds of straw to take food: None of them
could walk without dificultys Let US ask
how these operations will improve the breed
of cattle Did any of these crammed beasts
leave their progeny behind them The alb
surdity of naming the object to be effected by
this excessive feeding, the improvement Of
the breed of cattle,' is evident. Where, more1
over, is the utility of such overlooking? If it
be said that it furnishes market for grain and
hay, why not apply the extra feed consumed
by the show cattle, sheep and hogs, to the fat
tening thrice the number of head, all of which
by it would have been turned off in as excel
lent order as Is required for human stomachs OF
ordinary POWERS of digestion. The difficulty
is to find lean enough in the cattle and sheep
to eat as to the hogs, nineteen-twentieths of
their weight will be consigned to the manu-
iacturers of soap.
Any animal, however badly shaped, can be
made inordinately fat, sooner or later, by ess-
ira quantities of nourishing food; but this is
not the way to improve the farm stock OF a
country. Plain reason and Common sense dc
tate that what we require is a breed that viii
soonest furnish the greatest Quantity OF good
meat or milk at the least expense. 1t is only
in this way that the advances of the grazier
win be returned to him and it is the quick re-
turn and circulation of capital that enriches a
nation. The money expended and even lost
J by feeding heavy show beef cattle, impoverish
more or less a country, by diminishing the
means which the feeders would have had with
out such expenditure, of bringing to market
greater number Of cattle in future.
Two methods, and two only, exist by which
farm stock can be improved. The first is by
| breeding from those native individuals Of a
kind, possessing the forms known to take on
most easily flesh and fat, and by occasionally
crossing their progeny with others having
| points in which those resulting from former ex-
| periments may be deficient. If milk be the
! object, subjects should be selected which yield
! great quantities Of it, and of good quality,
and retain it longest and crosses may be
made with those males within our reach hav-
| ing the best forms and least ofal. Materials
| for such experiments are by no means deficient
among us; but, unfortunately, the spirit for