Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-04-10
JOURNAL WEDNESDAY, 1878

world, so that high culture and cross-breeu-
ing is developing to a remarkable degree
the good qualities of our field and garden
crops as well as of our orchards.
The late Professor Agassiz once said,
Breeds are the result of the interference oil |
man with the creations of God, in the manner |
which will best suit his peculiar pursuits or
objects, and they are his work they are not
Gods creation, they are mans production
while species man never made" Again he
says "a breed, being the product OF man,
transmits its peculiarites, its qualifications,
only partially, and only as long as those things
which produce or maintain them are at work.
Cease to take care of these animals in the
way in which differences are produced and
maintained, and the breed itself runs out"
In the light of such indisputabe facts, 1t
may clearly be seen what folly it is to think
we may have foreign improved breeds by
simply introducing them and allowing them
to propagate on our soil. Unless we intro
duce with them, and thoroughly carry out the
means by which these breeds were origin
ated, improved and maintained in the high
grade of perfection to which they have been
brought, we might as well expect to steal
the sunshine and bottle it, as to have i'm
proved stock
Further than that-as all these breeds
have been developed from Races, and as
these Races were made by local causes, we
must expect that the local causes of this
continent will act upon and remodel them
according to the local conditions of diff
ferent sections. Take the Shorthorn cat
tie, for instance. As race they were formed
by the mild climate and rich pasturage OF
the river valleys of the north of England
As breed, they have been developed by the
skill of Ceilings, Bates, Booth, and other
great cattle farmers. 1t is utter folly to i'm
agine that when this family of cattle is
spread all over this great continent, from
the arid plains of New Mexico, OF the hot
and fertile prairies of Texas, to the noun
tains of Vermont and the bleak regions of
Canada, they will remain the same. Even
with the utmost care and skill, with frequent
renewals and interchanges of blood, this is
manifestly impossible. They will doubtless
be the means of more or less improvement
to the herds in the various sections, but the
natural causes which will remodify them
into local races are too powerful for man to
contend against, even if it were for his in
terest to attempt it, All history relating to
this subject shows that both races and breeds
are essentially local, and must forever re-
main so. The little island of Great Britain,
not much bigger than New England, has
adapted to the needs of the locality where
they have been originated that one is not
able to drive out or supplant the other even
at distance of fifty miles. And so it will
evidently be in this country. We may not
live to see much of this change, but there
are those now born who will see four or five
clear and distinct native breeds of cattle in
this little state of Vermont, and none OF
them more than notifications, very great
: notifications of foreign breeds. Recogniz
, ing the inevitable and irresistible nature OF
the forces that must work these changes
the sooner we set about assisting nature tc
develop local breeds and bring them to a
practical perfection, the better. The first
who, with the right skill, go at this work
will be the first to enrich themselves and
benefit the community. There is money in
t it for our bright young farmers, who have
the patience, perseverance and intelligence
that such work demands.