70

CATTLE A SCOURCE OF

"The island in Plymouth harbor, called Clark's Island, contains little more than eighty acres of fertile land. It was upon this island that the first Christian Sabbath was kept in New-England, for it was the first resting-place of the pilgrims from amidst the storm which they encountered on the night of Friday, Dec. 18th, 1620, while coasting along the bay in their little shallop, before their final landing. These circumstances may have led our fathers to attach a superstitious reverence to this spot. It was neither sold nor allotted in any of the early divisions of the lands, but was reserved for the benefit of the poor of the town, to furnish them with wood, and with pasture for their cattle."

It does not appear that cattle were imported into the middle states, as they are now known, until a few years after their introduction into New-England. In 1625, De Laet, in describing the advantages of New-Netherlands. (New-York) for colonization, says: "It is a fine and delightful land, full of fine trees and also vines; wine might be made here, and the grape cultivated. Nothing is wanted but cattle, and these might be easily transported." Among other inducements to the introduction of these animals into the colony, in 1629, by an act of the government, “liberties and exemptions" were extended to private persons who should plant colonies in New-Netherlands, or import thither any neat cattle. What effect this encouragement had on individual enterprise, does not clearly appear; but in 1632, some stock that had been sent by the company from Holland to the city of New-York, were pastured on the "Bouwery Farms," which had then been recently purchased from the Indians, and the management of the cattle was intrusted to the company's negroes for

Vide Thatcher's History of Plymouth.

the benefit of the garrison. In 1630, a vessel commanded by Capt. De Vries, embarked from Texel with about forty immigrants, furnished with agricultural implements, seeds, horned cattle, &c., sailed up the Delaware, and commenced a settlement on the banks of that river, which from that period has been remarkable for the extent and excellence of its dairies.*

It is not our design, neither would it be in place in a work of this kind, to attempt, if practicable, a statistical computation of the advantages resulting to mankind from the domestication of this animal. It will probably suffice to remark, that from the introduction of cattle into this country, a little more than two centuries ago, the number, as we learn by careful estimate, has multiplied in the United States to about eighteen millions; the annual product of the dairies is valued at sixty-five millions of dollars; and the hides, tallow, &c., as manufactured articles, amount to twenty millions of dollars. Of the value of the cattle slaughtered for the provision trade and domestic consumption, we have no official returns, nor yet for the horns, hair, feet, &c., for there is no part of the animal that is not convertible to some useful purpose; but estimating these, as we safely may, at fifteen millions of dollars, and we have from this source alone an annual contribution to the nation's wealth of at least one hundred millions of dollars. But this it will be seen is an extremely defective estimate of all the advantages thus conferred upon the country. To the aggregate already given, let there be accredited to this branch of rural economy, the stimulus it imparts to profitable industry in the rapid circulation of capital,-the materials it furnishes for commercial intercourse, the em

* Moulton's History of New-York.

72

ECONOMICAL VALUE OF CATTLE.

ployment it gives to numerous manufactories and trades, and incidentally to artificers and laborers, and last, but not least, the extent to which it furnishes the millions of the population with those indispensable necessaries of life, of which they would be destitute but for this supply,-and every reflecting mind will acknowledge, that whether considered as a source of national wealth, or as contributing to the necessities and comforts of private life, there are few objects which have superior claim to attention, or of greater subservience to the public weal.

Of this class of animals an accomplished zoologist remarks: "It is scarcely necessary to say, that they supply us with the most truly precious of our earthly gifts. What in themselves are ingots of pure gold, or the most dazzling lustre of barbaric gems, compared in value with the ample covering of our fleecy flocks? Without the ox, the horse, and the sheep, how different would be the social, commercial and political condition of the most civilized of the human race! Without his reindeer how would the forlorn Laplander support either 'his sleepless summer of long, long light,' or the desolate gloom of a snow-enshrouded winter? Without the enduring camel, the desert sands of Africa, if notlifeless solitudes, would at least be nearly impassable to human race, and as useless for all commercial purposes, as an ocean without ships."

But we must close this part of our work, which has insensibly increased to an unexpected length. In the desultory account which has been given of this herbiverous race of animals, it will have been observed that no attempt has been made to follow their migrations from country to country; nor yet to describe their changes as these have been affected by food, climate and habits; for there are no authentic records which can be consulted for

ECONOMICAL VALUE OF CATTLE.

73

this purpose. Without enlarging we think it sufficiently evident, that the animals now reared and domesticated, are the same in kind, as those originally made subservient to man in the earliest times. And in nothing is the benevolence of Providence more remarkable, than in the continuity and multiplication of a race of animals, which in all former ages, as at present, has so largely contributed to increase the happiness of man, and improve the resources of human subsistence.

CHAPTER VII.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MILK.

Design of milk, its properties and appropriation-Kinds of milk used in different countries.-Superior value of cow's milk.Its appreciable qualities.-Color of good milk.-Smell and taste. -Alkaline property.-Summary description of good milk.

MILK is a well-known, white, opaque fluid, secreted in peculiar vessels by females of the mammiferous class, which, of course, includes those of the human species, of quadrupeds, and of cetaceous animals. Its principles, so far as they have been chemically examined, are essentially alike by whatever animal produced; yet these are so modified by the different proportions in which they exist, as to constitute a peculiarity that distinguishes the milk of one animal from that of every other. The milk of animals was, doubtless, designed by the Author of nature for the nourishment of their offspring. But man has extensively appropriated this admirably adapted nutriment to his own use; and in this, as in numberless other instances, has asserted that superiority over the brute creation which was originally conferred by the Sovereign Creator, who in giving him dominion over every living thing that moveth upon the earth,* appointed him lord of this lower world.

The milk of animals is more generally used as aliment by man, than any other description of animal food. That of the camel is chiefly confined to Africa and China, and of the mare to Tartary and Siberia. In China, especially

* Gen. 1: 28.