American Agriculture [pp. 249-264]

AMERICA A4 GRICUL T URE.
variety in a degree unprecedented, I believe, in natural history.
Two generations ago the trotting of a mile in 2 m. 40 sec. was
so rare as to give rise to a proverbial phrase indicating something
extraordinary; it is now a common occurrence. "But a few
years ago," wrote Prof. Brewer in I876, "the speed of a mile in
2.30 was unheard of; now perhaps five or six hundred horses
are known to have trotted a mile in that time." The number is
to-day perhaps nearer one thousand than five hundred. Steadily onward have American horse-raisers pressed the limit of
mile-speed, till, within the last three seasons, the amazing figures
2.X0 have been reached by one trotter and closely approached
by another.
Take an even more surprising instance. About I8oo we began to import in considerable numbers the favorite English cattle, the short-horn. The first American short-horn herd-book
was published in I846. In 1873 a sale of short-horn cattle took
place in western New York, at which a herd of Io09 head were
sold for a total sum of $382,000, one animal, a cow, bringing
$40,6oo00; another, a calf five months old, $27,000, both for the
English market. To-day Devons and short-horns are freely exported from New York and Boston to England to improve the
native stock.
In I793 the first merino sheep, three in number, were introduced into this country, tho, unfortunately, the gentleman
to whom they were consigned, not appreciating their peculiar
excellencies, had them converted into mutton. Since that time
American wool has become celebrated both for fineness of fibre
and for weight of fleece. The finest fibre, by microscopic test,
ever anywhere obtained, was clipped about I850 from sheep
bred in western Pennsylvania. More recently the attention of
our wool-growers has been especially directed to increasing the
quantity rather than to improving the quality of the wool.
Illustrations of the success of American agriculture, biologically, might be drawn from the vegetable kingdom, did space
permit.
Fifth. To ask what has been done mechanically to promote
our agriculture is to challenge a recital of the better half of the
history of American invention. Remarkable as have been the
mechanical achievements of our people in the department of
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