Io6 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



and of course I could not go back on the sire. And 1 must say 

 that I thought she was as handsome a cow as I ever saw stand 

 up. She was squirrel gray, weighed about 900 pounds, was 

 fat and had a monstrous udder. I was captivated with the 

 cow. The next time I went by his house he told me the cow 

 had dropped her calf and was all right, and I might have her 

 for $40. I should have given him $45 if he had insisted upon 

 it. I told my son that I did not see what in the world that maa 

 wanted to sell his best looking cow for. When I asked him 

 why he wanted to sell her, he said she was the only one. fit to- 

 sell. She was very homesick at first and held up her milk,, 

 would not give it down except once in two or three milkings,. 

 and she soon began to fall off. I do not think there was any 

 day that she gave over twenty-two pounds of milk and in six 

 months she was entirely dry. We thought it was on account 

 of taking her away from her calf, and that we would keep her 

 another year. We kept her over two calves. The last time 

 she calved, last June, we tied her beside the calf and she seemed 

 perfectly contented, but she never gave more than twenty or 

 twenty-two pounds, and now she is entirely dry again. She 

 was not worth, when I bought her, one single dollar to keep 

 for a cow. I do not believe she has made over 125 pounds of 

 butter. That will show how little I knew about cows. 



Now, to show how little somebody else knew. I went down- 

 to Winthrop to buy a cow. The first man I called on said he 

 had a fair cow, four years old, that he would sell for $26. I 

 looked this cow over and thought she was worth $26, and so- 

 I brought her home. She bothered us a long time about get- 

 ting in calf. She gave milk about a year and a half and therr 

 she went dry about four months. Last January, the 14th day, 

 she dropped a calf, and from that time up to the first day of 

 last November, when she dried off, she gave 5,929 pounds of 

 m.ilk and made 473 pounds of butter. The 25th of November, 

 after going dry about four weeks, she dropped another calf, 

 and she was giving thirty pounds of 6.8 per cent milk per day. 

 The man of whom I bought her thought she. was the poorest 

 cow he had, and that is what she has done ! 



The next man I called on was going to sell his whole herd, 

 as he was going out of the business. He said they were all 



