PRODUCTION OP MILK. 129 



cows there, than at any other place with which I am acquainted 

 on that road ; and I attribute that quality to the mixture of the 

 Devon blood, rather than to the character of our pasturage, though 

 I think a good deal of the pasturage of those hills, as having some- 

 thing to do with the results. I would remark here, that there are 

 no ,1 inimals, to my knowledge, in any of the herds that send 



milk to N< w York. The Devons would have to yield the palm for 

 color when the Jersey comes on the ground ; but among other 

 breeds of cattle, we claim fine color and fine body for the Devon 

 milk, and the quality of the butter is not a whit inferior to that 

 made from the finest Jersey, although that bears such a price as 

 throws Devon butter into the shade. But that is another ques- 

 tion ; the intrinsic value of the product I am now speaking of in 

 the Devons. With regard to the milking qualities of the Devons, 

 all the females are not to be classed among "tea-cup cows," as 

 they have been sometimes. Lieut. Governor Hyde, who is an ex- 

 tensive breeder of Devons, recently informed me that at the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College, they are now testing the four 

 leading breeds, Shorthorns, Devons, Ayshires, and Jerseys, as 

 milk producers. He had sent some of his stock there, and they 

 had informed him that at present the Devons are leading as milk 

 producers. As to the richness of Devon milk, the stories con- 

 nected with milk in mauy respects have somewhat of a fishy odor, 

 as it is said. We have a i-ecord of the amount of butter produced 

 from a given quantity of Devon milk, and although we receive it 

 from unquestioned authority, still it is rather incredible. I will 

 give my authority. Mr. J. N. Blakeslee of Watertown, Conn., 

 who is a breeder of Devons, states that in the autumn, his son, 

 after feeding a Devon cow upon pumpkins freely, took her milk 

 and set it by itself, carefully saved the cream and churned the 

 butter, and the product was one pound of butter to 3.66 quarts of 

 milk. Probably they were milk quarts, because this experiment 

 was conducted some years ago, when milk quarts were more in 

 fashion than they are now. 



Mr. Parris. How do you compare the Devon oxen with the 

 Durham in point of strength and work ? 



Mr. Gold. You cannot get as much weight in a pair of Devons, 

 on a given surface of space, as you can in a pair of Durhams. In 

 our quarries in Middle Haddam, Conn., where they use over one 

 hundred yoke of oxen all the time, feeding them on grain, they 

 want high grade Durhams; they want the heaviest cattle they can 

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