IQ BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to expect that cattle husbandry will be oue of the leading industries 

 of our people for many generations yet to come. But among all the 

 animals used b}- men for converting coarse vegetation into good 

 human food, the dairy cow excells them all. As a machine she is 

 capable of being run at a comparative!}' high rate of speed. 



We have seen that a thrift}- ox or steer feeding in a good pasture 

 for six months in the year is capable of returning to his keeper 

 three hundred pounds of beef, including bone. If the steer would 

 have dressed nine hundred pounds at the beginning of the season, 

 this is yielding an increase equal to one-third his original weight. 

 A good cow kept in the same pasture would be capable of returning 

 in the form of human food not one-third her dressed weight, but two 

 or three times her gross weight, in the same number of months, 

 while exceptional cows have given a quantity of milk equal to their 

 own weight in periods A'ar3-ing from a single month down to eleven 

 days. Old Creamer, owned b}- Mr. Hungerford of New York, gave 

 three hundred and two pounds in three days, her own weight being 

 1083 pounds. Good herds yield from four to five times their weight 

 yearh. A good cow feeding in a good pasture and consuming a 

 hundred pounds of green grass per da}', equal to twenty-five oi- 

 thirty pounds of dry hay, will easily yield twenty-five pounds of 

 milk, that will contain three pounds oi solid uutrient matter, or as 

 much as is found in twelve pounds of round steak. 



As an agent for sustaining life and repairing the wastes of the 

 body from the cradle to the grave, milk is excelled b}- no single 

 known substance, and its worth as an article of food should be 

 much better known and appreciated by the American people than it 

 ever yet has been. Its food value is never greater tlian when it first 

 comes pure and fresh from the udder of the cow. Every process of 

 manipulation entails more or less waste. The waste is least when 

 converted into cheese, greatest when made into butter. Millions of 

 dollars would be saved to the people of the United States every 

 year could some practical method be devised whereby the pure milk 

 of the country could be brought directly to the homes of the con- 

 sumers, where the cream could be made to take the place of butter 

 and the remaining skimmed milk be used foi' drink or in cooking 

 instead of being fed to hogs. But until such methods can be de- 

 vised and put in operation we may well give our attention to adapt- 

 ing our labors to such conditions as we find ourselves surrounded 



