148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE POSSIBLE CAPACITY OF MILCH COWS. 



By Horace Bodwell, Acton. 



The cow is of ancient origin, the female of the ox kind, and 

 very noted for her usefulness, especially for her qualities in the 

 production of milk for the support of the human family, and after 

 these have failed, for her meat, tallow and hide. Persons proud, 

 potent and wealthy, in the days of the prophets, were likened 

 'Unto the kine of Bashan, to denote their stupidity, luxury and 

 wantonness. 



The seven fat kine which Pharaoh saw in his dream represented 

 seven years of great plenty, and the seven lean kine as many of 

 famine. Nations are likened to heifers, Egypt to a fair one and 

 the Chaldeans to a fat one ; and in like manner I might carry you 

 along to the days of our Savior when on the earth, when the 

 father said "bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it and be merry." 



The first cows were brought into this country by Columbus, at 

 the time he made his second voyage, in 1493. In 1610, Sir Ralph 

 Lane brought cows from the West India Islands to Virginia, and 

 in 1611 Sir Thomas Gates brought to the same place one 

 hundred cows. In 1624, the ship Charity or Ann brought to 

 Plymouth Colony three heifers and a bull. In 1626, twelve cows 

 were sent to Cape Ann, and in 1629 thirty more were sent to the 

 same place. 



The best dairy farms in Rhode Island, in 1150, consisted of 

 one hundred cows, pi'oducing 13,000 pounds of cheese yearly, 

 besides a large quantity of butter, and it is asserted by good 

 authority that seventy-three cows on one farm produced 10,000 

 pounds of butter in five months. 



The cow has no superior to her as a producer of milk, both to 

 quality and quantity, and its adaptation to individual wants, for 

 there are but a few persons who do not use milk in some form or 

 other and relish it as a food. 



If we take into consideration the profits of the cow to the 

 owner as a part of her possible capacity, we must have regard to 



