MILCH COWS. 153 



pounds ; the 5 to 8 years old, a daily average of 34| pounds ; the 

 4 to 7 years old cow, a daily average of 25 pounds — making a 

 daily average of the 5 to 8 years old cow over the 6 to 9 years old 

 cow, 4 pounds, and over the 4 to 7 years old cow, 9| pounds. 

 These cows were fed on hay the first winter after they were dried 

 oif, and during the two following winters they were fed on hay, 

 giving each cow two quarts of grain daily, and when in milk six 

 quarts of grain daily during the spring, and four quarts daily in 

 the autumn and in the early part of the winter. The grain was 

 composed of corn, meal, oats, barley and shorts, and fed to them 

 dry, and they had the run of a common pasture during the sum- 

 mer months, with corn fodder after the first of September. 



A correspondent from Litchfield county, Conn., in a report to 

 the Commissioner of Agricultux-e, in 1853, says the average 

 quantity of cheese per cow is SOOpounds; of butter, from 200 to 

 250 pounds yearly. Another correspondent, from Castle county, 

 Md., sa3's their dairies consist of from fifteen to seventy-five 

 cows each, and that one gentleman keeps two dairies of fifty cows 

 each, which produce 15,000 pounds of butter yearly ; that the 

 stipulated price is 25 cts. per pound, and that the net income 

 from the two dairies is $3,600 yearly. 



That the farmer is giving more attention to his dairy and realiz- 

 ing larger profits than in the past/ there can be no doubt — thus 

 realizing the truth of the Saxon proverb, " The softer the food the 

 more milk," and I will also add, the richer the quality. Many of 

 the yields above given are much in excess of a majority of the 

 cows that compose most of the dairies of our State. Now, if some 

 of our cows can produce such an amount of milk, can we not im- 

 prove our dairy stock by judicious breeding and feeding, and an 

 average be obtained which will match these figures ? 



A correspondent of the New England Farmer of Sept. 30, 1876, 

 who has of late been collecting some of the largest reported yields 

 of daily cows which had come under his notice — which shows 

 what is possible for the cow to do — reports as follows : 



In the American AgricuUurisl of Nov. 1874, is an account of the 

 Ayrshire cow. Lady Kilbrine, owned by Sturdivant Brothers, 

 Framingham, Mass. She gave, in one year, 7,429 pounds of milk, 

 equal to 3,455 quarts. Her weight is 850 pounds. Also of the 

 Ayrshire cow, Georgia, owned by same persons. Her weight is 

 890 pounds. She has given 7,127 pounds in one year, or 3,315 

 quarts of milk. The American Agriculturist, January, 1874, re- 



