174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Ayrsliires have shown too great a disposition to take on fat in the 

 rich pastures of Maryland, owing perhaps to a bad selection of 

 animals, you will understand what I mean by saying that nature 

 will have her way in these things. 



Still we may learn from statistics what our people demand most 

 in this branch of farming, as well as all others large and small 

 among ue. I find- for instance that in Massachusetts, in 1865, the 

 number of cows was 134,121 ; the number of oxen and other 

 cattle is 122,874. The value of the cows and heifers is 

 estimated at $7,041,352; the value of the oxen and steers is 

 $4,715,333. In New Hampshire, the number of cows was 77,000 ; 

 the number of oxen, heifers and steers, 121,521. The value of the 

 cows was $3,026,100; the value of the other cattle, $4,055,081. 

 In Maine the number of cows was 135,059 ; the number of " cattle 

 and oxen" was 172,823. The value of the cows was $5,802,078 ; 

 the value of the oxen> &c., was $6,203,341. In New York the 

 number of cows was 1,220,200; the number of oxen and other 

 cattle was 726,412. The value of tlie cows was $54,067,082 ; the 

 value of the oxen, &c., was $24,082,062. 



The average value of cows in Massachusetts was $52.50 per 

 head ; in New Hampshire, $39.30 per head ; in New York, $44.31 

 per head ; in Maine, $43.70 per head. 



These figures show the value and importance of the dairy. On 

 the East, and on the West, on the North, and on the South, in 

 every direction, at the fountain head of our grain crops, before 

 corn has been quadrupled on the original price of the producer by 

 long transportation, and by speculation, there where the rich valleys 

 and prairies of the West offer an abundant and cheap sustenance 

 for cattle, and where a propitious climate economises food and 

 labor, while all about us beef is growing as it were spontaneously, 

 we in New England can never expect to adopt this as an extensive 

 branch of our farming interest. 



It is the dairy therefore which occupies the attention of most of 

 our farmers. Every man who owns land keeps a cow — or ought 

 to. The milk-pail is one of the first utensils provided for carrying 

 on the domestic economy. The rich man is never satisfied, until 

 his table is furnished with milk and cream from his own favorite 

 animal. The poor man finds hif^ establishment Incomplete 

 ho has added a shed for his cow ; and his farming is never per- 

 fected, until he occupies the highway as a pasture, and gleans his 

 winter's store of fodder from the neighboring meadows. Every 



