82 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of importance were recorded. Then a different regimen was 

 adopted for twenty days, and again another, and another for the 

 same length of time, the same accurate account being always 

 kept. 



In this way, the cost of food being known, the exact cost of 

 the milk per pound and per gallon, under each system of diet, 

 was obtained to the smallest fraction, thus giving some data 

 from which the rclatiA'C advantage of different kinds of food 

 may be inferred. But that is not all. It was the intention of 

 the committee to procure good specimens of the different 

 breeds, subject them all to precisely similar treatment in every 

 respect, and thus, after a projicr number of trials, to arrive at 

 the comparative value of each and the relative value of each 

 for the various uses of New England farming, for labor and for 

 the production of milk, butter and beef. As yet, only the 

 Jerseys, the Herefords and the Devons, and the common stock 

 of the country are well represented, the refusal of the last legis- 

 lature to make the appropriation asked for, having made it 

 impossible to procure others, though contracts had already been 

 made for fine specimens of Durhams on the most favorable 

 terms. 



As I was an eye-witness of the exceeding faithfulness with 

 which the committee conducted and still conduct these trials, I 

 can vouch for their being worthy of all confidence, and perfectly 

 reliable. No place could be better fitted for the purpose than 

 the State Farm. Tlie cost to the Commonwealth has been but 

 triflhig, and is not likely to become great, since a certain num- 

 ber of cows must, in any event, be kept, and it matters com- 

 paratively little to what family they belong, so far as their 

 ability to supply the institution with milk is concerned. The 

 Jerseys were all presented to the Board, to be kept at that farm, 

 and cost the State nothing. Two Herefords, a cow and heifer, 

 were bought by the committee at a cost, for both, of two hun- 

 dred and ninety dollars. One of them, immediately after, 

 obtained the award of the first prize of one hundred dollars, at 

 the National Fair in Boston, last fall, and a month or two after 

 dropped a calf for which the Board has been offered, and could 

 take to-day, three hundred dollars. The most of the cows, 

 about twenty-five in number, are either of no known breed or 

 grade Ayrshires. The actual cost to the State of these experi- 



