358 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



HAMPDEN. 



From the Report of the Conwiittee. 



Milch Cows. — The committee on milch cows, in presenting 

 the result of their action upon the duties referred to them, 

 respectfully submit a few preliminary remarks, which the impor- 

 tance of the subject involves, and with the hope that they will 

 not be considered as obtrusive. The duty of executing the 

 purpose of the society, in dispensing the premiums for the best 

 milch cows, is of more importance to the whole community than 

 will be seen at the first glance. What constitutes the best milch 

 cow, is a question still involved in doubt. So diversified and 

 conflicting are the opinions of men of acknowedged judgment 

 and skill in stock breeding, that no fixed standard or well deter- 

 mined rule has yet been established by which an examining 

 committee can be governed in arriving at jvist conclusions. 

 And here we may ask, if the best cow is that, which, in view of 

 a premium, has been pampered by extra care and feed, and thus 

 forced to yield an uncommon flow of milk during the ten days 

 of trial required by the society ? Or is it the cow whose superior 

 quality of milk has yielded the largest product of butter within 

 the specified time ? Or is it the animal whose ponderous frame 

 carries the greatest amount of flesh, and offers her pedigree of 

 blood, rather than the product of her milk or butter, as her 

 credentials, that constitutes the best specimen ? Either of these 

 might receive some well-deserved premium, and yet leave the 

 question still undetermined. If we receive as our guide the 

 opinion of one whose practical experience and close observation 

 qualifies him to speak decidedly to this point, who says, " The 

 excellency of a dairy cow is estimated by the quantity and qual- 

 ity of her milk ; and the quality of her milk is estimated by the 

 quantity of butter it will yield," we shall follow the most sug- 

 gestive deduction from the interrogatories furnished by the 

 society to all competitors upon milch cows, for the purpose of 

 reaching such results. 



The great difference in the quality of milk from different 

 animals of the same herd, is most clearly established and 

 demonstrated by the experiment of John Holbert, of Chemung, 

 New York, having a dairy of forty cows, whose daily product of 



