FAEMEKS' INSTITUTES. 305 



may endure tolerably well (as the weak ones will die)^ and thus, by a jwocess of 

 natural selection, we may get Jerseys that our good farmers can raise and keep 

 profitably. But we will have to watch closely, lest in the process they do not 

 lose some of their milk and butter producing qualities. Flint, in his Dairy 

 Farming, says that the transition is so great with the Ayrshires that they do not 

 develop as they do in the moist English climate, and in consequence we do not 

 hear of any such remarkable productions of milk in this country as in Scotland 

 and England. I present you a few figures giving yield of Ayrshire cows in New 

 England: " Beauty," of Maplewood herd, Fitchburg, Mass., gave in 1869-70, 

 8,011 ft)3. of milk; in 1870-1, 7,922 lbs. ; and in 1872-3 she gave 7,555 lbs., or 

 an average of 7,829 lbs., or about 3,608 quarts per year for 3 years. She gave 

 milk 326 days each year. Queen of Ayr, a cow of Waushakum herd. South 

 Farmingham, Mass., 6 years old, gave in 1870, 8,596 lbs. ; in 1871, 7,135 lbs. ; 

 an average of 7,865 lbs., or 3,624 quarts a year of 327 days, or over 11 quarts 

 daily. Five cows in 1870, a year of exceptional dryness, 6,984 lbs., average, a 

 piece ; in 1871, the year of remarkable drouth, 6,099 lbs. each. This will serve 

 to show you how important to keep the best cows of a breed, as well as the best 

 breed for your purj)ose. A few more facts and figures and I will close. In an 

 experiment on the Earl of Chesterfield's farm, Bradley Hall, I find the follow- 

 ing comparisons of breeds : 



■o,,„„H Quarts Ounces Ounces 



^^^^^- Daily. Butter. Per Quart, 



Holderness 29 ^^ 1.33 



Aldernev (or Jersey) 19 25 1.31 



Devon/- " 16i 28 1.6 



Ayrshire 20 34 1.7 



This was in the heighth of the feeding season. Ked Eose of Ayr gave a 

 high as 84 lbs. some days, and from July 1 to Sept. 4 the greatest yield 75 lbs. 

 and the least 50 lbs., 3,956 lbs. in all averaging nearly 62 for that time. You 

 can easily see how much more profitable it is to keep one good cow that will 

 yield as much as two ordinary cows, even if she consume one-third more food, 

 and I would urge on all, the necessity of feeding well. Do not look upon stock 

 that consume a great deal as expensive. They should be as they are, machines 

 to work up the products of the farm and turn them into more salable products, 

 and also manure ; as not without liTjeral supplies of the latter, can any farmer 

 hope to succeed well. One reason why farmers do not succeed with pure-bred 

 stock, is, that they expect the pedigree and name of the breed to half keep 

 them. 



It is only by high feeding, particular care, and weeding out all jjoor and ill- 

 matured animals, that any breed has been improved. And can we expect to 

 stay where Ave are if we do not adopt the same measures. I tell you nay. And 

 just here is where the education of the farmer comes in to help him, for often 

 times he has to grope along for years to gain the knowledge and experience 

 that he could get in a four years' course at an Agricultural College. When 

 educated the farmer goes to work more intelligently, more interestedly. He 

 would have pleasure in these things beside the mere matter of dollars and cents. 

 One thing that is shown veiy strongly, in our Agricultural College graduates, 

 as soon as they settle on farms, is, a desire to have better stock, and to keep it 

 better than those by whom they are surrounded, who have been working along 

 in the same old routine for years. I would like to have a voice that could reach 



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