120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



cheese, except to this extent : we furnish our young children, 

 and our sickly children, with the milk as it comes from the 

 cow, warm, and then we set enough of that away for about 

 ten or twelve hours to sret cream enouo-h to make butter for 



O O 



our family. I have bought but a very few pounds of butter 

 since I have been here, for a family of about forty employes. 

 I decided that it was best for my purpose to get into grade 

 Ayrshires or Ayrshire cows as quick as I could. How should 

 I do it? Although I had the State's money to buy stock 

 with, they would not justify me in going to Scotland, or going 

 to New York, and paying five hundred or a thousand dollars for 

 a sire or a cow. I had therefore to look around and do the 

 best I could here. I accordingly made up my mind that we 

 must have a thorough-bred Ayrshire bull , and I looked around 

 through the Commonwealth, and some out of the Common- 

 wealth, and selected one that I thought was as good a pattern 

 as I had ever seen, and he cost me one hundred and forty 

 dollars. I have used him for the last year, and I am now 

 raising grade Ayrshires from him. About two years ago I 

 bought two thorough-bred Ayrshire cows, paying two hundred 

 and fifty dollars for one, and one hundred and fifty dollars for 

 the other ; that Avas the extent to which I could go. 



Now, whether that strain, either on the male side or the 

 female side, was the best milking strain of the Ayrshires, I 

 do not know, and I did not know about the purity of the 

 stock, only I took it from the Ayrshire Herd-Book. I sup- 

 pose that to be good authority ; if that is not authority, I do 

 not know what is. A gentleman shakes his head. I do not 

 know as it is; but if it is not, what is better? I have no 

 doubt there are strains of blood in that book which should 

 not be there ; but that is the standard authority, and I do not 

 know any better. I got the best milkers I could find for the 

 price I could give. I have kept along through the year, until 

 within the last three months I have had a chance to buy six 

 more cows, and I have availed myself of it. Some of them 

 were from the Sweetser stock, and some from the Loomis 

 stock of Connecticut, and I got them at prices with which I 

 was satisfied. Since I have determined to go into that, wher- 

 ever I could find a good grade Ayrshire I have bought her, if 

 the price was within the means I could command, and I have 



