STATE DAIEY HERD. 121 



got the best cows I coiilcl iu the region. Now I have, as I 

 stated, a herd of forty cows. Our year commences with the 

 first of October, — that is the time when we make our annual 

 report to the legislature, — and these cows gave me last year 

 twenty-eight thousand and odd gallons, and I make that 

 twenty-eight hundred and seventeen quarts to the cow. The 

 majprity of them are grade Ayrshires, but I have some natives, 

 and I have a few Shorthorn grades. I have two or three Jer- 

 sey grades, which are very good cows. I do not expect to 

 get much better ones. The lowest yield has been seventeen 

 hundred quarts, and why that cow did not give more this year, 

 I do not know. I have not sent her to the butcher, be- 

 cause I was in hopes there was power iu her yet ; btit my idea 

 has been, when my cows fell down in that region, they had 

 better go to the butcher than stay for milkers. I do not 

 suppose that I have got any such herd as the gentleman who 

 spoke to us last night. All I judge from is the amount of 

 milk they give. In regard to the butter, all I can say is that 

 the cream makes pretty decent butter, as those gentlemen 

 present who have ever been there can testify, because they 

 have never eaten anything that was bought for them. If we 

 had any good butter there we made it. Now, I propose to 

 get from those cows, by this bull that I bought, the best stock 

 I can, and whenever I find that anybody else has a cow which 

 is superior to them, I mean to get her, if her price is within 

 my means. That is the way, in my ignorance, I have been 

 operating, and that is tlie result. I tried the experiment until 

 I was clear in my mind. It was an opinion, I know, but it 

 was a decided opinion, almost coming up, I think, to what 

 Professor Agassiz would call knowledge on the subject, that 

 the best thing I could do was to go into Ayrshire stock, and 

 I have tried to do so as fast as I could, and that is the result. 

 That has been my experience. 



I agree with what has been said as to the great importance 

 of the subject to every farmer, and it is- important to those 

 who ate making milk as well as those who are making beef, 

 to look at this subject and see what it is best to do. Now, if 

 I have erred in this, you have the benefit of it, and if there is 

 any advantage in it, you may have the advantage also. I was 



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