BUTTER DEPENDS ON THE FEED. 299 



the best butter, that will bring the highest price in the market, 

 and securing the breed of cows that will do it. 



Dr. Loring. I did not hear Mr. Ellsworth's essay, but I 

 think it must have been a very sensible and a very interesting 

 one, because I find that almost every man who attempts to deal 

 with it, starts off on his own account, but ultimately comes back 

 to the essay itself. 



There are one or two matters upon which I desire to make a 

 few remarks. The first is, in reference to the flooring upon 

 which cattle should stand. I think it should be as level as pos- 

 sible. Cattle and horses should stand on a level floor ; if any- 

 thing, the floor on which a horse stands should fall off at his 

 fore feet rather than his hind feet. The fall for the water 

 should be underneath the floor upon which the animal stands. 

 If you are stabling cows, the fall of the water is provided for by 

 nature ; but if oxen or horses, the fall should be underneath the 

 floor. The floor should be made open, in such a way that the 

 water will flow underneath the floor upon which the animals 

 stand, on to a sloping floor, down which it can fall. It is a very 

 easy and simple thing to do. I mention this, because I have 

 made a business of studying floors, and I am sure that many 

 forms of lameness in horses are attributable more to badly con- 

 structed floors than to any other cause. 



In regard to the animal which makes the best butter, I do 

 not believe that there is any one special breed which will make 

 what would be universally recognized as the best butter for 

 market. I think Mr. Ellsworth need not be ashamed of his 

 grade Shorthorns as butter-making animals. They give a large 

 amount of milk, I grant, owing to the abundance of the feed 

 they find upon the Barre pastures ; but I know perfectly well 

 that there are in Barre and other towns where grade Shorthorns 

 are used, cows that are admirable butter cows, — good animals 

 for every dairy pasture. It is so with the Ayrshire. If you put 

 a grade Ayrshire, or an Ayrshire, or a grade Shorthorn, or a 

 common native cow, upon a good pasture, especially adapted to 

 the purpose of making butter, if she is a good cow, she will 

 make a pound of butter from eight and a half to ten quarts of 

 milk, or twelve, perhaps. I have myself a grade Ayrshire cow, 

 fed on winter feed, that made a pound of butter from eight 

 quarts of milk. These cows are not common, but they can be 



