84 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



per da)', and during the whole period, 1,620 quarts. At eight 

 cents per quart, the amount is §129.60. The other cow during 

 the same time produces 900 quarts, worth $72. Here is a differ- 

 ence of $57.60, in one-third of a year. Suppose the best cow to 

 average but sixteen quarts per day, and the other cow to average 

 twelve quarts. The difference will still be $28.80 during one- 

 third of a year, just six times the interest on the increased cost 

 of the better cow, for the whole year. The fact that the genuine 

 cow will yield milk till she calves again, while the indifferent 

 cow will fail two or three months, makes the contrast between 

 them still more glaring. It should be remembered, too, that 

 the indifferent cow may cost in keeping, during the whole year, 

 all that her milk will bring, leaving the interest on the original 

 $40, and the labor expended, a dead loss, for her manure is 

 worth no more than that of a good cow. It should be remem- 

 bered, also, that whatever the price of milk, the relative differ- 

 ence in the receipts from the two cows remains the same. 



It follows, then, that whenever an ordinary cow will simply 

 pay for keeping, a superior one will yield a handsome profit. If 

 those farmers, of whom it is hoped the number is small, who are 

 contented to jog on as their fathers did before them, and who 

 go through the form of milking half a dozen hermaphrodites 

 every day, would consign them all to the shambles, and substi- 

 tute therefor three genuine cows, they would soon get new ideas 

 of the profits of the dairy and the beauties of farming. 



But can good cows enough be obtained to supply the place of 

 all the poor ones ? Probably not at once. It must be done by 

 degrees. We would say, let every cow, of known and decided 

 inferiority for dairy purposes, be at once converted into beef. 

 She does not render an equivalent, cither to her owner or the 

 world at large, " for value received." With every cow of ques- 

 tionable worth for the dairy, let such an uncompromising book 

 account be kept during three such months in the year as will 

 best test her character, and on the result let her fate depend. 

 A process of this kind, generally practised, would bring out 

 surprising results, and would so stimulate the production, devel- 

 opment and importation of superior cows, that the supply would 

 soon equal the demand. But the book account — herein lies the 

 trouble. It requires time, painstaking and patience. Most 

 farmers will not submit to it in any department of their busi- 



