178 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



According to the amount of fat in the milk of these breeds, the Ilolstein, 

 Jersey and Shorthorn would rank among the first for butter making, and the 

 Ayrshire, Native, Galloway and Devon for cheese making ; provided we may be 

 allowed to call "Natives" a breed. But it certainly would be very unjust to 

 say that one breed of cattle is a better butter breed or cheese breed than 

 another until all the facts entering into the problem are taken into account. 



How does the milk of Native cows compare with that of of pure blooded 

 cows? From my analysis I infer that the milk of natives is equally as rich and 

 large in amount as that of some of the breeds, such as Shorthorn, Devon and 

 Galloway, but not so rich as the Jersey or Ilolstein. Prof. Voelker, of Eng- 

 land, made some experiments to determine how the milk of pure Short-Horns 

 would compare with that of common cows in richness and amount, both kinds 

 being kept upon the same kind of food. He found upon the average that pure 

 bloods gave 49 pints, and the common cows 52 pints daily, a difference of three 

 pints in favor of common cows. He then analyzed the milk of each, with re- 

 sults as follows : 



Common Cows. Pure Bloods. 



Water 86.65% 87.29% 



Butter - 3.99 " 3.86 " 



Casein - 3.47 '' 3.28 '' 



Milk Sugar 5.11 " 4.89 " 



Mineral Matter .78 " .77 " 



100.00 100.00 



In this case there was little difference, the slight variation being rather in 

 favor of common cows. But if this experiment had been tried with other breeds 

 more celebrated for richness of milk the result might have been far different. 

 The truth probably is that some natives are as good milkers as pure bloods, but 

 there is not that uniformity that exists among pure blooded cattle. 



Can not our common native cows be greatly improved in their butter produc- 

 ing qualities. The reason why the Jerseys stand first in the rank of butter 

 cows is that in the Island of Jersey butter is a very important article of com- 

 merce, and the cows that give the richest milk have been selected for breeding 

 purposes, and in this way the breed, as a whole, has been brought up to a high 

 standard of excellence. In the same way, by carefully selecting the "good 

 milkers,'"' and breeding from them, the milking (jualities of even our common 

 stock can be greatly improved. This is certainly a promising field, and espec- 

 ially valuable because no great outlay of money is required. 



The question is often asked, which is the best breed for butter? The practi- 

 cal man must answer that question, — the chemist cannot. All that he can do 

 is to tell whether one kind of milk is richer than another; but tlie practical 

 dairyman, by knowing the quantity of milk and butter, and how much a pound 

 of butter costs in food and labor, can decide this question beyond dispute. 



I can find but very few statistics bearing upon this point. Mr. L. S. Har- 

 din has collected some facts on the subject, from dairymen who keep the dif- 

 ferent breeds. From his interesting article in Kural New Yorker, of Dec. 7, 

 1878, I take the following table, showing the average number of pounds of 

 milk ]ier annum, and the average number of pounds of butter from each 

 breed : 



