FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 359 



farnicr in Eeclford, Wiiyiie county, in tliis State, \vlio has a liertl of Jerseys, 

 sold his butter all last sunnner in Detroit at 25 cents per pound, and could not 

 supply the demand, while the average price of the best butter was under tifteeu 

 cents per pound. JEow then stands the record : 



Native cow, 200 pounds butter per j'ear, at 20c $40 00 



Grade cow, 300 pounds butter per year, at 20c 60 00 



Thoroughbred, 350 pounds butter per year, at 20c 70 00 



Thoroughbred, 706 pounds butter per year, at 20c 141 35 



Or a native cow's butter, 200 pounds, at 15c 30 00 



Or a grade cow's butter, 300 pounds, at 25c 75 00 



The feed consumed is nearly the same, the care costs no more, the profits 

 are very different. 



A writer has declared it to be a "fact well established that the progeny of 

 the tho.ioughbred and the grade, and of the thoroughbred and the native, show 

 improvements in some respects, as of fattening and milk yield, over both pro- 

 genitors," while another has said "that 'gilt edge' butter cannot be made 

 from the milk of the native cow any more than good Hamburgh cheese may 

 be made of skimmed milk." 



I presume many of you will be slow to believe all this; I certainly do not 

 expect you to raise cows that will reach the highest yield here given, nor is it 

 necessary. AVhat I desire to impress upon your minds is the fact, that with 

 care, and the use of thoroughbred sires you can improve your stock, increase 

 their butter producing qualities and your own profits. 



You all value the importance and necessity of using new and improved vari- 

 eties of seed, why not take the same pains with your stock? Two thousand 

 cows in this county averaging three hundred pounds of butter each per year 

 at twenty cents per pound, would be worth more than double the wheat crop 

 of the county. Yet wheat is considered the crop. It would be well to bear in 

 mind, that a farming district may be judged of by its stock as safely as by its 

 wheat fields. 



Farmers, in view of these facts, I ask you to take advantage of the oppor- 

 tunities afforded you, to improve your stock. Some of our "fancy farmers" 

 have recently, in horses, brought some Kentucky's best blood into this county. 

 Valuable additions have been made from other counties nearer home, and 

 quite recently an imported Norman Percheron has been added. Thoroughbred 

 Shorthorns, Devons and other breeds of cattle have been brought here, and I 

 hope soon to see the Holsteins. 



I fear you will not all take my advice. You will prefer, many of you, to 

 jog along, satisfied to follow in the footsteps of your fathers, believing neither 

 in chemistry as applied to farming, nor in thoroughbred stock. 



Bayard Taylor put into the lips of the young man in the "Old Pennsylva- 

 nia Farmer " these words : 



"If father'd lived, I'd like to know w^hat he would say to these 

 New notions of the younger men who farm by chemistries; 

 There's different stock and other grades; tliere's patent plow and cart. 

 Five himdred dollars for a bull! it would have broke his heart." 



And now, gentlemen, what shall we do? Go on, purchase improved stock 

 and try to educate our farmers up to the point of using it? or shall Ave consider 

 agriculture beneath our notice and take no interest whatever in the subject? 



The French minister of agriculture said, "Agriculture has its rewards for 

 any legitimate ambition; that all parties have an equally powerful interest in 

 it; and that the beauty of tiie productions of agriculture gives the measure, 

 and in certain respects, the degree of civilization." 



