FARM ACCOUNTS. 405 



butter from nothing. A first rate cow gives 24 quarts of milk 

 in as many hours; and in the production of this article, a 

 pound, or a pint, is formed every thirty minutes from her blood. 

 The living machinery by which her food is digested, taken up 

 by vessels, and finally transformed into milk rich in butter, 

 cheese and sugar, is not generally understood by farmers. If 

 this machinery were properly studied, the six million cows now 

 kept in the United States would soon be replaced by improved 

 races that would yield an average of fifty per cent, more milk 

 from the same quantity of food now consumed. The dairy cow 

 which elaborates the most milk, butter and cheese from any 

 given amount of grass, roots or grain, is the one that deserves 

 the highest premium; not the cow which produces the most 

 milk in a week or month, regardless of the quantity of food 

 consumed. By awarding premiums on this principle, you wil 

 soon learn the exact relations that subsist between a ton of 

 green grass eaten by a first rate milker and the required pro 

 duct in milk and butter. Few know how much good pork or 

 beef 100 pounds of corn ought to produce. Before it is pos- 

 sible to put things together in the most skilful and profitable 

 way, we must investigate the exact relations of these things to 

 each other. In a word, farm economy is at once a collection of 

 experimental arts and experimental sciences, which can only be 

 advanced by wisely conducted and truthfully reported experi- 

 ments. 



FARM ACCOUNTS. 



From an Address before th^ Berkshire Society. 



BT JUSTUS TOWEB, ESQ. 



A very important consideration for the farmer, is, to be sys- 

 tematic and accurate in all his business transactions. We look 

 upon the merchant, manufacturer, or mechanic, with distrust, 

 who does not manage his business in a systematic manner. 

 One of the secrets of success may be found in the counting- 

 room, where the ledger reveals all the facts. Every article 

 59* 



