BREEDS OF DAIRY STOCK. 97 



size, however, is against them for the dairy, on most of our 

 New-England soils. With the cross of the bull Logan, out 

 of Louise, we had some of the most valuable milkers we ever 

 had in our section. Perhaps I ought to say here that the 

 pure-bred cow Double Rose was a remarkable milker, giving 

 me at one time fifty-nine pounds of milk daily. But she was 

 too large and heavy to thrive well on my light and rather 

 dry pastures. Otherwise I should, for my own use, look 

 among the best milkers of her breed for the best dairy cow, 

 subject, perhaps, to a single careful cross with a Devon or a 

 Jersey bull. 



The Dutch cattle are spread over the country, and are 

 claimed by their breeders as superior to all other blood stock 

 in the quantity of milk they give. Some accounts of them 

 justify this statement. But the quality of their milk is not 

 rich, and the general make-up of the animal is such we cannot 

 recommend them as the dairy cow. I have no means to 

 judge of their grades. 



DEVONS. 



General reputation does not place the Devons, for gross 

 production, as high as the others that I have mentioned ; but 

 for certain uses they are unsurpassed, being the most hardy 

 and vigorous of all the classes, yielding milk surpassingly 

 rich in all its qualities, and of most agreeable flavor, and 

 with constitution unimpaired. They have been greatly 

 undervalued for dairy purposes. P. Holcomb of Newcastle, 

 Del., in the summer of 1843 made from one cow a hundred 

 and seventy-four pounds and three-quarters of butter in 

 twelve weeks, or an average of fourteen pounds and nine 

 ounces per week. During one week she made nineteen 

 pounds, and in three days, nine pounds and a half. I think 

 W. Buckminster of " The Massachusetts Ploughman " invit- 

 ed through his paper gentlemen to visit his herd, and test 

 the quality of the milk, four quarts of which he claimed (I 

 speak from recollection) would make a pound of butter. I 

 would do no injustice to any class ; but I believe that for 

 some reason, perhaps it is fasJiion, this class of stock has not 

 fallen into the hands of gentlemen with as ample means, and 

 who have the taste or the facilities to feed, and test their 

 merits, and develop their milking qualities, as has been the 



