98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



good-fortune of some other breeds. The cross with the 

 Devon bull is a good one on any stock and for all pur- 

 poses. From this cross on the Short-horns I have had a 

 cow that made nineteen pounds and a quarter of butter per 

 week. 



My Devon cow (Gem 134) made two hundred and fifteen 

 pounds and a quarter of butter in a trial of ninety-five days, 

 — a trifle over two pounds and a quarter per day. 



Now I have briefly referred to various classes of thorough- 

 bred cattle, with reference to their production in their early 

 introduction here. While the breeders have applied their 

 capital, energy, and all the science they possessed, in the 

 endeavor to give us the highest type of a dairy cow, yet they 

 have fallen far short in giving us what I consider the ideal 

 cow. We can describe her; but she does not exist. The cow 

 I want must be hardy, of good constitution, well-formed, no 

 waste flesh or bones to carry, and giving a large quantity of 

 milk, rich in cream and all the other elements of milk. As 

 I said, there are very many excellent cows, but none that 

 combine in the highest degree the excellences of all the dif- 

 ferent classes. How, then, shall we attain the " dairy cow " ? 

 If at all for New England, it must be in the cross of some of 

 the thorough-breds referred to, or, more probably, through a 

 cross with our so-called native cattle. 



The natives include every thing but pure-breds and grades. 

 Their early history furnishes us with many remarkable cows, 

 among which the Oakes cow is the most noted, and one of 

 the best types of a purely milch cow. She produced in 1816 

 four hundred and sixty-seven pounds and a quarter of butter 

 from May 15 to Dec. 20, at which time she was giving over 

 eight quarts of milk a day. More recently comes the Hol- 

 comb cow, excelling them all in the dairy yield. I have not 

 the record at hand. 



Now this opens wide the door for us, as practical men and 

 farmers, to experiment in the most judicious and economical 

 way in cross-breeding to attain the golden prize. But we 

 cannot "gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles," 

 n,or good milk nor good yellow butter from white birches or 

 our low meadow broad sward. 



To use a grade bull is to ignore agricultural science and 

 progress, and all the well-defined principles laid down for 



