134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



very short and simple task, and one which pays as well as it 

 does for a merchant to keep his books. Divide the pounds 

 of milk by two and one-sixth, and the quantity is reduced, 

 with sufficient accuracy, to standard quarts. Few cows yield 

 any profit that do not give over four thousand pounds, or 

 upwards of eighteen hundred quarts of milk, in the year. 

 This is twelve per cent more than the average in this State; 

 and as there are many cows that do better than this, so there 

 must be still more that do less, and that are, therefore, kept 

 at an actual loss. There is no question of the fact that 

 better cows can be obtained : indeed, one need not go far to 

 find them. The Waushakum herd of thirteen Ayrshires, of 

 whose products there has been a daily record for eight years, 

 has an average annual milk-yield of twenty-five hundred and 

 fifteen quarts per cow ; and a three-years' trial of the Miles' 

 herd of eleven cows of the same breed gave an annual aver- 

 age of twenty-five hundred and eighty-seven quarts apiece. 

 For Jerseys, the Haskell herd of seven cows, in Franklin 

 Count}', in a six-years' record averaged twenty-three hundred 

 and twenty-five quarts of milk and three hundred and seven 

 pounds of butter per year to each cow. The Maplehnrst 

 herd in Berkshire, ten cows, for five years has an average 

 record of twenty-five hundred and thirteen quarts of milk 

 and two hundred and fifty-four pounds of butter ; and the 

 Deerfoot herd in Worcester, twenty-five cows, with five-years' 

 record, gives twenty-two hundred and fifty-two quarts of milk 

 and two hundred and sixty-nine pounds of butter. 



These were all choice stock, to be sure ; but such are rapidly 

 coming within reach of all. Grades do about as well at the 

 pail. The Sturtevant brothers kept the daily record of 

 thirty-three native cows for three years at South Framing- 

 ham, and, although the average was twenty hundred and 

 eighty quarts a year, concluded they could not afford to feed 

 such poor animals. (Yet these cows gave a yearly return of 

 fifteen dollars a head above the average for the State.) Dr. 

 Wakefield, several years ago, reported that forty cows kept 

 by him at the State farm, averaged twenty-one hundred and 

 ninety quarts a year, and Superintendent Bradford has sent 

 me the record of the herd at Monson for five years, which 

 shows the average of fifty-one cows (about one-fourth of 

 Ayrshire blood) to be twenty-one hundred and forty-eight 



