68 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



poor animal. Many pure-breds can now be purchased at 

 prices very little above that of common stock ; so that the 

 cost should not stand jn the way of any one really wishing 

 to improve his herd. To show the absolute need of improve- 

 ment, we would state, that, according to statistics prepared a 

 few years ago, the average in New- York dairies was thirteen 

 hundred quarts per cow, and in the best dairies only eighteen 

 hundred quarts. Two thousand quarts is a fair yield ; but is 

 it sufficient, at present prices, to leave any profit after the 

 keep, &c, has been deducted ? 



The farmer who sells his milk at the door, or delivers it to 

 the contractor on the cars, gets from two to three cents per 

 quart. Will a cow yielding two thousand quarts per year 

 pay for her keep at these prices? We think not. This 

 brings us to the cost of keeping a cow. Reckoning seven 

 months at six dollars, and five months at three dollars, for 

 feed (a low estimate where milk is the object), we have 

 fifty-seven dollars for the year. A thousand quarts at two 

 cents and a half, and a thousand quarts at three cents, 

 equal to fifty-five dollars : there is no profit. Consequently. 

 it is evident that the quantity of milk must be increased, or 

 the price must be raised, to leave any margin or profit. If 

 you increase the yield to twenty-five hundred quarts per 

 year, its value will be sixty-eight dollars and seventy-five 

 cents, a profit of eleven dollars and seventy-five cents. 

 Unless the farmer has the means of sending his milk direct 

 to market, we imagine he will find it easier to increase the 

 yield than to advance the price. 



Butter. — Would there be more money in making butter 

 or cheese than in selling milk at these price* ? Let us see. 

 Two thousand quarts, allowing twelve quarts to the pound, 

 would produce, say, a hundred and sixty-seven pounds of 

 butter, which, at thirty cents, would come to fifty dollars 

 and ten cents: deducting five cents per pound for making 

 and marketing leaves forty-one dollars and seventy-five 

 cents. Then we have the skim-milk : the latter is valuable, 

 if fed on the farm, and tends to prevent exhaustion of soil. 



Cheese. — Two thousand quarts of milk, allowing four 

 quarts and a half to the pound, would produce four hun- 

 dred and forty-four pounds of cheese, which, at ten cents per 

 pound, would be forty-four dollars and forty cents, less cost 



