70 State Board of Agricui.tuke, &c. 



FEEDING GRAIN TO MILCII COWS. 



BY E. H. CLEVELAND, OF FRANKLIN. 



The dairy business, as conducted by a majority of tliose 

 engaged in it in this county, is not a business that pays a 

 large return for the capital and labor invested. I have been 

 astonished, while looking up the results of this branch of 

 industry, the better to qualify myself to discuss the question 

 assigned me on this occasion, to learn what small returns 

 are realized by a large number of our dairymen. 



I have taken a great deal of pains to ascertain the differ- 

 ence in the receipts of dairies fed grain, and those that are 

 not, and I am sorry to say that tliere arc altogether too 

 many dairies in this county that do not yield one hundred 

 and twenty-five pounds of butter per cow annually, and 

 for which the average price received has not exceeded 

 twenty-eight cents a pound for the same. This only gives 

 thirty-five dollars for keeping a cow one year, and for the 

 laber of milking and making the butter. Every intelligent 

 farmer knows that at this rate a farm cannot be made to 

 pay expenses. I do not intend to convey the impression 

 that the dairies that are not fed grain will not average more 

 than these figures, but will be liberal and place the average 

 production at one hundred and forty pounds to the cow, 

 which, I think, will exceed rather than fall below the actual 



