150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the fact still remains that the great mass of butter-con- 

 sumers must, for a long time yet to come, be supplied by 

 cows that will very rarely astonish their owners by a close 

 approach to the extreme high figures. Is it not to be feared 

 that a cow which so far outstrips the average of her race will 

 necessarily fail to stamp such remarkable superiority upon 

 her offspring? 



It is told of a certain tough old farm-laborer, who lived 

 and worked in my town a generation or more ago, that, 

 when undertaking an extra hard day's work loading manure, 

 he stipulated with his employer that he should be furnished 

 a quart of cider to drink for each wagon-load drawn out. 

 It is not hard to believe, that, with two teams to haul them, 

 and the distance being short, that fifty loads found their 

 way from the stable-windows to the field ; and, as the story 

 goes, the fiftieth quart of cider disappeared as the last load 

 went out. Some of you may think of men who would be 

 willing now to undertake the cider-drinking part of the 

 exercise ; but I doubt if there is a man present who would 

 have much confidence that he could successfully complete 

 both operations. 



Now, it seems to me that it is expecting too much, from 

 cows that have beaten the world in their individual yields, 

 to expect them to produce calves year after year capable of 

 excelling or even equalling themselves. 



However successful such efforts may prove, — and we all 

 certainly hope for the best, — common farmers must, for the 

 present, still go on with such stock as they have, or can 

 readily obtain, and must accept results of far less magnitude. 



It used to be the fashion, when relating accounts of large 

 yields of milk or butter, to throw in the remark, as an addi- 

 tional point in favor of the cow, that she had been kept all 

 summer in a very poor pasture. I think this fashion is 

 going by. Men who have learned that soils must be fed, if 

 they are constantly cropped, need not be told that animals 

 which produce much must also be freely fed. Good keeping 

 may not alone make a good cow of a poor one ; but poor 

 keeping will certainly render a good cow unproductive and 

 unprofitable. Although I have aimed to establish, by breed- 

 ing, a good herd of dairy cows, yet I have given, perhaps, 

 greater attention to feeding, and especially to learning some- 



