NEAT CATTLE. 261 



UHLCH COWS. 



By reference to an article published in the Agricultural Report of 1861, entitled 

 "Consumption of Milk," it will be found that about fifty per cent, of all the 

 milk produced in the United States is directly consumed as food, and that the 

 remainder is manufactured into butter and cheese. It "will also be found that 

 more than one-half of the butter and cheese is consumed by the manufactiarers, 

 so that at least seventy-five per cent, of the milk produced is consumed at once 

 in the locality of its production. 



This constitutes the principal demand for cows, and as nothing can supply 

 their place, the demand can only vary Avith the population. This is plainly 

 shown by the following statement, which gives + 27 per cent, as the con- 

 stant requirement for the past thirty years. Nothing could be more plainly 

 stated. In all the varying circumstances that have occurred, while we have 

 doubled our territory and our population, the constant demand has required 

 twenty-eight cows to every one hundred people. In 1S70 the demand will be 

 the same, but from the constant decrease of neat cattle in general throughout 

 the country, the number actually reported by the census of 1870 may possibly 

 fall to twenty-seven. 



A remarkable feature in the distribution of milch cows is seen by comparing 

 the southern with the northern section of the country. At no time within the 

 last thirty years has any southern State, with the exception of Louisiana, 

 Virginia, and North Carolina, had less than the required number of milch cov»?, 

 namely, twenty-eight for every one hundred people. On the contrary, their 

 average per cent, is far above. At the same time, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode 

 Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ken- 

 tucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin have not, at 

 any time within the past thirty years, had the average number of milch cows. 



Massachusetts and Rhode Island have not one-half the average number re- 

 quired. In these States this deficiency is undoubtedly partly made up by the 

 cows being of a better breed ; but it is more probable that in these States a 

 large part of the milk is used for food, and the butter and cheese supplied from 

 other sources. We also find that Florida, Georgia, Alabama, 5lississippi, 

 Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky have largely diminished their 

 number of milch cows in the past ten years. In general, all of the southern 

 part of the United States has largely diminished its stock of cows, and yet is 

 better supplied than the northern sections. In the north, Connecticut, Dela- 

 ware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, 

 Pennsylvania, and Virginia have all, with the exception of New Hampshire 

 and New York, less than the requisite number, and have varied in the last 

 thirty years less than two per cent. Iowa, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan 

 have considerably increased their stock, and doubtless the central west will 

 soon more than supply the east with the required amount of butter and cheese 



