410 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Another dairyman gives the following statistics of the facts regarding the 

 five best and five poorest cows in his dairy in 1857 : 



Five best credit by an average of 554 gallons of milk each, wLich realized, in butter 



and cheese sold, 11^ cents per gallon $63 71 



Dr. to2i tons of bay, at |3 per ton $20 00 



Thirty weeks' pasturing 7 50 



Two bundled weight of ground feed in spring 3 00 



Ten per cent, interest on each cow, say $45 4 50 



35 00 



Net profit of each cow 28 71 



Five poorest cows credit by an average of 243 gallons of milk, which realized, as 



above, 11^ cents per gallon $27 95 



Dr. to cost of keeping as above 35 00 



Loss on each cow 7 05 



Five cows paid him a profit of $143 55, and five others involved a loss of 

 $35 25 during the season. His dairy of forty-three cows averaged 450 pounds 

 of cheese each. 



The object of the butter dairy is best subserved by cows which give rich 

 milk. The difl'erence in this regard is very great. Some which give only a 

 moderate quantity will produce more butter than some others giving twice as 

 much. The object of the cheese dairy is best attained by cows yielding plen- 

 tifully of milk of fair quality. The proportion of butter varies in milk all the 

 way from two to eight per cent. The proportion of casein in milk is more 

 uniform, being usually from three to four per cent. Consequently, as a general 

 rule, the more milk a cow gives, the greater the product of cheese ; and if it 

 contain three per cent, of butter, cheese of very good quality can be made from 

 it, provided no loss is incurred in the manufacture. Yet it must be remembered 

 that every one per cent, additional of butter which the milk contains adds ten 

 per cent., more or less, to the amount of cheese which may be produced from 

 it, and is a much greater gain on the richness of the product. 

 • To illustrate this, let us suppose milk to contain three per cent, of butter, and 

 four per cent, of casein. This would be seven pounds of solid matter to one 

 hundred pounds of milk. This, with the water, &c., held with it, would make 

 about ten or eleven pounds of cheese, and an addition of one per cent, to the 

 solid matter contained in the milk would add a tenth, or from a tenth up to a 

 seventh more, to the amount of cheese. 



Good milkers are not confined to any one breed ; yet some breeds furnish a 

 much greater proportion of good milking cows than others. The excellencies 

 and defects of our common or misc^illed " native" stock are too well known to 

 require much remark. This stock includes some excellent milking cows, as 

 goed as can be had of any other sort ; and it includes a great many more which 

 never pay for their keeping, and which eat the food and receive the attention 

 that would have brought a handsome profit if bestowed on better ones. The 

 only serious trouble with the good ones is, that they are not sure to transmit 

 their better qualities, but are ever and anon '' breeding back," and their calves 

 often exhibit the traits of inferior ancestors. If such bulls be used as sires we 

 can anticipate nothing in regard to their progeny but uncertainty and disap- 

 pointment. Now, in such a case, what should be done ? I answer without 

 hesitation, let every such bull be utterly discarded at once ; let every unprofit- 

 able cow go to the butcher or di-over as soon as may be, and let the good ones 

 be bred to a male of some fixed breed, possessing ^o firmly the desired prop- 

 erties, form, and characteristics that he is sure to transmit them to his progeny. 

 A very simple rule this, and easy to put in practice. Its universal adoption 

 would, before many years, result in a gain to be counted by millions of dollars. 



