DIGEST OP STATE REPORTS. 425 



32 pounds 4 ounces ; weight of cream, '6 pounds 1 ounce ; time of churn- 

 ing, 30 minutes ; weight of butter, 1 pound 12 ounces ; of buttermilk, 1 

 pound 5 ounces. 



Mr. Fassett regards the Jerseys as the best butter-produciug cows, for 

 the following reasons: Their cream rises quicker, simplifying the process 

 of setting milk; their butter is yellower, can be churned from cream in 

 very much less time, and can be churned at higher temperature with 

 good results ; their butter commands a higher price in market than that 

 of most other breeds. He gives the points of a good cow, as follows : 



A soft, velvety skin, (and good feed helps to make a good skin;) full eyes; small 

 horns; wide escutcheon, a place to put a bag; well-spread teats of good size; large, 

 crooked milk-veins, with large orifice at their source. A slkn neck is a good sign, also 

 a slim tail and clean limbs. Almost all good butter-cows are bright and sprightly. A 

 good, vigorous constitution is very important. 



Of the size of cows, he says : 



I have never considered it one of great importance, and yet it demands some atten- 

 tion. A cow consumes of good hay .ibout 3 per cent, of her live weight daily, to 

 support life and repair the waste. If a large cow will, when not used for the dairy 

 longer, make enough more beef than the small one, that makes the same amount of 

 butter, to pay for the greater amount of fodder consumed during the years she is kept 

 for a dairy-cow, she is worth the same, and this is the best rule I know of by which to 

 judge of the relative value of large and small cows in the butter-dairy. 



Mr. E. S. Wood contributes a paper on the value of meal as feed for 

 milch-cows. While he is usually supplied with a sufficient amount of 

 good grass and hay for his stock, he thinks his cows need something 

 more thau that to keep them in good physical condition. By feeding 

 them two quarts each per day of meal, with the addition of shorts in 

 winter, a uniform flow of milk is kept up the year round, and a good 

 quality of butter is made during those months when there is no pas- 

 turage. 



In an article on breeding and rearing farm-stock, Mr. 0. H. Hubbard 

 says: 



A cow that has, in growing to maturity, consumed an undue proportion of the nutri- 

 ment in her food in the manufacture of a large, coarse head, with a great pair of horns, 

 and a coarse, masculine frame, which must be vitalized and warmed by food everyday, 

 or one that exxjends much vital force iu roaming about the pasture, running and fight- 

 ing, is not an economical machine. One that fails to draw the nutriment out of her 

 food and make anything out of it may be a good machine to manufacture manure, but 

 must be regarded as a wasteful one. 



On the subject of breeding and training, he says : 



The natural tendency is toward deterioration. If any function ia not cultivated by 

 breeding and training, it will be very sure to grow less in power and activity. The 

 cow that is not milked loses the capacity to give milk, and transmits a tendency to the 

 same incapacity to her ofi'spring. I do not intend to reflect upon any particular breed 

 of cattle, or other anitnals, for the eamo thing exists among all. The Jersey breeder, 

 who goes for a particular color of hair, horns, tongue, or switch, hurts his stock every 

 time. The Ayrshire breeder, who endeavors to imitate the lordly form of the short- 

 horn, impairs the value of his Ayrshire cow ; and the short-horn breeder who, iu breed- 

 ing stock for New England, neglects to perpetuate and improve the dairy qualities for 

 which that breed was once so celebrated, is doing an incalculable injury to the dairy 

 interest. * * » Xhe relative influence of the parents in determining the character 

 of the 5'oung depends, in my opinion, largely upon the degree to which the qualities 

 of each have been fixed and intensified by judicious breeding, and on their comparative 

 vigor and stamina. It is thought by some writers on the subject that the male parent 

 exercises a controlling influence in the external form, covering of the skin, and the 

 locomotive powers, while on the mother depend the vital and digestive functions. 

 This rale must, I think, be accepted with a liberal allowance for circumstances. It ia 

 certain that the sire exercises a marked influence over the character, as a dairy-cow, 

 of the young. It is not enough that one parent possesses the qualities it is desired to 

 perpetuate. Both must have them, and both must be descended from familiea that 

 exhibit them. Then the character of the issue is measurably certain. 



