326 



EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



I come, lastly, to speak of the Alderneys as a milking stock. 

 I believe it will be admitted, without a dissentient voice, that for 

 richness of milk, as a race, they are unrivalled, and this with 

 scarcely an exception. I shall state some facts within my knowl 

 edge in regard to quantity, obtained without any extra feeding. 

 A farmer in Hampshire owned an Alderney cow, which produced 

 fourteen pounds of butter per week, for a period of thirteen weeks. 

 When I visited him in the summer, he had six Alderney cows, 

 which together had produced fifty pounds of butter per week, 

 during the whole season. Another farmer, whose authority is 

 above question, assured me that, from four Alderney cows, he 

 had made, during the months of May and June, fifty-two pounds 

 of butter per week. Colonel Le Couteur, with whose acquaint 

 ance I am honored, states that &quot; the best Alderney or improved 

 Guernsey cows give twenty-six quarts of milk in twenty-four 

 hours, and fourteen pounds of butter from such milk in one 

 week. Such are rare. Good cows afford twenty quarts of milk 

 daily, and ten pounds of butter weekly, in the spring and summer 

 months.&quot; * 



Mr. Bates, the celebrated breeder of short horns, gave me the 

 subjoined minutes respecting some trials of the quality of milk 

 among stock owned by him : 



One quart of milk, West Highlanders, produced 2 oz. butter. 

 &quot; &quot; &quot; &quot; of half-bred Durham stock, . 2J &quot; &quot; 

 &quot; &quot; &quot; average of short horns, . . . 1 &quot; &quot; 



Of some select or extra stock, the following was the result : 

 One quart of milk, short horns, produced, . . . 2J oz. butter. 



tt of West Highlanders, . . . 2J &quot; &quot; 

 &quot; &quot; &quot; &quot; of half-bred Durham, . . . 2J &quot; &quot; 



Of the milk of his famous cow Duchess, a full-bred improved Dur 

 ham, giving fourteen quarts at a milking, each quart produced one 

 ounce and a half of butter. Supposing the yield at each milking 

 to have been the same, i. e. equal to twenty-eight quarts per day, 

 the amount of butWr obtained is shown to have been eighteen 

 pounds six ounces per week. In the case of another cow 

 in his possession, of the same stock, and, I believe, the daughter 



* Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, vol. v. part 1, p. 50. 



