REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



391 



species. The following statistics will show something of the aver- 

 age production of the dairy cows throughout the country. 



In the season of 1888, 1,163 creameries and cheese factories in the 

 State of New York were visited by the agents of the State dairy 

 commissioner. These factories received the milk of 407,810 cows 

 (nearly a third of all in the State), and the average product of each 

 cow was 3,034 pounds of milk for the season. This netted the farmer 

 a trifle over 80 cents per cwt. , or gave him a return of about $25 per 

 cow for the season. These factories were open for business about 

 six and one-half months on the average, and but very few of the 

 cows gave any milk before the factory opened in the spring or after 

 it closed in the fall. 



The returns furnished by the creamery men to the secretary of the 

 Nebraska Dairymen's Association, and published in the reports of 

 that association for the years 1885, 188, and 1887, show yields as 

 follows: 



For the three seasons an average of nine butter factories, s repre- 

 senting 10,760 cows, report an average yearly yield per cow of 76 

 pounds butter, and two cheese factories representing 660 cows report 

 an average yearly yield per cow of 250 pounds cheese. This is equiva- 

 lent to a yearly milk yield of between 2,300 and 2,500 pounds per cow. 



New York is one of the oldest and best developed of the dairy 

 States, and Nebraska is one of the very newest States in which dai- 

 rying is at all developed, so that the figures given for each represent 

 extremes, and will give a very fair idea of average results in the 

 country as a whole. 



But it would be manifestly unfair to our best dairymen to rest on 

 a statement of mere average returns. Nor does such a statement 

 show the possibilities of our country or our cattle. As showing 

 something of what is done with good care, good management, and 

 good cattle, the following figures are given: 



Mr. C. W. Jennings, of Jefferson County, N. Y. , in a paper read 

 before the New York State Dairymen's Association in December, 

 1888, gave the results of a careful enumeration of fifty-four dairies 

 with eight hundred and ninety cows in his county. This report 

 gives the gross returns per cow and the value of the grain ration 

 fed. This last is of great interest as showing the large increase in 

 gross return from a small increase in the grain ration: 



, 



The cows in these herds were a mixture of grades and natives, 

 and fairly represented the average dairy. 



The breeders of the various herds of improved cattle obtain results 

 much in advance of this. 



The owners of one of the largest and best known herds of Holstein- 

 Friesians in the country make the following statements in regard to 

 the yields from their herds: 



