154 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



only. It being his only cow, furnished his family with their cream and 

 milk besides." The second is from the Farmer and Mechanic, which 

 says : " The best cow now in the United States is probably owned near 

 Geneva, N. Y., which through the month of June, 1849, gave forty-two 

 quarts of milk per day; and for five days she gave forty-five quarts per 

 day. The cow is half Durham and half of the native breed." 



The Somerset Messenger, New Jersey, contains a communication 

 from J. W. Van Arsdale, stating the profits of a half-blooded Durham 

 cow owned by him, for ten months from the 1st of April, 1849, to the 

 1st of February following. He sold in that time to the retailer 3,022 

 quarts, at 2 and 2\ cents a quart, amounting to 870.51, besides reserv- 

 ing a suflicient quantity for the use of his family of eleven persons, and 

 about two messes of milk twice a week for baking purposes. The 3,022 

 quarts were sold by the retailer at double the price he gave for it, that 

 is, for $141.02. He calculates that this amount of milk would have made 

 302 pounds of butter, which, at 20 cents a pound, amounts to $60.40. 

 The cow has not had extraordinary care — having had two quarts of oat 

 and corn meal per day during the drought last summer, and three quarts 

 last spring before grass and this winter. And a farmer in Essex county, 

 in that state, realized during twelve months previous to February 1st, 

 1850, a net profit of $456.09 from three ordinary cows — animals of the 

 common breed of the country — that in most other hands would not 

 probably much more than have paid for their keeping. As it is, they 

 have supplied the family with all their milk and cream, paid for their 

 keeping in full, as appears by a minute daily account, and yielded the 

 above-named profit of $456.09. 



It is unnecessary to gather up more similar cases. Our agricultural 

 journals are filled with them. Now, suppose a farmer resolve that he 

 would keep no cow that did not hold out a good milker nine months in 

 the year, and that did not give sixteen quarts of milk per day for two 

 months after calving, twelve quarts per day for the next four months, six 

 quarts per day for the next three months, and two quarts per day for the 

 following month ; such a cow would yield per annum 3,000 quarts of 

 milk, which, at four cents a quart, would be $120. Considering the cases 

 above given, is not this feasible? With such cows, what if it does cost 

 five or ten dollars a year more to keep them than is ordinarily expended 

 for the purpose? May not such cows be raised? No matter if they 

 do cost fifty or sixty dollars each ; they soon pay for themselves. 



If the various modes of obtaining this object were resorted to at once 

 throughout the country, there would be a vast improvement in a very 

 short time. No young animal of promising appearance for milk would 

 go to the butcher. More care would be taken of young stock. More 

 young stock would be retained to insure a better selection for milk cows. 

 Farmers would think more of the advantages of employing the im- 

 proved breed. Heifers would be milked with great care and very thor- 

 oughly, to get them in the habit of holding out longer as milkers. If 

 they once dry early, no care and keeping will afterward correct the 

 fault. Heifers with the first calf, especially, should be well fed, and with 

 some additional care, the last three months they are in milk, to make 

 them hold out. 



