254 



There is no such thing to be had in Boston, within my know- 

 ledge, as distillers' swill, the refuse grain after the whisky has 

 been extracted from it ; but some use is made of brewers' grains, 

 the malted barley, wliere they can be had. They increase the 

 quantity of the milk but injure the quality. English hay 

 and corn fodder are the general feed, with sometimes carrots, 

 ruta-baga, or mangel-wurtzel. The ruta-baga, and all the tur- 

 nip family, are apt to give a turnip taste to the milk, which 1 

 never knew to be otherwise than disagreeable to every person 

 excepting William Cobbett, who had ruta-baga seed to sell, and 

 so, perhaps honestly, thought the flavor and odor pleasant. A 

 milkman of my acquaintance, however, remarkable for his care- 

 fulness, says he finds no objection of this sori to the ruta-baga, 

 if they are given to the cows directly after and not before being 

 milked. Before the next milking comes, he says the disagreeable 

 odor is entirely got rid of. The best milkmen prefer good clover 

 hay for cows in milk to any other. Potatoes and mangel-wurt- 

 zel increase the quantity without improving the quality of the 

 rojlk. Carrots, parsnips and sugar-beets improve the quality. — 

 A milk farm, well situated and with a good custom, is a profit- 

 able husbandry where the milk brings 5 cents in summer and 6.^ 

 cents in winter. A good deal of milk is sold by the farmers to 

 the milkmen for three cents per quart, of the profits of which 

 management to the farmer 1 have strong doubts. If we sup- 

 pose that it requires 10 quarts of milk to make one pound of but- 

 ter, this at 3 cents per quart would be 30 cents. Suppose the 

 milk to be made into butter, there is a pound of butter worth 

 25 cents, and, if of superior quality, 33 ; there are the skim-milk 

 and butter-milk remaining, worth certainly for young pigs 1| 

 cent per quart — say 9 quarts, 13 cents ; and there is the manure 

 made by the swine kept, which is of considerable value. 



The amount of milk furnished by a herd of cows through 

 the year is very ditfcrenily estimated by different persons. — 

 Rare individual cows may be occasionally met with, giving 

 ten, and perhaps, in some remarkable case, even eleven quarts 

 of milk per day through the year — that is, 365 times 11 quarts, 



