276 



" My calves, at a year old, weigh from 900 to 1050 lbs. ; 

 and I feel confident that a thorough-bred Durham steer can be 

 made to weigh as much at three or four years old as a common 

 steer at five or six. There are certainly objections to the breed 

 where pasturage is short and a full supply of hay is not given. 

 They are greater consumers than the common cattle of the coun- 

 try, but they are of much greater size and, as said before, ma- 

 ture much earlier. My cows are mostly herd-book animals, 

 thorough-bred. I enclose yon the pedigrees in full of Straw- 

 berry, Ringlet, and Violet, as requested."* 



9. Cow. Levi Lincoln, Worcester, 1825, A cross from Den- 

 ton on a superior native cow. " This cow has often given from 

 24 to 27 quarts of milk per day of excellent quality, yielding 

 a large proportion of cream. The least quantity of milk given 

 by her in any one day during the summer drought, on grass- 

 feed only, was 13 quarts." [Mr. Lincoln states to me that this 

 was beer measure.] 



For the dairy and the stall, he speaks with the utmost con- 

 fidence of the preeminence of Denton's stock. One of his 

 three year old heifers (a half or three fourths blood) gives from 

 16 to 20 quarts of the richest milk by the day since calving ; 

 the other a little less, from the circumstance of having been in 

 milk continually for more than a year ; but her milk is in no 

 degree inferior in quality. The last season she gave eleven 

 quarts at a milking, with grass only, and this not infrequently. 



Mr. Lincoln likewise states to me, that on putting six of our 

 best native steers, purchased from Vermont, and six others of 

 the mixed blood of Denton into the same open yard in the fall, 

 and keeping them through the winter at the same manger on 

 the same feed and in the same exposure, the growth and con- 

 dition of the mixed bloods in the spring were greatly superior 

 to those of the native stock. 



10. Cow. Dolly. George Hood, Lynn. " Dolly had her 

 first Calf in April, 1833, before she was two years old. In the 

 following June she gave 14 quarts per day, measured a number 



* Appendix, H. 



