196 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the best quality of milk ; 2d, feed of the best kind ; 3d, the best 

 method of making the butter. The first named requisite is no 

 doubt the most essential. We want for butter purposes a good 

 stock of cows, whose chief excellence consists in giving milk 

 rich in butyraceous particles. This is the first step towards 

 improvement, and here arises a practical difficulty. H)»w shall 

 we get such a stock? If we could have cows which ^would 

 average as the best we now have, either for the production of 

 milk or butter, the dairy would be the most profitable branch of 

 farming. Is this result attainable ? If so, how ? "We believe 

 it is, but not by going to Brighton, or the country, and buying 

 the cheapest looking animal to be seen ; neither is it generally a 

 profitable operation to pay extra prices, because cows are highly 

 recommended. Most farmers do not sell their best cows until 

 they grow old, or something befalls them to impair their useful- 

 ness. No doubt the best cow is the cheapest, even if a high 

 price is paid, but the difficulty is to be reasonably certain that 

 the cow is as good as the price. We believe the best way and 

 the only way in which we can make any real improvement in 

 our stock is to raise it ourselves. It is true that many of our 

 Essex County farmers think that stock-raising does not pay. 

 Undoubtedly it does not pay to raise inferior or even average 

 stock here, and sell it as soon as it arrives at maturity. But 

 experience and observation both convince the writer that it 

 pays to raise good cows. By putting our best cows to a bull 

 from good butter or milk stock, and raising the heifers, we shall 

 be pretty certain to get a better stock than we can -readily buy, 

 and by a systematic and judicious management vastly improve 

 the quality of our cows. If it is said that cattle can be raised 

 somewhere else cheaper than here, we admit it. But the cattle 

 are not raised with reference to milk or butter. Breeders gen- 

 erally are not careful to breed only from the best ; and if we 

 want the best we must breed them ourselves. Even if it does 

 not pay at once, we shall be making permanent improvement, 

 which in the long run will be sure to tell. It will create an. 

 interest, and by raising the standard will lead stock-raisers to be 

 more careful in the selection of their animals. This matter lies 

 at the foundation of all improvement, either in the production 

 of butter or milk. It costs but little more to keep a cow that 

 makes three hundred pounds of butter per year than one that 



