MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTTRE. 443 



we give Mr. Cressy's statement: "She calved 21st May, and gave milk as 

 follows : 



From May 21 to June 'iJl Milk l.ino Ihs. 4 oz. 



■' June 'Jt to July 21 ■• i,2ii4 " & " 



" July 'Jl to Auj^'ust 21 '■ 1,127 " 8 •' 



" August 21 to September 21 " 95<> " 8 " 



Total in four months " 4,817 lbs. 4 oz. 



Mr. Cressy says he sold most of her milk, but he found by experiment that 19 

 pounds of it would yield one pound of butter. At that rate, she would have 

 yielded in the four months 253 pounds of butter, or something more than two 

 pounds a day. He stated as to her keeping, that it had been " good grass feed: 

 with the exception of seven weeks, when she had two quarts of shorts per day." 

 How much more valuable such a cow, so fed or pastured, than half a dozen such 

 as we have in many of the States, which in summer yield a scanty supply of 

 butter, and in winter give scarcely cream enough for their coffee ! Nothing pays 

 better, in the whole round of domestic economy, than a little extra feed and 

 care, shelter and shorts, with a dust of Indian meal, to a good cow. 



Mr. Warren AvERiLL took the second premium. His cow was six years old. 

 She calved 21st April. The calf was kept to 13th May. With what milk "the 

 calf left" until that time, and all afterward to 20th May, one month, she pro- 

 duced twenty pounds eight oimces of butter. In the four succeeding months she 

 gave 4,375 pounds of milk, that yielded 211 lbs. 2 oz. butter ; being something 

 more than twenty pounds of milk to one of butter. Her feed was pasture only, 

 except from 30th of August, when he began giving her 1 quart of Indian and 1 

 quart of rye meal every night. 



WiLLiAJi Williams took the third premium for a cow whose calf he sold for 

 $10 at 6 weeks and 3 days old ; and during these six weeks he sold 52 quarts 

 of milk and got Tj lbs. of butter from her. She gave, from the time the calf 

 was taken from her, from 14 to 15 quarts of milk a day for a few days over four 

 months. She calved 6th Feb., 1845, and on the 23d Sept. she was giving 8 

 quarts a day. Her keep was salt hay until she calved ; then one feed of " English 

 hay," at noon, and half a bushel of carrots per day for two months ; after that 

 no carrots, but one food of English hay at noon, and salt hay night and morning 

 until " pasture time." " The first two weeks after she calved she gave 10 qts. 

 of milk daily more than the calf could suck." P. S. She made 9 lbs. of butter 

 per week till pasture time ; then the milk was put with that of the rest of my 

 cows." 



The reader may here see how valuable is even one cow in a family, when of 

 good quality and well kept; but these " pastures" in Massachusetts are gener- 

 ally well set in old English grass, one acre of it bearing more milk-producing 

 grass than six of ordinary pasture in some other old States. How valuable will 

 " The Cow Book" prove, in process of time, to all who thus rely on the cow for 

 the sustenance of their families and for a portion of their income, supposing the 

 signs laid down in it to prove as infallible as they have been found by Mr. Brooks, 

 a practical farmer of the highest respectability, whose letter we published, and 

 whose testimony has been corroborated by several others who, without going so 

 much into detail, have assured us that with this book in hand they have tested 

 the theory far enough to have no fear of being imposed on with an indifferent 

 cow. As we desire in all cases to arrive at the exact truth, we respectfully re- 

 quest that the Trustees of all Societies would place The Cow Book in the bands 

 of their Committees appointed to award premiums, with instructions to see bow 



(9^3) 



