NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Published by JOHN B. RUSSF.LL, at t hp cornnr ofConyrns; nn<\ I>inH:^ll Slrpf f?. (Six rloor? from tbn Po st Offire) no-^tf'n — TfTO^^ ^S O. FKSSF.NDKN, Tlp ttow. 



^I/OlTiY. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 182r). No.'d" 



oniazNAi. coztnmvzrxcATXoHS. 



FOR THE NEW KNGLAND FARMER. 



COLONEL PICKERING, 



ON IMPROVING THE NATIVE BREED 



OF NEW ENGLAND CATTLE. 



Letter Vl. 



In continuing these Ipttfir?, I ''hull not confine 

 myself to Ihfi nxaminatinn of Mr Powel's " Re- 

 ply ;■' but, being thus cn!jiigefl in tiio discussion, 

 present to the consideration of firmers, various 

 facts and observations haTing a relation to the 

 subject, and which I think ])erlinenf, either to 

 justify the sentiments expressed in my former 

 letters, or giving further useful infomialinu. 



The Editors of the Mass. Agric. Repository, 

 in their remarks on my four letters, call Young 

 and Marshall " old writers."* Be it so: I did not 

 attem()t to conceal the times of their writing. 

 For my object in discussing this and every oth- 

 er subject, on which 1 have ever addressed the 

 public, has been to inform — not to deceive. I 

 therelbre cx[>res?ly mentioned, that \ oung made 

 liis tours in England " between 50 and 60 years 

 ago," and that Marshall followed him •' from 35 

 to 40 years ago." But the spirit of improve- 

 ment had appeared years before even \ oung 

 wrote, to inform his countrymen of Bakewell's 

 principles and practice in breeding — Bakewell, 

 whom another eminent breeder calls " the fath- 

 er of the improved system of breeding,"? 



In my tirst letter, I mentioned the products in 

 butter from dairies in dift'erent parts of Eng- 

 land: — from i^oung, that they varied from 112 

 to 140 and 168 pounds a cow, by the year: but 

 that farmers obtained on a medium only two fir- 

 kins, or 112 pounds; and from Mnrshall, that a 

 good cow wascalculated toyield 3 lirkins, or 108 

 pounds of butter in a year; but taking a whole 

 dairy of cows, in which heifers were mtermix- 

 ed, 2^ firkins (140 pounds) were estimated a 

 good produce, taking the dairy round. 



But I did not limit myself to those two " old 

 writers." I quoted Rees' Cyclopedia, a modern 

 work of great celebrity ; from the second Eng- 

 lish edition of which, of about the year 1802(as 

 an eminent book-seller has informed me,) the 

 American edition was printed. Mr Powel, in 

 the Memoirs of the Pennsylvania Agricultural 

 Society, quotes CuUey and Lawrence on live 

 stock, as modern authorities; and their writings 

 are quoted in Rees' Cyclopedia. This work, the 

 second edition, was published some years after 

 Colling bad been exerting his breeding skill, and 

 only eight years prior to the sale of his improv- 

 ed short horn cattle, now represented to have 

 been superior to any breed in England. In that 

 work, I observed, it was stated, that on a medi- 

 tmo, 4 gallons of milk will make a pound of but- 

 ter ; and that the quantity which a dairy of cows 

 of any magnitude, in regard to numbers, may 

 be supposed to yield, may be rated at 6 pounds 



♦ Mass. Agr. Repository, vol. VIII. no. IV. Their re- 

 marks have been republished in the N«w England 

 Farmer vol. III. no. 51. 



t Sir John Sinclairs' Code of Agriculture, Appendix 

 p. 59, published in 1817. 



each, per week, in summer, and from 4 to 5 

 pounds in winter, according to the manner of feed- 

 ing them : That in the Ejiping practice, the av- 1 

 erau-e quantity of butter made by n cow per 

 week, was found to be four pounds — in the ' 

 whole, irt nine months, 156 pounds. — The word? 

 in nine months, furnish a rule by which to esti- 

 mate the annual p.-oduct of English cows, when 

 they are stated lo produce any number of pounds 

 of butter per week, and tbo total product by the 

 year is not mentioned. The 8 or 9 pounds of 

 butter a week, jirodoced by some cows, assur- 

 edly refer only to the lop of (he milkingseason ; 

 afler wliich tliey gradually decline in milk and 

 butter, until Ibey gn dry, between two and three 

 monihs before they calve. 



After the details of the products of the dai- 

 ries of English cows, 1 presented llinse of some 

 American dairies ofnative cows. The first >vas 

 thit of Mr Robert', near Philadelphia, where, 

 in right ye;irs ( 179G to 1003 inclusively) a dairy 

 of CO co«»s yielded, on an average, I "3 pounds 

 of butter per cow, by Ihe 3'ear ; thus surpass- 

 ing the average j.rodnct of Ihe English dairies, 

 as stated by Young and Marshall. 



What would be the average annual product 

 of butter in Ihe large English dairies " suppos- 

 ed" to yield by the week, 6 pounds of butter in 

 si:mmer and 4 to 5 ponnds in winter, per cow, 

 according to the keep (as mentioned in Ihe Cy- 

 clopedia) must here be a mailer of estimate ; for 

 which, however, Ihe statement of (be Epping 

 da.ries, 1 think, may properly be assumed as » 

 ri.'le. In this case " the average quantily ofbtit- 

 lev made by a cow per week, was found to be 4 

 pounds, and the whole, in nine monihs, 156 

 pounds." Now supposing the average produci 

 of a cow, in tlie other large dairies above men- 

 tioned, to be 5 pounds per week, the amount, in 

 nine months, or 39 weekf, would be 195 pounds; 

 the nine months being obviously considered as 

 Ihe butter making period for the whole year. 



I next mentioned the native cows of Massa- 

 chusetts ; and took my account from the Agri- 

 cultural Repository, edited by a commiltee of 

 the Trustees of the Massachusetts Sociely of Ag- 

 riculture. The first is that of Abner Wheeler 

 of Framingham (22 miles from Boston.) whose 

 7 cows, in six months, gave 941^' pounds of but- 

 ter and 1300 pounds of skim milk cheese ; ave- 

 raging nearly 5i pounds of butter and 7 pound? 

 of cheese, for each cow, per week ; one of 

 which cows did not contribute lo the dairy till 

 after the middle of July. Of this dairy of 7 cows, 

 Mr Powel gives the followingglowing descrip- 

 tion. "• Seven picked cows, fed purposely — selected 

 & recorded as the best specimen of the best cows 

 — of one of the best agricultural districts — of the 

 best of the New England Slates — under the best 

 management — produced during Ihe best pastur- 

 age season." The confidence wilh which this 

 description is presented to the reader would na- 

 tarally lead him to suppose that it was a tran- 

 script from the Mass. Repository, or from my 

 letters : but there is nothing in either, even to 

 give it countenance. 1 stated the simplest facts 

 concerning Ihe dairy; the name of the farmer 

 and of his residence, the number of his cows, and 

 their pioducts in butter and cheese: and the 



Truslres of (be Mass. .Sorielv publish it a= " an 

 account of a mrxicrnte experiment, within Ihe reach 

 of every farmer." Thev add, " It is an exhibi- 

 tion of profit (rom Ihe ordinary mode of treat- 

 ment ; except that .Mr Wheeler appear? lohave 

 been uncommonly attentive to manuring his pas- 

 ture land; liaving for many years successively 

 dressed it vvith plaister of Paris:'" a practice 

 comparatively novel in MassichuseK", though 

 for forty years familiar to Ihe farmer? of Penn- 

 sylvania, in relation to their fine clover fields. — 

 It is true, that the Trustees call Mr Wheeler's 

 products uncommon for o>»r cavntry^'' — meaning 

 .Massachuselts. But all Ihe item' lo which Mr 

 Powel seven limes ap;ilieslhe word best, are his 

 own unfounded prnduclion. Not (be leasl rep- 

 rehensible of these efiu'ions. i« Mr PowcPs im- 

 puting (for such seems to be Ihe implication) lo 

 llie Trnslees or to nie, llie vain-glorioi-.s and of- 

 (nn'ive bnasi, thai filnssacliusells is the best of 

 the New England Stales. 



Afler noticing Jlr V/liceler's dairy, the Trus- 

 tees insert the answers which had been repeat- 

 edly made lo the Society's (]ueslion — " How 

 much butler is annually made from a cow, and 

 how much skim milk cheese ?"' .^nd by name 

 they mention the places from which the answers 

 came ; viz. 



Duller. Cheese. 



Brooklyn (in Middlesex) 701bs. SOlbs. 



Middlesex fc Stnibridgi: Pocit'lies . . 70 .70 

 Shrewsbury Agric. Soc. (Worcester Co.) 100 ■ 150 

 ■Newbury Agric. f^oc. (I'.ssex) . . . 1-0 

 Vassalbuiough Agric. Soc. in Maine . 100 



Total from 5 d.iiries .... 400 pounds, 

 and as much skim milk cheese ; averaging 92 

 pounds of butler to a dairy ; as was stated in my 

 first letter. These quantities, I remarked, were 

 certainly small ; but that the common produci of 

 English cows, it was seen, (that is, from Young's 

 and Marshall's writings) was, for the most part, 

 only 112 pounds of butter per cow, and Irom 

 some better dairies 140 pounds. — Alter describ- 

 ing our own pastures, and their palpable defi- 

 ciences, I ask, "what is to be expected from 

 cows which are thus, strictly speaking, but half 

 fed ?" 



Afler the details of the products of six dairies 

 in various parts of Blassachusetls, I slated the 

 extraordinary product of the native New Eng- 

 land cow belonging to Mr Oakes ; which, in 1816, 

 being full and richly led, yielded, in 32i weeks 

 4G7J- jiounds of butter, to which the 171bs. made 

 while her calf was suckled being added, the to- 

 tal was 484i pounds as slated in Ihe Mass. Re- 

 pository. I expressly ascribed one half ol Ibis 

 extraordinary produce of butter to the extraor- 

 dinary quantity of rich food she consumed. 



As I had compared English and American dai- 

 ries, so likewise I compared one uncommon Eng- 

 lish cow vfilh one uncommon New Ensriandcow. 

 From the Mass. Repository [vol. I\'. no. IV.] i 

 gave an abridged account of the English cow, 

 which belonged to Mr. Cramp, keeper of the 

 Sussex county prison, within the walls of w hich, 

 on sixty-nine rods of land (eleven short of half 

 an acre) he sowed red clover, while clover, lu- 

 cerne, rye-grass and cow-grass, [cow grass is a 

 species of clover] and some carrots. Such wa? 



