ON MILCH COWS AND HEIFERS. 6T 



milking properties. I do not believe that the milk stock of the Coun- 

 ty has been benefitted by crossing with them. It seems to me that 

 the superior cows among them are the exceptions. We have gained 

 in size, which we did not want, and which the quality and quantity 

 of our food cannot well support; but we have not increased in value. 

 In the ox, v/e have got a little more symmetry of form, but we have 

 got with it, a delicacy of constitution, illy adapted to the hard fare, 

 hard climate and hard labor of New England. 



The Ayrshires come to us with the reputation of being the best 

 milk stock in Great Britain. Their smaller size and closer knit 

 frames show that they can live, where the improved short horns can- 

 not. Time will determine whether they prove equal in this country, 

 to the recommendation of them in the old. " Wisdom is neither 

 inheritance nor legacy," therefore try them : but if they do not prove 

 better than our native stock, a wise course will be to "hold fast that 

 which is good." 



By the mode of keeping, I mean the general treatment of the ani- 

 mal. We require the cow to furnish us a calf annually, and a daily 

 supply of milk for nearly the whole year. Now if any animal de- 

 serves better treatment than the rest, where all are so well deserving, 

 it is the cow. All she asks, to meet our demands upon her, is suita- 

 ble food, comfortable shelter, to be kept dry and clean, kind words 

 and kind usage. How many cows there are in the county, which 

 never know the enjoyment of any of these, until near the end of 

 their miserable and half-starved existence they are put up to fatten ! 

 How many farmers there are Avho give their oxen and horses the best 

 that their barns afford, whose cows look as if they were hardly al- 

 lowed the refuse of the cribs ! The ox and horse are worked. They 

 go from home, and pride feeds them. But the cow, it may be, has 

 managed on a short pasture to give some milk and get a little flesh 

 in summer ; but the "winter of her discontent" has come. Who has 

 not seen in almost every town in the County — when winter was at 

 its height, and^ when the fur of the buffalo could not keep out the 

 piercing wind, as it drove the light snow far through every crevice — 

 cows turned out to go half a mile to water, and left out half, perhaps 

 the whole day. It may be that they have not had a dry bed since 

 they were taken from the pasture or the field, or nearly one half the body 

 is soaked with urine and covered with frost. Seeking the lee of soma 

 merciful stone wall, shrinking into the smallest possible space, quiver- 



