298 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



[April 15, 



in M i«sachiisetts, at lea 

 should think the common 



full bile for more than a month ; and le<s an 

 le^^s as the season ([iprl!:ij)3 most commonly a 

 dry soaion) advances until after the Indian 

 corn harvest, when the mowinE; tielils are open- 

 ed for the after sfrass. (s there, indeed, any 

 time from May to Ocloher, when, in adilition 

 to what they {»lean from onr short, rommon 

 pastures, our cows would not consume line hay, 

 sweet mown g-rass. or other sr^en fodder, and 

 Indian corn meal, or other mealv fooil equiva- 

 lent together, containing at least as much nour- 

 ishing food as the whole of the thin short "rass 



St in its eastern parts, I ] pounds of butter— in 1814, when she had 10 I Rural Economy of Gloucester,! found the follow- 

 )n pastures do not yield a | or 1 2 bushels of Indian corn meal, 300 lbs— and in? observations.—" The prevailing rule is, to 



in 1815, being allowed 30 or 35 bushels of 

 meal, 400 lbs of butter. In 131G, having been 

 requested, by Mr. Dkrbv, to keep a particular 

 account of this year's product, in milk and but- 

 ter, it was done, with close alleution as to tlie 

 butter, and occasionally to the milk; — that some 

 time in June or July, she gave 10 quarts of milk 

 at night, and 7 quarts in tlie morning, when the 

 n quarts weighed 44.! pounds. She calved the 

 5lh of April, and her'calf, remarkably fat and 

 fine, was killed the 8th of May. During the 

 time of suckling the calf, her surplus milk yield- 



gathered by Ihem in ranging over manv acres, Ld 17 pounds of butter. Her butter Irom May 



May 15 



oo 



12 

 19 

 26 

 July 3 

 10 



during nearly the whole day, to find it ? And 

 what is to be expected from cows which are 

 thus, strictly speaking, but half fed ? A certain 

 quantity of food is necessary for a cow, to en- 

 able her to hold her own — to jiresprve her health, 

 and keep up the flesh she already has on her 

 bones; if she is also required to yield butter | June 5 

 and cheese, she must have additional food to 

 answer the demand. Tbo effect of such addi- 

 ditiunal feeding is sirikinglv exemplified in the 

 case.pf Mr Oakes' cow. In the first year, she 

 had little more than the common pasture : in 

 the second her food was increased ; in the third 

 still more: the product in butler increasing as 

 the nourishing fond was increased : and in the 

 fourth year she was fed to the full, with the 

 richest kinds of food, In addition to what she 

 gathered at pasture, in which last year she 

 gave three limes as much butter as in the first 

 year. Hence it may fairly be inferred, that 

 our cows in general would yield at least dou- 

 ble the quantity of butter and cheese usually 

 obtained during the pastnrage seasen, if they 

 were full i'e(\, even with green food alone, in 

 the varie y and abundance in which, by an im- 

 proved husi.andry, it might be provided ; snnie 

 good hay being given them, to |)revent or cor- 

 rect too great looseness, when so fed. For he- 

 sides that the succession of dry \o juicij (ooi] 

 must be grateful to the taste of the" cow, and 

 induce her to take in a greater quantity of lood, 

 it seems reasonable to suppose, that by duly 

 checking the looseness, the food will be longer 

 iletained in the stomacli and intestines, where 

 it will be more perfectly digested, and conse- 

 quently a greater proportion of it be converted 

 to milk and Hesh. 



In the preceding examples, the American na- 



8th to December 20, being 32^ weeks, was as 

 follows : 



Ihs. 



141 



1G' 



19' 



17 

 18 

 18 



17 



July 17 

 24 

 31 

 August 7 

 1 I 

 21 

 28 

 Sept. 4 

 11 

 18 



Ihs. 



IG 

 IG 

 IG 

 15 

 15 

 16 

 15 

 15 

 16 

 12 

 15 



Oct. 2 

 15 

 21 

 29 

 Nov. 7 

 IS 

 23 

 30 

 Dec. 10 

 20 



lbs. 



I6| 



15 



16 



16 



16 



sel the milk as shullu'ni as it can be convenuvth/ 

 skimmed ; under the conviction that the shallow- 

 er it is set, the more cream will rise from a 

 given quantity of milk. An inch and a half is the 

 ordinary depth ; but in the practice I ara more 

 particularly registering, the dairy woman has 

 the dexterity of finsrer to skim it at an inch 

 deep. This, however, could not be done with- 

 out the assistance of a tin skimming dishy — Mr 

 Oakes' cow was reputed to be " under size ;" 

 and the shortness of her legs gave her that ap- 

 pearance. But her body was long and deep be- 

 hind. I think that, compared with our cows in 

 general, her body was of the middle size. 



Mr QuiNCY purchased this cow of Mr Oakes. 

 1 afterwards saw hsr on his farm, at pasture to- 

 gplber with a large cow of an English breed, 

 descended, by a cross, from a celebrated Eiuilish 

 cow belonging to Mr Stuart the painter, and 

 which Ml Qui\CY had bought of John Wi;i i ts 

 Esq — I then learned from MrQui.NCv, that the 



18 jO.ikesCow give much more bulter, than the 



10 

 13 

 14 

 10 



4G7^ 



le calf was 1 17 



Add the butter made while the calf was 

 suckled 



Total 4844 'bs. 



To the above statement Mr Derev added the 

 following note : " Since Mr OAiiES has" had the 

 cow, she has suckled four calves, over four 

 weeks each, and furnished about one quart of 

 milk per ilav for the use of the familv. I ptrf- 

 chased of Mr Oakf.s some of this year's butter. 

 1 think I never saw finer." The above slate- 

 nienl, furnished to the Trustees by Mr Derby, 

 is dated Dec. 2.5, 1816. At the end he addeil 

 this note :—» Dec. 28, lOlG ; eight quarts of 

 milk per day." 



In a late conversation with Mr Oakes. he in 

 formed me that the Indian corn meal r'ven to 

 bis cow in 181G, was, in the whole, about one 

 bushel a week ; the greater part stirred into 

 her skim milk, morning and evening. Most o( 

 the butler-milk was also given to her. She was 

 tied up in her stable every night, and he en- 

 leavoured to make her take as much liquid as 



possible, and therefore set before her at niglit 

 tive cows, not especially selected, will bear a ja bucket of water with some meal in it, which 

 comparison with the English cows. But the was always found consumed in the morning. — 

 following one, that of Mr Caleb Oakes of Dan- She was always healthy and hearty, and he fed 

 vers, surpasses all of wh'ch I have ever receiv- 1 her to the full. In the pasture, however, hav- 

 cd information, in our own cnuutrv ; or in Eng- ] ing always so much rich food in the stable, she 

 land, with the single exception which will be was often lying down, while oilier cows were 



stated. 



The history of the Danvers cow is given in 

 No. 3. of volume 4, ol the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural Keposilory anl Journil, which is pub- 'autumn she ate about six bushels of carrots. — 

 lislied liy the Trustees of the Slate Soc.ety. On my saying that the first time I saw her I no- 



ollier, although the latter, as she appeared to 

 me, was largir by at least onu fourth part. — 

 Disirous of ascertaining iheir products in but- 

 ler. I four years ago requested Mi Qii.vcv to 

 give me the informaiion. The following is 

 an extract from bis answer, dated 6 Feb. 1821. 

 My cow (that purchased of Mr Welles) was a 

 l.irge, stalely cow : I gave a high price lor her 

 as an excellent milker, and she did not di.sap- 

 iioint my expectalinns. On the suggestion of 

 Mr Welles, who said, if led with the same food 

 she would yield as much butter as my Oal. e- cow, 

 I put them, lor one fiirltiight, upon preciselv the 

 same food, and kept an exact account of the bui- 

 tor made from each ; Ihe dairy woman keep- 

 ing the milk and churning the butter separate- 

 ly. At the end of ihe fortnight, the cow I had 

 iVom Welles had yielded sixteen pounds of but- 

 ler, — the Oakes cow thirty ixco pounds and a iew 

 ounces." — I could not continue the experiment 

 longer, owing to the want of the milk of the 

 Welles cow for other use ; but 1 have no doubt 

 that Ibis is the fair permanent proportion. — 

 The Oakes cow is only extraordinary for the 

 qmilitij^ not the quantity of her milk. I calcu- 

 late that the milk of cows, taken at an average, 

 requiriS r.cf/ve quarts to a pound of bulter. 1 

 have olten known one pound made Iroin^-tie 

 quarts tin' ihe milk of Ihe Oakes cow." 



The immense qii.intity of butler yielded by 

 the Oakes cow, will naturally he ascribed to the 

 extraordiuarv quantity of rich food she consum- 

 ed; and 1 am willing to admit this, even to Ihe 

 amount of one half; but it was her first giving 

 an extraordinary quantity of butter, on common 

 kecp^* thiit induced Mr Oakes to pay her par- 

 ticular attention, and to feed her bevond the 



As perha[)s but a small number of the readers 

 of the New England Farmer possess that Jour- 

 nal, I will lepeal from it— That the cow was 

 purchased out of a common drove of cattle, 

 probably from iS^cw-II.impsbire — that she came 

 into ihe possi-ssian of Mr Oakrs in April 1813, 

 being than ^we years idd* — ihat in the first year 

 ♦vUjioiU any extra feeding, she yielded 180 

 * Mr Oakks is now salisfii-d Ihat she was but four 

 yeaos old, she then having her second calf. 



ticed the great extension of her bag formed un- 

 der her belly, and the wide distances between 

 her teats, Mr Oakes remembered, Ihat her b >g 

 rose also high behind, and was the longest bag 

 he had ever seen. The wide separation of the 

 teats is a natural indication of a large bag. — To 

 raise the more cream, Irom Ihe same quantity 

 of milk, that of his cow was set very shallow in 

 the p.nns ; of which, for that purpose, he pur- 

 chased an e^lra number. — Turning to Slarshall's 



feeding. At one time he gave her potatoes, 

 which increased her milk, but not her butter; 

 and therefore he ceased giving them. In iheicommon practice. And the striking comparison 



just >.taled, wilh the large cow of English breed, 

 itihen both were fed in the same manner, demon- 

 strates that it was the nature of the animal, the 

 signal faculty <if converting her food to rich 

 miik, which gave the superiority of two to one, 

 in favor of the .\merican cow. Perhaps it may 

 be imagined ih.il Ibe large cow not having been 

 accustomed to so much rich food, thence deriv- 

 ed less advantage from it : — this remaik wculd 



*This wfnd Ae.'p, now in coiiimoii usi. HiTinii^^ i i'g;lish 

 agi-icullmal writers, cemiprchends all the kiuds ol lood 

 given to caltlc. 



