1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



177 



acre. The previous crop was tobacco that had 

 been manured about five cords to the acre. 

 Chicopee, Oct. 1, 1867. L. B. Chapin. 



My wheat crop was grown on a sandy loam, 

 fitted in 1866, for tobacco, with probably eight 

 coi'ds of stable manure per acre. The wheat 

 was sown September 20th, without manure at 

 time of seeding. The land was harrowed well, 

 and rolled after sowing on grass-seed. The 

 result was 25 bushels of superior white wheat 

 ver acre for the entire piece of 2 acres less 8 

 rods, with straw estimated at one ton per acre. 

 8ome small portions of the piece winter-killed, 

 and a few small spots lodged so early as to de- 

 stroy the wheat. I estimate that the best one- 

 half acre yielded at the rate of 35 bushels per 

 acre. As the ground promises several good 

 crops of hay without any additional manure, I 

 estimate that not more than 1^ or 2 cords per 

 acre of the manure in tiie soil went into the 

 wheat crop. 



Five bushels of the wheat produced 193 

 pounds very nice flour, and 110 pounds feed. 



1 charge to wheat crop : 



Ploughins 2 acres $5 00 



Heed" 3 bushels at $4.00 12 00 



Bowing and harrowing 2 50 



Harvesting 8 00 



Threshing and cleaning 12 00 



8 cords of manure at $8.00 24 00 



Interest on land 24 00 — 87 50 



Cr. 

 47Ji bushels wheat at $3.50 $166 26 



2 tons straw at $12.00 21 00—190 25 



$102 75 



I wish to add that I have attempted, during 



the past six years, three or four times to raise 



wheat, and this is the first time I have realized 



even cost. Very respectfully yours. 



Ethan Brooks. 

 West Springfield, October, 1867. 



A SHORT HORN DAIRY. 



The following statement of the production 

 of milk and butter by a herd of two pure and 

 eight high grade cows belonging to W. R. 

 Sessions, South Wilbraham, Mass., was made 

 to the Hampden County Agricultural Society, 

 which awarded a premium to Mr. S : — 



Two of the herd I offer are pure Shorthorns, 

 and the others high grades. There are three 

 nine years old, four six years, two five years, 

 and one three years. Their milk has been 

 carried to the Wilbraham cheese factory the 

 past summer. The cows averaged twenty- 

 eight pounds of milk a day in May, thirty 

 pounds in June, twenty-eight pounds in July, 

 twenty-four pounds in August, and twenty- 

 three pounds in September. The feed was 

 simply pasture, with the addition of green 

 corn-stalks the last part of the time. On the 

 morning of the 23d of September the milk 

 was tested for butter as foUows : weight of 



milk, 139 pounds ; yield of butter, 8i pounds, 

 of good color and quality — sixteen pounds of 

 milk made a pound of butter. 



The following experiments were made with 

 four of these cows previously, in order to test 

 their quality : — 



Polly, a grade Shorthorn, now nine years 

 old, calved in February when three years old. 

 The following March she gave 655 pounds of 

 milk and made twenty-seven lbs. of butter on 

 hay alone. At four years old she averaged 

 twenty-two pounds of milk a day for four con- 

 secutive months on grass, and an average day's 

 milking. May 16th yielded 1 7-16 poimds of 

 butter. 



Daisy, another grade Shorthorn, at four 

 years old, June 26th, gave 34| pounds of 

 milk, which made 1^ pounds of butter, and at 

 that rate of product for three months,by ac- 

 tual weight of' milk, on grass alone. 



Fairy Bell, a pure Shorthorn, gave at a 

 single milking, on the morning of June 15, 

 1866, 10^ pounds of milk, which made seven- 

 teen ounces of butter ; also on grass. 



Beauty, a grade Shorthorn, at four years 

 old, on the morning of May 8th, gave fifteen 

 pounds of milk, which made thirteen ounces 

 of butter. The week following she gave 224 

 pounds of milk, or an average of thirty-two 

 pounds a day. It is not uncommon for her in 

 the flush of feed to give forty-two and forty- 

 three pounds of milk a day. 



On single cows the society awarded the first 

 premium to J. M. Thompson, Springfield, who 

 said : My cow is seven years old, weighs 1320 

 pounds, and is one-fourth Avrshire and three- 

 fourths Durham ; she calved September 20th, 

 and averaged twenty-five quarts of milk a day 

 up to October 1st. Her feed was grass and 

 six quarts of shorts a day. Last June, on 

 grass feed and seventeen months after calving 

 she gave fifteen quards of milk a day. From 

 the 3d of October to the 12th of November, she 

 averaged thirty quarts of milk a day, and from 

 the 12th of November to December 1st, twenty 

 quarts. Since November 12th she has been 

 kept in the stable and been fed with rowen hay, 

 cornstalks and eight quarts of shorts a day. 



The second premium to William Pynchon, 

 Springfield, whose cow is seven-eighths Dm-- 

 ham and seven years old. She calved the last 

 of July. Her feed has been grass, corn fodder 

 and rowen hay and she has averaged twenty 

 quarts of milk a day since. 



The third premium to A. B. Manley of same 

 town, who made the following statement : My 

 cow is a grade Durham, and nine years old. 

 She made 28'3 pounds of butter from the 20th 

 of March, 1866, to the same date in 1867, 

 which sold at an average of forty-five cents per 

 pound, or for $127.35. About 548 quarts of 

 new milk were used at the same time in the 

 family, worth at five cents per quart, $49.82; 

 also $40 worth of sour milk were sold at two 

 cents per quart. The calf at thi-ee mouths old 



