No. 1. 



Firhy. — The Durham Cow "Blossom." 



41 



FIRBY, 

 The property of Lord Althorp. 



The Bull Firby is good in almost every point : his flanks, loins, hips and bosom, are excel- 

 lent; his only failure is in the crop; yet we are told by Mr. Hall, the steward of Lord Al- 

 thorp, and we had proof of the accuracy of the observation when we had the pleasure of 

 looking over the Wiseton herd, that after using him for six years, very few of his stock have 

 inherited this imperfection. Breeders of short horns should avoid breeding from too close 

 affinities, and while they steer clear of coarseness, should require a sufficiency of masculine 

 character in their males: the above portrait evinces this requisite in a proper degree. 



YOUATT. 



The Durham Cow "Blossom." 



Observing in the Pennsylvania Inquirer a 

 short time since, a statement of Mr. J. Gow- 

 en's celebrated cow Dairy Maid's yield of 

 milk for one week, which he states is " unpre- 

 cedented, being on an average rather over 

 33^ quarts per day," I concluded to try my 

 cow JBlossom, a statement of whose milking 

 for one week you will find below, and by 

 which you will perceive she averaged for the 

 week over 35 quarts per day, and yielded 13^ 

 lbs. of well worked butter. Not having a 

 spring-house, we are obliged to keep our milk 

 in a cellar, which at this season of the year 

 every one acquainted with the process of but- 

 ter-making knows would be unfavourable for 

 a large yield. My dairy maid is firm in the 

 belief that at a cooler season, or with a 

 spring-house, the cream she had from Blos- 

 som for the week would have yielded 15 or 

 16 lbs. of butter. 



Uncommon as this produce may be, I do 

 not consider it more so than the fact of her 

 having never been dry since she had her first 

 calf, more than two years ago, and in the 



space of 25 months has produced five living 

 calves, viz. — on the 5th of April, 1838, she 

 had her first calf {Delaware) ; on the 4th of 

 July, 1839, she had twins (Liberty and Inde- 

 pendence) ; and on the 16th of May, 1840, she 

 had twins again (Romeo and Juliet) ; and I 

 think I can safely say that during the whole 

 of that time she has averaged full 20 quarts 

 per day : she gave 25 quarts per day with her 

 first calf, and made nearly 12 lbs. of butter 

 per week. 



As I consider it an injury both to the cow 

 and calf to milk up to calving, we tried both 

 last year and this to get her dry a few weeks 

 before the time, but found it impossible, al- 

 though we kept her off of grass for some 

 days. 



As you may suppose, such constant milk- 

 ing keeps her very much reduced: if she 

 could be got dry for a time so as to gain flesh, 

 I think her yield would be much greater, but 

 I am satisfied with it for the present, and 

 until I see it beaten ; when that is done, I 

 will try again, for the credit of little Dela- 

 ware. 



