316 



Alderney Cows. — Labor. 



Vol. XI. 



fered less, and the drought continuing, and 

 the weather remaining cool, the disease was 

 almost entirely stopped. Nor was the bene- 

 ficial influence of the cool air and drought 

 felt alone by the vegetable creation. Our 

 population becnmc healthier, and we now 

 hear of comparatively few cases of descase. 

 And what remains of the fruit and other 

 crops have ripened finely and been gathered 

 in good order. Chemico, 



Wilkesbarie, Oct. 20, 1846. 



Alderney Cows. 



Some gentlemen have not thought the 

 Alderney cow handsome ; but in truth, she 

 is the handsomest of cows for the dairy, al- 

 though she may not fill the eye like a tho- 

 rough-bred Durham, in good condition, so 

 much esteemed by every experienced dairy- 

 man ; yet there are thousands of families 

 who want one or two cows, rich in milk and 

 butter, mild, gentle, and intelligent, on ex- 

 cellent terms witli the milk-maid, and the 

 Alderney, of all others, is the coiv. She is 

 well adapted for the lady of a snug rural 

 mansion, and all dairymen would find it to 

 their interest to keep two pure Alderneys 

 to every twelve cows, the advantages of 

 which are well understood in some parts of 

 Scotland, and perhaps a dairy of twenty 

 well-chosen animals of this breed would 

 compete with any twenty cows in the 

 United State?, when butter of superior qual- 

 ity fetches a good price. In short, the finest 

 specimen of an Alderney is a true emblem 

 of a milch cow, and any person keeping 

 this breed merely for the dairy, who once 

 gets one, feeds and treats her properly, will 

 never be without one. 



A good Alderney cow in Jersey, is ex- 

 pected to yield 7 lbs. of butter a week, and 

 many have been known to produce double 

 that quantity for a short period. Some give 

 from IG to 18 quarts of milk per day, dur- 

 ing the months of May and June; and I 

 was told of numerous instances of cows 

 which yielded frcm 10 to 14 lbs. of butter 

 each, in a week. Major Barns, the Gov- 

 ernor, informed me that he had a cow which 

 gave 25 quarts of milk a day ; but ordinary 

 cows did not average more than 10 quarts 

 a daj'^, yielding 7 lbs. of butter, each, in a 

 week. It was stated, that, in summer, 9 or 

 10 quarts of milk would produce a pound of 

 butter, and, in winter, when the cows are 

 parsnip-fed, the same quantity of butter may 

 be obtained from 7 quarts. The general 

 average yield of each cow, old and young, 

 is rather more than 36.5 lbs. of butter in a 

 year, or about 8 quarts of milk per day. 



The cows there, are universally tethered, 



and are moved, watered, and milked, three 

 times a day. They are fed principally on 

 lucern or clover, but the quality of their 

 butter is never considered so good, when 

 thug fed as when they range on a natural 

 pasture. 



The milk, when strained stands at about 

 10 inches deep in the vessel, till the cream 

 has all risen, which usually occupies three 

 days in summer ; and in winter, in order to 

 hasten its rising, the vessels are covered 

 and placed on the hearth at bed-time. Con- 

 sequently, skimming is never performed but 

 once, and then not before the milk has be- 

 come coagulated or turned sour. In the 

 operation of skimming, the cream is first 

 detached from the edge of the vessel all 

 round, and then is raised up together, as 

 much as possible, and by inclining the whole 

 mass over the vessel intended to receive the 

 cream, the latter will sometimes slip off at 

 once from the coagulated milk. At the 

 bottom of the vessel there is a small hole 

 stopped with a peg, which is occasionally 

 withdrawn, in order to drain off the serous 

 or watery portion of the milk, and thereby 

 separate it from the cream. — American Ag» 

 riculluralist. 



Labor. — It is labor which puts the great- 

 est value upon land, without which it would 

 scarcely be worth any thing; it is to that we 

 owe the greatest part of all its useful pro- 

 ducts: for allow the straw, bran bread, of that 

 acre of wheat is more worth than the product 

 of an acre of as good land, which lies waste, 

 is ail the effect of labor ; for it is not barely 

 the ploughman's pains, the reaper's and 

 thresher's toil, and the baker's labor, that is 

 to be counted into the bread we eat; the la- 

 bor of those who broke the oxen^ who dio-ged 

 and wrought the iron and stones, who felled 

 and framed the timber employed about the 

 plough, mill, even, or any other utensils, 

 which are a vast number, requisite to this 

 corn, from its being seed to be sown, to its 

 being made bread, must all be charged on 

 the account of labor, and received as an ef- 

 fect of that; nature and the earth furnished 

 only the almost worthless materials, as in 

 themselves. It would be a strange catalogue 

 of things, that industry provided and made 

 use of, about every loaf of bread, before it 

 came to our use, if we could trace them ; 

 iron, wood, leather, bark, timber, stone, bricks 

 coals, lime, cloth, dyeing drugs, pitch, tar, 

 masts, ropes, and all the materials made use 

 of in the ship, that brought any of the com- 

 modities made use of by any of the workmen 

 to any part of the work ; all which it would 

 be almost impossible, at least too Ion"-, to 

 reckon up. — Locke. 



