No. 8. 



Wonderful Cow. 



239 



Wonderful Cow. 



In the ninth number of the " American 

 Agriculturist," published in the city of New 

 York, we noticed an account of one of the 

 most extraordinary cows for butter we have 

 ever heard of — particularly in the large 

 quantity of butter produced from so small a 

 quantity of milk. The only certain test of 

 the dairy properties of a cow is in the milk 

 pail and churn. 



Mr. Schenck, the owner of the cow, says, 

 "I never, until the summer of 1842, kept 

 her milk separate from three other cows, 

 and then for experiment, I tried it only one 

 week. She then gave 18 quarts per day, 

 and her milk made 15 pounds of butter." 



Now 18 quarts per day, would be 126 

 quarts per week, from which 1.5 lbs. of but- 

 ter were produced, which would be one pound 

 from a fraction over eight quarts of milk. 



"On the 21st of May," continued Mr. S.,* 

 "I commenced keeping an accurate account 

 of her milk, and the butter it made. She at 

 no time exceeded 16 quarts per day, and on 

 the 10th of June, being 21 days, she made 

 65^ pounds of butter of the best quality." 

 This almost exceeds credulity. Sixteen 

 quarts per day, for 21 days, makes 336 

 quarts, from which 65^ pounds of butter 

 were produced, which would be one pound 

 of butter from five quarts of milk ! Why, it 

 is generally considered a good cow, whose 

 milk will produce one pound of butter from 

 ten quarts. But how can we doubt, when 

 Mr. S. says, "This was so incredible, I could 

 scarcely believe my own senses, although " 

 weighed the butter at every churning my 

 self. I thought I would try it again for a 

 day or two. I kept one day's milk by itself, 

 15^ quarts on the 15th of June, and churned 

 it. All the milk was churned, as it appeared 

 to be unnecessary to cream it: I had 3 lbs. 

 8 ounces of butter ready for the table. The 

 next day it was also tried, and it produced 

 3 lbs. 4 ounces. The first day above, the 

 milk was put in two pans — the other day 

 only in one pan, which may have made the 

 difference of a quarter of a pound." 



In September following, she gave only 

 eleven and twelve quarts per day, and made 

 10 lbs. of butter per week, which would be 

 at the rate of one pound of butter from eight 

 quarts of milk. 



The celebrated Durham cow. Blossom, 

 bred by C. Henry Hall, Esq., of Harlem, is 

 said to have given in 1840, in one week, 

 247^ quarts of milk, or more than 35 quarts 

 per day — from which were made 13J pounds 

 of butter. In the summer of 1841, two 

 months after calving, she gave in one week. 



* See current volume of Cabinet, p. 1C2. 



253^ quarts, or 36 quarts per day, which 

 yielded \1\ lbs. of superior butter. On the 

 13th of July, fourth month after calving, she 

 gave in the morning, 12^ quarts; noon, 11-|- 

 do. ; evening, 11 do. ; — 35 quarts. She gave 

 16 quarts per day, up to the time of calving. 

 This is one of the largest products as to 

 quantity of milk on record. I3ut in the first 

 place, it took over 18 quarts of milk to make 

 one pound of butter, which is three and a 

 half times as much as in one case of Mr. 

 Schenck's cow, and two and an eighth as 

 much as in another, showing most conclu- 

 sively, that it is not always the quantity, 

 but the quality of the milk that produces the 

 butter. 



The Durham cow, belonging to J. H. 

 Powell, Esq., about which so much ado was 

 made a few years since in Philadelphia, pro- 

 duced in three days, 8 lbs. and 13 ounces of 

 butter, which would be at the rate of 20^ lbs. 

 per week. She yielded repeatedly 26 quarts 

 per day, which would give one pound of but- 

 ter to nine quarts of milk. One quart of her 

 cream produced 1 lb. 5^ ounces of butter. 

 In one case, two minutes, in another case, 

 only three seconds, were required to convert 

 the cream into butter. Belina was consid- 

 ered one of the most extraordinary cows at 

 that time. But Belina has been beaten 

 since by a cow we find recorded in Mr. Col- 

 man's "Fourth Report of the Agriculture 

 of Massachusetts." The cow belonged to Mr. 

 Barrett, of Northampton, Mass. This cow 

 was milked for one fortnight, every eight 

 hours ; at each milking yielding a pail full, 

 holding 10 quarts^he weight of the milk 

 averaging daily 49^ lbs. Her milk has 

 yielded daily, 2 lbs. 5 ounces of butter, 

 making 32 lbs. 6 ounces in fourteen days. 

 But here is the staggerer. "From one milk- 

 ing alone, 1 lb. 6 ounces were made, which 

 will give 4 lbs. 2 ounces of butter per day, 

 from one cow." 



The famous Haskin's cow, the mother of 

 Mr. Jaques' celebrated " Cream-pot" breed, 

 gave sometimes 18 quarts, averaging from 

 14 to 15 quarts per day. Her milk was 

 noted as being extraordinary for its richness. 

 The milk of two days in the month of April, 

 made 2| lbs. butter, and was made from two. 

 and one-sixteenth quarts of cream. Allow- 

 ing 14 quarts of milk, which is the lowest 

 amount per day, it took over 10 quarts to 

 produce one pound of butter, which is dou- 

 ble the quantity of that to Mr. Schenck's 

 cow, in one trial. So we may safely say, 

 that Mr. Schenck's cow is the most extraor- 

 dinary cow, for butyracious qualities, we 

 have on record, and in fact we have no 

 knowledge of any in Europe, or the world, 

 that equals her in the richness of her milk. 



