302 



Report of the .^qricullure of Massachusetts. 



OL, 



III. 



A cow belonoin^ to Ptiillard, of Etrre- 



niont, produced 14 lbs. of butter pt;r week. 



From twocowsbelonsriiig toRusjell Brown, 

 ill Cheshire, besides tiie tree use of milk and 

 cream in the family, W) lb.-, of butter were 

 produced and sold in three weeks, and in lour 

 successive weeks 114 lbs. 



A cow owned in Stockbridge, by Stephen 

 Willard, produced as follows: 



In 321 successive days 331 lbs. hiitter 

 " 284 " " 2!i3 



" 306 " " .318 



911 days 942 11)9. 



"The above is exclusive of 25 lbs. made 

 while fatteninfr three calves." He adds, 

 " my method of keepinj^ has been {jrass only, 

 from spring to fall. In the fall I be^rin with 

 pimipkins and potatoes, and feed moderately 

 durinjj the time she gives milk. An account 

 has been kept for only three years; but it 

 would not vary much from the above, for the 

 twelve seasons T have had her, except the 

 present season she has been farrow." This 

 cow is now eighteen years old, "and will 

 calve again about the middle of February." 



Two cows owned in Pittsfield, produced 

 each 50 lbs. of milk per day ; and one other 

 82 lbs. at a milking. 



A cow owned by Thomas Hodges, in North 

 Adams, produced last year 425 lbs. of butter ; 

 400 lbs. of this amount were made in nine 

 months. Her feed consisted of one quart of 

 rye meal and a half peck of potatoes per day ; 

 and very good pasturing. 



To this list 1 will add the case of another 

 cow, in the neighboring county, whose pro- 

 duct must be considered as quite extraordi- 

 nary. She is owned by Joseph F. Upton, of 

 Aslifield, Franklin county. 



From the 1st of April, 1837, to the middle 

 of Februarv, 1838, her product was 335 lbs. 

 15 oz. From the 9th of May, 1838, to the 

 28th of December, 1838, she had produced 

 303 lbs. 3 oz. of butter, and was still making 

 at the rate of one pound per day. 



The owner adds, " in the year 1837, 1 killed 

 my calf at three days old, and gave my cow 

 the skimmed milk through the summer. I 

 commenced the first of October to feed on po- 

 tatoes. I gave her about one peck per day 

 boiled as long as she gave milk. In the year 

 1838, I fattened my calf and killed it at four 

 weeks old. It weighed 75 lbs. She has had 

 nothing but grass this year, until the first of 

 October; since then I have fed her with one 

 peck of boiled potatoes per day. My cow is 

 seven years old last spring." Her winter- 

 keep at present, while giving milk, is as much 

 hay fts she will rat, and one peck of boiled 

 potatoes per day. Tliese cows are all of na- 

 tive stock, without any admixture of foreign 

 blood. The three cases of largest product 



certainly cannot be considered as examples 

 of high feeding. It is extremely desirable 

 that some sicilful farmer should, by a judicious 

 selection from .-uch animals as these, endea- 

 vor to fiirm an improved race for the dairy. 

 I have already said that this has been attempt- 

 ed by one gentleman in the state. 



Before I proceed to .say what he has accom- 

 plished, 1 will mention an interesting fact, 

 communicated to me by an observing farmer 

 of Stockbridge. Thirty-two years since, he 

 became the possessor of a very productive 

 cow ; and has continued thdbreed to this day. 

 She has never produced a bad milker, and 

 some of her descendants, owned by other per- 

 sons in the village, do equal credit to their 

 parentage. Tiie yield of one of them, which 

 came within my knowledge, is twenty quarts 

 per day. 



DAIRY ASD SOILING. 



In Waltham, Middlesex county, a gentle- 

 man had four cows ; but not a rod of ground, 

 which could be appropriated to pasturage. — 

 These animals were, therefore, never out of 

 the barn or the barn-yard ; and were fed with 

 grass mown for them ; with green corn fod- 

 der, which had been sown broadcast for this 

 purpose; and with about three pints of meal 

 each per day. The amount of their produce 

 was kept for thirteen weeks. Two of these 

 animals were heifers of two years old, who 

 had calves the same spring; and the whole 

 milk of one of them was taken by her calf 

 during six weeks out of the thirteen. Some 

 of the milk of the other was taken for family 

 use, but the qnaniity not determined. Under 

 these circumstances, these heifers could not 

 be rated as equal to more than one cow of 

 full age and milk. From this stock, how- 

 ever, thus circumstanced and fed, 389 lbs. of 

 butter were made in the thirteen weeks. An 

 additional pound would have given an aver- 

 age of thirty pounds a week for the whole 

 time to a stock which must be in fairness set 

 down as three cows only. This experiment 

 was made in 1837. 



CARROTS. 



.Jeremiah Valet, late of Stockbridoe, but 

 now an emigrant to the fertile west, a true 

 philosoplipr in a homely garb, a pure diamond 

 though never in the hands of the lapidary, (I 

 would not say this if he were not out of the 

 reach of rny voice,) was much in the habit of 

 raising carrots; and gave a preference to 

 them over every other vegetable for fatten- 

 ing swine and cattle. This was the result 

 of repeated trials and long experience. To 

 fitting swine he gives them boiled; to store 

 hogs, raw. His crops average 800 bushels 

 to the acre. 



Jno. Merrill, of South Lee, has been a very 

 successful cultivator of carrots. He states 



