626 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



Holderness cow that will, from brewer's grains, secrete immense quantities of 

 thin milk— thin before the usual addition of water to " town milk," for town 

 milk is as different from the bona fide milk we get in the country, as a town- 

 bred lady is from one l?red and educated in the country. If it be true, as some 

 say, that town ladies are sometimes painted — so town milk is sometimes chalked 

 — not by the farmer, but by the milk dealers in the city. Nice calculators make 

 a vast difference in favor of selling milk, rather than convert it into butter. 



Mr. Newhall, for instance, near Boston, prefers to sell his milk at his barn for 

 three cents per quart, to getting thirty cents per pound for butter : nor is this to 

 be wondered at, if it be true as stated in the article referred to, that it probably 

 takes, on»an average, about twelve quarts of milk to make a pound of butter, 

 for, at three cents, the twelve quarts would produce one-sixth more in milk than 

 in butter ; but there remains the buttermilk for the table and the piggery, to be 

 set off against the labor and trouble of converting the milk into butter. The 

 richness of the milk and its yield of butter depend no doubt materially on the 

 foodof the cows. 



On the other hand, if, as is stated, seven quarts of the Alderney^s 7nilk will 

 often, if not generally, produce a pound of butter, it would fetch thirty cents in 

 butter against twenty-one cents in milk. We remember some twenty-five years 

 ago to have had one Alderney cow in a herd of others, and the dairy-woman, 

 an honest, observant Irish woman, who has gone since to the West, probably to 

 breed lawyers and judges, and Members of Congress, begged us not, on any ac- 

 count, to sell that cow, as her milk would " color the butter " of all the rest. 



It may be mentioned among the curious chronologies of Agriculture, that we 

 sold a very superior heifer calf of that cow, to that noble " old Commodore " and 

 gallant polished gentleman. Commodore Chauncey, for one hundred dollars. He 

 was President of the New- York Agricultural Society at the time — but could 

 never rise higher on the list of winners, according to the jeers of his friend Com- 

 modore Porter, than a premium for the " second best soiv !^^ 



It would be Avell if others followed the example of Mr. Colt in ascertaining 

 agricultural facts with equal precision, of weight and measure. 



It may be well here to mention, that in some recent most agreeable inter- 

 course with New-England farmers, two facts were discernable, which it may be 

 useful, on the evidence fo such men, to record : 1. An increasing use of green 

 corn, either drilled or broadcast, as a most valuable resource in soiling cattle, 

 and 2dly, An increasing persuasion that a free use of cor?i }7ieal, in feeding milch 

 cows has a tendency to exhaust, or materially impair, ultimately,^ their milking- 

 properties. It was said to have that effect on the famous Danvers or Oaks 

 cow, who, by-the-by, be it remarked, en passant, never produced an uncommonly 

 good milker. Col. Jaques is our authority, and where could one find a better 

 in a day's ride 1 It shows that like does not always produce like. 



Extract of Letter from R. L. Colt. Paterson, May 22, 1848. 



Bear Sir : You ask me for my opinion of the Alderney cows. I have six cows and two 

 heifers that will come into milk in three or four weeks — three yearling heifers and four 

 heifer calves — one bull and one bull-calf of pure breed. I think so well of them that I have 

 iust ordered two cows to be purchased for me iu the Island of Jersey, of the best and purest 

 breed without reference to price. 



I give here the evening and morning milk of my cow Mary, an Alderney of five years ; 

 Bixteen quarts in the twenty-four hours, weighing thirty-four pounds, equal to two pounds 

 two ounces per one quart : the others were equally good. 



My son's Ayrshire cows give milk that weighs 1 lb. 14^ oz. to the quart; and I have a 

 fine native cow which gives milk that weighs 1 lb. 14^ oz. to the quart— and my Devous 

 give milk that weighs 1 lb. 14 oz. to the quart. Ever truly yours, R. L. COLT. 



(114G) 



