Vol. XIV. 



ROCHESTER, K Y., APRIL, 1853. 



No. IV. 



DAIRY HUSBANDRY IN NEW YORK. 



About forty years ago tlie dairy business was commenced as a distinct branch of 

 husbandry, in the State of New York, under favorable auspices. It had a slow gi'owth 

 for twenty years, during which several millions of acres of native forests were cleared 

 and brought under the jjIow, and paid a larger immediate profit in grain culture, than 

 could be realized from milk, butter, and cheese.- As the virgin soil parted with its ele- 

 ments of crops by tillage, and failed to produce remunerating harvests, farmers extended 

 theh pastures and meadows, and diminished their grain fields, until New York has 

 become the largest stock growing_,and dairy State in the Union. It has about sixty 

 per cent, more capital invested in live stock than either Ohio or Pennsylvania, according 

 to the census of 1850. The returns are respectively as follows: New York, $73,570,- 

 499; Ohio, $44,121,741; Pennsylvania, $41,500,053. The six New England States 

 contained live stock worth $49,867,721. These figures reveal the interesting fact that 

 New York contains more live stock by $23,702,777 than all New England. The latter 

 contained in June 1850, 618,237 milch cows ; New York, 931,324 ; being fifty per cent. 

 more than the six New England States. 



New York reported at the last census, 49,741,413 pounds of cheese, and 79,766,094 

 pounds of butter. The six New England States reported 27,128,778 pounds of cheese, 

 and 43,637,477 pounds of butter. If we divide the number of pounds of butter made 

 in New England, by the number of cows, the average is a fraction over seventy pounds 

 a head. In New York the average is eighty-five pounds ten ounces to each cow. Of 

 cheese the average in New York is fifty pounds five ounces ; in New England it is forty- 

 three pounds thhteen ounces. These figures show that the cows of New York produce 

 some twenty per cent, more butter, and twelve per cent, more cheese than the cows of 

 New England. Do the former yield any more milk each on an average than the latter ? 



We think that they do ; not alone from the facts above stated in reference to butter 

 and cheese, but because the population of New York in 1850 exceeded that of New 

 England, by 363,174. New York contained 3,090,022 ; New England, 2,726,848 

 inhabitants. There is no good reason for believing that the people of New York con- 

 sume less milk per capita, than the people of New England, before it is used for making 

 butter or cheese; and if they do not, then a larger population by 363,174 should leave 

 a less quantity of milk for dairy purposes. Hence we infer that the dairy cows of New 

 York are superior as a whole, to those of New England ; and we will now add that 

 they are not only better than those of any other State in tliis country, but better than 

 any which exist in Ireland, England, or Scotland, or on the continent of Europe, taken 

 as a whole. 



To do full justice to the dairy husbandry of New York in comparbon with that of 



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