170 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



scanty pasturage, their keeping has been to each, daily, four 

 quarts of shorts, two quarts of Indian meal, and corn-stalks up 

 to the present time. In full flow of milk they give from twelve 

 to sixteen quarts daily. Their butter qualities are good, as far 

 as I can judge. A calf has been raised from each cow, and the 

 milk being used for that purpose until lately, I cannot give a 

 precise statement. However, there is a box of butter, made 

 from their milk, on exhibition now on the Society's grounds. 

 The heifer calf has been brought up by hand on her dam's milk ; 

 also the bull on his dam's milk ; the steers have done their own 

 milking. This, with one-half pint of meal, the same of shorts 

 and hay, constitute the whole procedure of management. 



WORCESTER WEST. • 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The value of the different breeds of dairy cows depends very 

 much on the fancy of their owners instead of their real merits 

 or worth for making butter or cheese, and the final disposition 

 of their carcass for beef. The Jersey or Alderney is taking the 

 lead just now among gentlemen farmers and other professions 

 with large fortunes, living in or near cities, and to them they 

 sell for high prices, but are not much called for among dairy- 

 men, as their milk is best adapted to use in strong coffee or the 

 making of fancy butter, which but few farmers can afford to use, 

 especially if they are working hard and living economically, 

 hoping thereby to clear the heavy mortgages from their farms. 

 A Jersey cow when done giving good milk cannot be very val- 

 uable for beef. The Dutch have not been tried very exten- 

 sively, and it is not probable they ever will be. The farmers of 

 Worcester West want a large, good looking cow, that will give 

 a great quantity of milk and weigh heavy when sold for beef. 

 But there is no breed that will all prove extra milkers, and 

 there is no man who can always tell an extra milker, let him 

 feel of her ever so much. 



Now, it is not certain because a cow is extra this year she will 

 be next. There are many things which nearly spoil a good 

 cow but seldom hurt a poor one, and many times no one can 

 tell why or wherefore. Abortion is the most serious evil that has 

 ever visited cows in this part of the country, and the most hum- 



