MILCH COWS. 95 



that every part of this county is so near a market that all kinds 

 of fodder fit for cattle will always command their value in 

 money. Hence there is no necessity for keeping stock to eat up 

 our fodder as there is in towns farther back. The kind and 

 amount of food most economical and suitable for milch cows 

 during winter, is a matter scarcely less important to the milk 

 producer than the kind of stock. 



The whole subject affords a wide field for investigation and 

 experiment, and we hope that next year some of our farmers 

 will observe and make note of what they are doing, not only for 

 their own but the public good. 



Joseph S. Howe, for the Committee. 



MIDDLESEX. 



In making a report on herds of cattle, or milch cows, blood 

 stock and kindred topics, certain great salient facts and promi- 

 nent points ought to be repeated and insisted upon from year to 

 year. The attention of cattle breeders and farmers cannot be 

 too often called to them. 



Cattle, instead of bankrupting the soil, give back as much 

 richness as they take from it. They afford the readiest means 

 of keeping up the fertility of a farm, and generally a cattle 

 district grows richer every day, while a grain district, without 

 the introduction of foreign manures, at great cost, grows poorer. 



Here in Middlesex County cattle-breeding is receiving every 

 year more and more attention, so that our soil, sterile as it is, 

 compared with other portions of the country, is in no danger of 

 exhaustion. Our herds, like our farms, are small, but by care- 

 ful attention to breeding and by means of blood stock, our 

 farmers can show cattle equal to the best. The great object 

 with us is to convert grass into milk, and the cow that does this 

 most effectually is the cow for the Middlesex farmer. 



It is computed that in this State fifty-two per cent, of the 

 milk is consumed as food, while forty per cent, is manufactured 

 into butter, and eight into cheese. In lliis county, doubtless, 

 a larger per cent, of milk is consumed as food. After making 

 all due allowances, milk as an article of consumption for food is 

 of much more importance than its manufacture into cheese. 

 Milk used as food must be produced near its place of consump- 



