MILCH COWS. . 103 



authorities I have quoted, — leads me to prefer the Ayrshire 

 bull, as the most eligible cross for the production of dairy cattle 

 suited to this section. 



I have sold from my cows since the fair last year, seven hun- 

 dred and seventy-six pounds of butter, for two hundred and 

 forty dollars and fifty-six cents ; eight hundred and thirty-five 

 cans of milk, containing eighteen hundred gallons and one-half, 

 for two hundred and forty-one dollars and fifty-three cents ; 

 and four calves for twenty-seven dollars. I think I am quite 

 within the mark in estimating the butter and milk used in my 

 family at seventy dollars more, and I value the three calves I 

 am raising at fifteen dollars each. The above Items, amounting 

 together to six hundred and twenty-four dollars and nine cents, 

 are all the precisely appreciable produce of my stock. Besides 

 this must be considered the value of the skim-milk and butter- 

 milk for the hogs, the manure for the land, and last, but not 

 least, the pleasure I derive from witnessing the prosperity and 

 comfort of my stock, and the gratitude and affection they evince 

 in return for the attention I bestow on them. The greater part 

 of the work about my cows in summer, and the whole in winter, 

 — during four months of which I keep no help, — is performed 

 by myself. 



Year by year, for the last five years, I have increased the 

 number of my stock, in spite of my neighbors' indignant admo- 

 nitions that I never should be able to keep them ; still, my 

 cattle looked a little better than the average. I have always 

 had hay to sell in the spring, and each year have had in tillage 

 more land and sold more marketing than the preceding one. 

 At last my secret was found out : " he half keeps them on 

 grain." It was in vain for me to protest that I never gave a 

 cow more than a quart of grain a day, or that I always sold more 

 hay than would pay for their grain. I was condemned. I 

 therefore determined, no less for my own satisfaction than for 

 that of my neighbors, to try whether I really was dependent on 

 my miller or not. In one sense, the experiment will be a most 

 satisfactory one, as I certainly cannot be taunted with pecu- 

 liarly good fortune in choice of a season, and my cows still 

 live. At the same time, I do not feel inclined to continue my 

 present treatment, believing, — with the approval of good author- 

 ities, — that two cans of milk per day from one cow, are far 



