DAIRY STOCK. 77 



and make that the foundation of the business of discussing 

 cattle husbandry. 



Now, my friends, it is not only the tendency of Mr. Flint's 

 lecture that should satisfy the minds of us all of the importance 

 of dairy stock, but it is the actual condition of dairy stock in 

 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the relations that it 

 holds to the agriculture of this State. Among the animals of 

 this Commonwealth, cows predominate largely. We have 

 90,000 horses, worth, it is said, nine millions of dollars ; we 

 have 50,000 oxen and steers ; we have 175,000 cows and heif- 

 ers ; indicating that the business of cattle husbandry in the 

 State of Massachusetts is dairy stock and dairy farming. I wish 

 I could tell a better story with regard to the condition of dairy 

 farming here. I do not know why it is, but, notwithstanding 

 the fact that at last butter and cheese have entered into the ex- 

 ports of this country, and are engaged, with all other agricul- 

 tural products — cotton, corn, beef, pork and lard — in establish- 

 ing the balance of trade abroad, largely to the advantage of the 

 financial condition of this country ultimately ; notwithstanding 

 we exported from this country $303,305 worth of butter in the 

 nine months ending July 31, 1869, and 13,000,000 worth of 

 cheese ; notwithstanding all that, and notwithstanding the fact 

 that nearly two million dollars' worth of milk are sold in the State 

 of Massachusetts every year, and vast quantities of butter and 

 cheese are manufactured and sold here, and it has become man- 

 ifest that in some way or other the production of milk lies at 

 the foundation of the great agricultural interest in a vast section 

 of this country, cows do not materially increase in number. 

 In 1855, how many thousand cows do you suppose we had ? 

 We had, according to the returns, 149,000 cows, and 28,000 

 or 30,000 heifers. We had in 1865, how many ? I told you 

 175,000 cows and heifers, and out of that number only 150,000 

 were cows. While the demand for butter and cheese and milk 

 is increasing, while the consumption of milk increases, with a 

 manifest interest to have cows increase, they do not increase. 

 There is some difficulty here. The channels of trade always 

 run where profits are to be made. That there is a profit in 

 butter farming, tliere cannot be the slightest doubt. I told you 

 that while the demand for milk and the consumption of milk 

 increase, the cows do not increase. Somehow and in some way 



