MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY. 8 



their qualities for stock, as milcli cows, there seems to be a 

 difference of opinion. My own is, that they are inferior to 

 many others. The Jerseys were next tried, and from the time 

 now elapsed, say eighteen months, since the importation, we 

 can safely answer the question, which seemed to be the most 

 important. Can they endure a severe climoie? decidedly in the 

 affirmative. This we can prove, not only from our own expe- 

 rience, but from that of other persons, who made importations 

 of these animals at the same time. 



Whatever differences of opinion may prevail respecting the 

 comparative merits of the different breeds of cattle, the Jerseys, 

 for the purposes of the dairy, (making buttcir,) I think all will 

 agree, stand first; the qualityof their milk being so rich, that 

 five, and sometimes even so small a quantity as four quarts 

 of it are sufficient to make a pound of butter, and, indeed, in 

 quantity, they often come up to some of the best milkers, say 

 fifteen and even twenty quarts per da,y. 



It may be well to give some statement of what some of the 

 cows belonging to this Society have yielded. A heifer, two 

 years old only, three weeks after dropping her calf, gave milk 

 enough, in seven days, to make eight and one-half pounds 

 of superior butter. This, I think, will be acknovv'ledgcd by all 

 to be a very large quantity for so young an animal, and this 

 without any grain whatever. The cow Countess, five years 

 old, has made twelve pounds in one week, say about six 

 weeks after calving, and seven pounds in the same time in the 

 month of November, about six months after calving. They 

 are easily kept, are very gentle and docile, and I must beg 

 leave to differ entirely with Mr. Parkinson, who says, "they 

 have a voracious appetite, and will devour almost as mucli 

 as a short horn." In the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, 

 cows are often found, that will make fifteen pound^i of butter 

 per week, and instances are known, of nearly twenty pounds. 

 So well satisfied am I of their superiority for this part of the 

 State, that I have made further importations since that for the 

 Society, and have now an order for more. The risk and 

 expense of getting them here being so great, it will probably 

 be some years before they are common in the country, but 1 

 fully believe, in time, no farmer will be without one or more 

 Jersey cows. 



