MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 749 



most parts of our country, dairying can be made profitable. 

 Much of the land in the South, particularly the larger planta- 

 tions in Virginia, that have been worn out by constant crop- 

 ping, can be reclaimed by good husbandry, and made eligible 

 for dairying, where now they only supply the inhabitants with 

 milk and butter. I believe there is but little cheese made at 

 the South. There is no land better fitted for dairying than the 

 great western prairies. 



This country is destined to become a great agricultural 

 country ; in no one thing will it exceed the dairy enterprise. 

 There is no kind of husbandry that will yield to the farmer so 

 much profit, and to the country so much wealth, as dairying. 

 Cotton growing, the great staple of the South, is and must be 

 confined to that region, while the great dairying business may 

 be extended almost over the entire Union. In 1845, and I 

 have not at my command any later date, the milk product of 

 the State of New York alone, amounted to the enormous 

 sum of forty millions of dollars, at the low estimate of two 

 cents per quart for the milk sold, ten cents per pound for 

 butter, and five cents for cheese ; nothing is said of the 

 milk used for the calves. The writer of the above says, that 

 Pennsylvania and Ohio must have made, at a low estimate, 

 their dairies worth, in that year, sixty millions of dollars, 

 making the entire amount of the milk of the three States one 

 hundred millions, almost double the entire cotton crop of the 

 country. This was in 1845 ; for the last seven years there must 

 have been a large increase in the number of cows, consequent- 

 ly, a proportionate increase in their productiveness. Notwith- 

 standing the greatest care in the selection of cows, the finest 

 pasturage in summer, the best care in winter, with a neat, 

 warm, well ventilated cow-house, without good milkers, and a 

 dairymaid that is an adept at her business, much will be lost. 

 Regularity in milking is of the utmost importance. "Where 

 there are large dairies, I believe this labor is performed at 

 5, P. M., and 5, A. M. The dairyman does not intend that 

 anything shall divert him from this regular business. Even in 

 the hay season, when the rising thunder storm portends de- 

 struction to his day's work, the cows must be milked, come 

 what will. Much depends upon the milker ; it ought to be 

 the duty of every one that performs this labor to do it without 



