HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 53 



the articles that come out of one that has two thousand 

 spindles. We all know the Holsteins are much larger 

 and require a great deal more feed to produce more milk and 

 butter than the Jerseys, which are not more than two-thirds 

 the size of the Holsteins. It seems to me the paper lacks 

 that one element. 



Mr. CusHMAN of Lakeville. I would like to inquire of the 

 last gentleman if he has ever fed Holsteins and Jerseys 

 side by side in his stables and noted the extra quantity of 

 food the Holsteins consume in comparison with the Jerseys ? 



Mr. Edsox. I never have. 



Mr. CusHMAN. I think the gentleman is not, perhaps, alone 

 among the farmers of our Commonwealth in his impression 

 that the Holstein breed consumes more hay and grain per 

 hundred pounds of live weight than some of the other breeds, 

 particularly the Jerseys. I must admit that my experience 

 with this breed of cattle has been limited. Two years asfo 

 I wintered nineteen bead of imported Holsteins, and I have 

 now in my possession six thoroughbreds. It has always 

 been my pleasure, wherever I have had an opportunity, to 

 visit herds of this breed. I have taken great pains to con- 

 verse with the owners, and I have noted individual animals in 

 my own stable. I have to-day high-bred Jersey and Ayr- 

 shires standing by the side of two imported Holstein cows. 

 I have failed to note that those thoroughbred imported cows 

 have consumed more fodder than the cows of the other 

 breeds. They certainly have not of grain, from the fact 

 that they have had equal rations with the other cows. Those 

 three-year-old Holstein cows that I imported are the two 

 cows that are giving me more milk now than any other two 

 cows out of twenty that stand in my stable. 



It would bo a waste of time to review the points that have 

 been so admirably brought out in the paper to which we 

 have listened, but perhaps I will dwell for a moment upon 

 the idea that has always been prominent before the Massa- 

 chusetts farmer, that there was no one cow that was the cow 

 for all purposes. We are a beef-consuming people here in 

 Massachusetts ; we want something in a cow that shall make 

 her valuable at the shambles after she has done well at 

 the dairy. I believe that in the Holstein cow we come 



