56 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



another. I have in my stable at home two horses of about 

 equal size, and one of them certainly requires double the 

 amount of grain that the other does ; but being a very valuable 

 animal for doing all sorts of business, I prize that horse very 

 highly, notwithstanding it takes such a large quantity of food 

 to keep it in condition. It is because that animal does not 

 assimilate its food as the other one does. It is more observ- 

 able, I think, in horses than perhaps in any other animals 

 that we feed. But here is the Holstein breed that is coming 

 up and presents this remarkable fact (I think we must accept 

 it as a fact) , that they do not consume food in proportion to 

 their size like other animals. They get along with less, and 

 it must be on account of their greater ability to assimilate. 



The Chairman. The principal object in keeping cows is 

 to make money, I suppose. Now, in regard to this breed, 

 there are a good many here that know something about it. 

 There is a gentleman here who has just sold a cow for a thou- 

 sand dollars. Some of the farmers would like to know how 

 that is done. They would like to do it every day in the week 

 if they could. I will call upon Mr. Harwood to tell us how 

 it is done. 



Mr. Harwood of Barre. The sale of that cow for a thou- 

 sand dollars was as much a surprise to me as to anybody. 

 The only thing about selling anything is, to have an article 

 that is worth the price you ask for it ; you will find a cus- 

 tomer and get what you ask. If I had asked more I should 

 have got it, probably. Of that I am not sure, but I am sure 

 that it did not take me five minutes to sell that cow. 



In regard to the amount of food required to keep Holsteins 

 in comparison with Jerseys and other breeds, I will refer to 

 a remark that was made to me by Mr. Youngmans, the elder, 

 of the firm of Youngmans & Son, who owned the cow Aggie 

 2d, which, as has been reported, made just ninety pounds of 

 milk a day for a year. Mr. Youngmans says, "I can easily 

 believe that the amount of butter was made from that cow 

 that is reported, but a more difficult matter to believe is that 

 she only ate the amount of food which she is reported to 

 have eaten," I have had some experience in feeding a cow 

 which has made a greater record than Clothilde at the end of 

 six months, which is as far as the record has gone. Koninger 



