36 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



than potatoes, or even pumpkins, and he would rather have 

 them than either. So if Mr. Goodnow can find that gentleman, 

 he will perhaps find a purchaser who will give him more than 

 eight cents a bushel for his apples. 



Mr. Perry of Worcester. It seems to me it is always a 

 good thing to establish one fact before you go to another. 

 Mr. Goodnow has asked a very sensible question in regard to 

 feeding apples to milch cows. That question is one which 

 interests most of us. I keep a large stock of cattle, I have 

 a large quantity of cider-apples, and I have fed them to my 

 cows regularly. I have given my cows about half a bushel a 

 day, and I think that those apples are worth twelve cents a 

 bushel, as we are selling milk now in this city. 



Question. How much do you get a quart for your milk? 



Mr. Perry. From six to eight cents. I presume back in 

 the country, where they make milk into butter, they are not 

 so valuable. But instead of selling apples at eight cents a 

 bushel, I should give them to my cows, because they not only 

 increase the quantity of milk, but they furnish nutriment for 

 the cows, and of course they require less of other articles 

 of food. So that, in my opinion, a bushel of apples is 

 worth, in my location, from eight to fifteen cents, to feed to 

 cattle. 



Mr. Harlow of West Boylston. I think, as my friend on 

 my right has said, that it is w r ell to settle one question before 

 we pass to another. I would like, as the preachers say, to 

 make a little personal application. We have the eminent 

 authority of Prof. L. B. Arnold, in support of the proposition 

 that apples are worth twelve and a half cents a bushel as food 

 for cows ; we have the opinion of the eminent gentleman 

 from Connecticut, that they are worth nearly as much in his 

 neighborhood ; and we have also the opinion of one of the 

 most sensible and level-headed farmers of Worcester County 

 that they are worth as much as that, or more. This being the 

 case, I would ask, in the name of good morals, why prostitute 

 the farming interest of New England to the debasing manu- 

 facture of cider? When our apples can be devoted to a 

 useful purpose, why should we lower our own calling, and 

 degrade the communities in which we live, by making cider, 

 to ruin our fellow-men? 



