STOCK. 265 



milking quality. The calves arc allowed to run with their 

 dams, taking what they please for four or five months. No 

 care is taken to drain the last drop from the udder, and the 

 cows arc early dried off. This course naturally impairs the 

 secretive powers of the cow, and affects the offspring in a like 

 manner ; though so thoroughly impregnated is the breed with 

 the characteristic of good milking that it is probable that this 

 quality could with care be restored to the family. 



It may be considered as a settled point, notwithstanding in- 

 dividual exceptions, that the short-horns are superior milkers. 

 Not a year passes that the extraordinary doings of some 

 thorough-bred short-horn cow are not chronicled in the agri- 

 cultural periodicals and certified by names of unimpeachable 

 credit. We hear of cows giving from twenty-five to thirty 

 quarts of good milk per day, and making two and one-half to 

 three pounds of butter, and this upon no extraordinary feed.* 



Grade short-horns are almost universally good milkers, not 

 behind the thorough-breds. They are much sought for among 

 the best dairy farmers in various parts of this country and in 

 England. So common is it to hear of great milkers among 

 these grades, that, whenever any remarkable statement of but- 

 ter and milk is published, we are prepared to learn that the 

 cow was of short-horn blood. t It is notorious in England, that, 

 when a breeder desires to improve the milking property of his 

 herd, he resorts at once to a short-horn bull. 



We have dwelt thus particularly upon the merits of the 

 short-horns, to combat the unfounded prejudice against the 

 breed which exists in the minds of farmers ignorant of their 

 true character, who object to large animals, and obstinately and 

 absurdly adhere to one color — the common red of our section. 

 There is no blood that can be mingled with that of our native 



* Mr. Allen's fine cow, which took the first premium at our recent show in New 

 Bedford, made over fourteen pounds of hutter a week on ordinary feed, and when 

 not in her deepest milk. " Ituby," the grandam of the bull shown by Mr. Alden, 

 took the first premium at the New York State Fair in 1850 as a milch cow. She 

 made, from the 10th to the 20th of June, and from the 10th to the 20th of August, 

 — a period of twenty days, — more than forty pounds of butter. 



t It is worthy of remark, that, of the five fine cows offered for premium at our 

 recent show, one was a thorough-bred short-horn ; three were known to be grades 

 and your committee could not doubt the presence of the same blood in the fifth. 

 34* 



