300 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



principally cultivated for the uses of the dairy, the product of 

 which is its greatest profit. The milk is almost exclusively 

 manufactured into cheese ; and from the reputation for excel- 

 lence which this has acquired, he is able to obtain for it the 

 highest prices of the market. It appears by his statement 

 that his cows were a cross of the improved short-horns, being, 

 in his own language, " grade Durhams, one-half and three-fourths 

 blood," and were from six to nine years old. They all calved 

 between the 28th of March and the 19th of April, so -as to 

 bring them in milking nearly together, and give the full benefit 

 of the whole season for the product. Mr. Robinson states 

 that these cows "were kept with his dairy of sixteen cows in 

 a good pasture of natural pasture land, on which there has 

 formerly been plaster of Paris, or gypsum, applied, but not for 

 two years past ; that they have each had two quarts of Indian 

 meal per day for the past five months, and had green corn fod- 

 der given them, for twenty-three days, the latter part of August 

 and first of September." He also states that " they had two 

 quarts of provender per day during the preceding winter." 

 They were milked twice a day, during the season of trial, regu- 

 larly between five and six o'clock, morning and evening, and ; 

 with the exception of two instances, always by the same milker. 

 The trial commenced on the 24th of April ; and Mr. Robinson 

 gives the daily aggregate weight of milk of these six cows, 

 weighed morning and evening, during the entire period of the 

 five months. From these daily accounts it appears that the 

 greatest amount in any one clay was on the 30th of May, two 

 hundred and seventy-one pounds, and the smallest amount on 

 the 15th of August, one hundred and sixty pounds. The cows 

 were uniformly driven back to the pasture after being milked ; 

 and it is quite noticeable how nearly equal in quantity were 

 the morning and evening milkings, very clearly showing the 

 benefit of the night pasturage over the too general practice of 

 yarding the cattle at the barn. It cannot be otherwise, that, 

 in the Long and hot days of the season, cows early relieved of 

 the milk in their distended udder (turned to feed on the 



fresh herbage of the field in the cool shade of evening, and after- 

 wards left quietly to repose on the clean greensward, will yield 

 more to the pail than when confined over night in close yards, 



