302 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



August. The feed, part of the time, was " unprecedently short ; 

 and the season, as a whole, has been a bad one, below the av- 

 erage, for making butter." Mr. Lincoln states that, owing to 

 an accident and peculiar circumstances, he was necessitated to 

 change his milkers frequently, and that the yield, from this 

 cause, was greatly diminished. His cows were milked regu- 

 larly at six o'clock, morning and evening, and after being milked, 

 as with Mr. Robinson, were returned to the pasture. 



Mr. Lincoln furnishes a very minute and instructive account 

 of the treatment of his cows in the stable, of the order of milk- 

 ing, the disposition of the milk, the care and management of 

 the dairy room and its utensils, and of the process of manufac- 

 turing the butter, by the thoroughness of which he has at all 

 times been able to command the readiest sale and the highest 

 price for the commodity. He gives as the actual product of 

 his six cows for the five months, in butter, accurately ascer- 

 tained by weight at each churning, an aggregate of eight hun- 

 dred and fifty-four pounds and eight and one-half ounces. This 

 was all sold to customers, and produced, at thirty-three and 

 one-third cents per pound, two hundred and eighty-four dollars 

 and eighty-three cents. 



It appears, however, from Mr. Lincoln's statement, that the 

 trial commenced on the 24th of April with but three of six 

 cows in milk, and that, owing to the irregular times of their 

 coming in, the dates of which are particularly noted, there was 

 consequently within the five months an average period of milk- 

 ing, for six cows, of four months and twenty-one days only, and 

 that, had they all been in milk the full period of five months, at 

 the rate of yield for the time of actual milking, they would have 

 given nine hundred and twenty pounds and four and one-half 

 ounces, producing three hundred and six dollars and seventy- 

 five cents. The greatest amount of butter made in one week 

 was fifty-seven pounds and eight ounces, or an average of nine 

 pounds and nine and one-third ounces to each cow, and this 

 upon pasture feed alone. A sample of Mr. Lincoln's butter 

 was exhibited to the committee, and fully justified the reputa- 

 tion of his dairy. He also furnished a statement of profits 

 from swine, kept exclusively upon the wash of the dairy and 

 house, with the addition only of a small quantity of refuse ap- 



