316 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



with a total yield for said period of one hundred and nineteen 

 pounds eight and one-third ounces to each cow. 



In addition to this product nine calves have been raised, and 

 three sold to be fatted. Five shotes have been sold for forty 

 dollars ; two pigs at ten dollars ; and there is now on hand five 

 late spring pigs, three old hogs, and four sucking pigs. The 

 swine were kept exclusively upon the wash of the dairy and 

 house till the last of August ; since that time a small quantity 

 of refuse apples has been added to their food. 



The pasturing was good early in the season, so far as quan- 

 tity went. But, although its quantity was sufficient, it was of 

 poor quality for the purpose of the dairy. 



My pastures are upon the south slope of a hill, early to start, 

 but easily affected by drought. 



This year the feed has been unprecedently short, and for 

 weeks my animals might almost be said to suffer. There was 

 no green thing in the pastures, nor would the mowing fields af- 

 ford a bite. 



I had no corn fodder till about the fifth of August, and then 

 so limited a supply that it was consumed in less than three 

 weeks. 



The season, as a whole, has been a bad one — below the 

 average for the production of butter. 



Additional to this, my own dairy has suffered from a change 

 of milkers. Men to work on a farm have been scarce ; of ac- 

 tual help there has been none. Early in the spring I was inca- 

 pacitated from milking, and continued so for months. My cows 

 were badly treated and worse milked. As an instance, the 

 week after I was compelled to give up milking, although one 

 more cow was milked than before, the yield of butter was di- 

 minished eight pounds and a fraction. 



I ought also to state that from the first of August one milking 

 of one of the cows has been taken from the dairy for family con- 

 sumption, thus diminishing what would have been the actual 

 yield of butter from the whole dairy. A sample of butter, as 

 ordinarily made, is submitted for the examination of the com- 

 mittee. 



