MR. colman's address. 19 



feed for our cows, such as Indian com so\mi for this purpose, and 

 especially Lucerne, which bids fair to become a valuable auxiliary 

 to our dairy husbandry. — Essex county has the honor of having 

 possessed some cows, whose produce has scarcely been exceeded ; 

 but we are certainly deficient in attention to the good quality of 

 our milking stock, and from ignorance or indolence keep animals 

 which are comparatively worthless. In a comparison of the 

 quality of the milk of two of my own cows, in order to ascertain 

 the proportion of cream given by each, I found in milk taken on 

 the same day and in the same quantity and allowed to stand in 

 the same place for the same length of time, an extraordinary 

 difference, the milk of one giving only two tenths of an inch of 

 cream and the other giving an inch and three tenths ; and yet 

 this inferior cow was most promising in appearance, and the most 

 expensive cow in the yard. 



Essex county has one small dairy, which presents a fine 

 example of successful management in this branch of husbandry, 

 not exceeded by any within my inquiries. I refer to the dairy 

 of Mr. Jesse Curtis of Marbleliead, all of native cows and most 

 of them raised by himself 



In 1824 from 6^* cows he made 732 lbs. of butter. 



which last yield is at the rate of one hundred and eighty-one 

 pounds to a cow, and this without any extra feed. 



The next mode of consuming your produce on the place is 

 by stall-feeding sheep, to be put up in autunm and turned off to 

 the butcher in the spiing. My own experiments in this way, 

 though conducted under many disadvantages, have been favorable 

 to its continuance, since it has furnished a home market for my 

 produce at the current rates, without the trouble and loss of 

 carrying it from the farm ; and the manure has been an equivalent 



* One cow f'>r hu'i' the season. 



