THE YIELD OF DUTCH COWS. 301 



DETERMINATION OF THE MILKING QUALITIES OF THE 

 Cows. The Dutch cattle are, in general, renowned 

 for their dairy qualities ; but especially so are the cows 

 of North Holland, which not only give a large quantity, 

 but also a very good quality, so that a yield of sixteen 

 to twenty-five cans * at every milking is not rare. Next 

 to these come the West Friesland and South Dutch 

 cows, from which from twenty to twenty-four cans of 

 milk may be calculated on. Though one could not 

 take a certain number and calculate surely what the 

 yield of each cow would be, yet he could come very 

 near the truth if he reckoned that a cow, in three hun- 

 dred days, or as long as she is milked, gives, on an 

 average, daily, from six to eight cans of milk, from 

 which the whole annual yield would be from one 

 thousand eight hundred to two thousand four hundred 

 cans. Of this the cow gives one half in the first four 

 months, one third in the next three, and in the 

 remainder one sixth. These superficial results cannot 

 be taken, however, as the fixed rule. 



Professor Wilkins, in his Handbook of Agriculture, 

 gives the following estimates of the yield of milk: A 

 good West Friesland or Groningen cow will, after calv- 

 ing, give daily fourteen quarts of milk. This will, after 

 a while, be reduced to eight quarts. She may be milked 

 three hundred and twenty-three days in the year, and 

 her product in butter and cheese will amount to one 

 hundred guldens. 



In Prof. Kop's Magazine it is stated that a medium- 

 sized Friesland cow, which had had several calves, was 

 giving daily, on good feed, five and a half to six buckets, 

 or from twenty to twenty-two cans, and over. In South 

 Holland, also, this quantity is considered a good yield 



* A Butch can is a little less than our wine quart. 

 26 



