ADVICE FOR LACKLAND. 69 



horticulturists that blinds me even to their wildest 

 assertions. What has an humble cultivator to do, or 

 to say, in the presence of a man who has bagged his 

 premiums at a New York Horticultural Society, and 

 is taster ex-officio at the Farmer's Club ? 



" I did not argue the matter with him ; I sub- 

 mitted ; I acknowledged my mediocrity humbly. 



" Now, my dear fellow, there are cows which 

 yield their twenty to twenty-five quarts a day, but 

 they are very exceptional. Many such, whose private 

 history I have known, have been fed upon their own 

 milk with the cream taken off. This involves, as you 

 will admit, I think, a quick reconversion of capital, 

 which, with children in the family, is not always 

 practicable. 



" In a general way, I should say, it would be far 

 safer to count upon an average of twelve to fifteen 

 quarts per day, even with the best of care. And as 

 regards your actual purchase of an animal, I dare say 

 you will have Wall Street friends, who will talk 

 grandly of the short horns, and suggest some Daisy, 

 (1397, A. H. B.,) at a cost of six or seven hundred 

 dollars, and viewing her pedigree cheap at that. 

 My advice to you is, don't buy any such, unless you 

 intend to turn breeder, and enter the lists with the 

 herd book people. I say this, not because the short- 

 horns are not admirable animals ; but admirable ani- 



