642 [Assembly 



they sometimes do, considerably more. The barrelled butter for keep- 

 ing, will bring in any European market, and especially the English, 

 from 10 to 20 per cent more than any other, and always in demand, 

 as it keeps sweet almost any length of time. Among other causes 

 given for this superiority of the Dutch butter, is its being grass fed 

 and the manner of feeding on the pasture field. I wish our friends, 

 advocates of the soiling system, to notice some of the facts above 

 stated. Here is one of the most thrifty little nations of Europe, 

 possessing large droves of cattle for the dairy and the shambles of 

 the best quality, who finds it her interest to graze them in the sum- 

 mer. We are told in face of this, that nations and States adjoining 

 her, some of them not so populous, possessing more territory yet soil- 

 ing their cattle, because it is their interest. It gives them more and 

 better manure, makes their land richer, they have more to till, and 

 can raise more breadstufFs to feed their population. I must confess I 

 thought so myself till lately, and that it w^as the interest of most of 

 Europe to soil, but since I have got more light on the subject I doubt 

 whether it is, and certain I am that it is not for the interest of our 

 own country. 



I have more to say, but our time has expired, and some one else may 

 wish to speak. I should like, if agreeable, that the subject be con- 

 tinued to the next meeting, to give every person disposed, an oppor- 

 tunity of freely offering his sentiments upon the important questions 

 involved in it. As may be perceived, I think the old fashioned na- 

 tive Yankee cow, of a good race, and well kept, is as profitable as 

 any in the world, and that the old fashioned Dutch and Yankee way 

 of keeping her in summer on the pasture field, is the best to make 

 that profit tell in the pocket; yet I am open to conviction, and may 

 change my opinion even on these points, if unanswerable arguments 

 are presented on the opposite side. 



Mr. Wakeman. The best English cows have given two hundred 

 pounds of butter in a year. Two gallons of milk usually make one 

 pound of butter. 



Alderman Hall. Mr. Schenck of Matteawan had a cow which 

 gave 36 quarts a day. 



Henry Smith, of Astoria, purchased a cow which was ship- 

 ped in the British Queen, at Portsmouth, England, in 1840, and 

 from injuries received on the passage to New-York, was not 

 considered in condition to return in the ship, which cow gave 36 



