1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



557 



PRODUCT OF OO^WS. 



In an exceedingly interesting article, com- 

 municated to the Country Qenileman, by our 

 old correspondent. Judge French, of Con- 

 cord, IMass., we find the following in relation 

 to "milk for market," and a statement of the 

 cost of feeding and the product of a herd of 

 cows. A perusal of the latter by our corres- 

 pondent, Avho makes the inquiries in another 

 column, as to the comparative values of differ- 

 ent kinds of fodder, may throw some light upon 

 •liis in(|uiries : — 



Milk for Market. 



This forms an important item in all hus- 

 bandry near large towns. Heavy trains, car- 

 rying milk alone, are daily run into Boston on 

 most of the railways, and they biing milk col- 

 lected 75 or 100 miles away. The advantages 

 of the trallic to the iarmer are, that it brings 

 him a large amount of ready money, that he 

 consumes his fodder at home, and so makes a 

 large quantity of manure, and that he relieves 

 his family from the labor of butter and cheese 

 making. 



The disadvantages arc rather public than 

 private. Milk is sold by quantity, not quality, 

 and anything that flows from a cow's teats is 

 milk fit for market, although we all know that 

 for domestic use, some milk is really worth 

 twice as mut h as other milk. In general the 

 milkman recognizes no difference between the 

 milk of a Jersey cow — four or five quarts of 

 which make a pound of butter, and that of a 

 native, of which twelve or fourteen quarts will 

 scarcely make that quantity. The milk pro- 

 ducer then only seeks for the cow that gives 

 most milk, with no regard to quality, and so 

 the milk business, to use a common expression, 

 demoralizes stock raising. 



A man can hardly sell milk and raise calves. 

 He mubt stipulate to furnish a somewhat reg- 

 ular supply, because the milkman has his reg- 

 ular customers to supply. To do this he must 

 maintain his stock of cows at a certain average, 

 and he cannot well keep dry cows, or give 

 milk to calves ; or, indeed, unless he has ex- 

 tensive stables and pastures, pretend to raise 

 stock. The common practice is to buy new 

 milch cows and sell them to the butcher as 

 they dry up, or if any are kept over, to kill or 

 sell their calves at a week old or less. The 

 demand of stock-growers by the milk pro- 

 ducer is, of course, only for cows that .give 

 large quantities of milk, no matter about the 

 quality. In the London city dairies most of 

 (heir cows are grade Short Horns, or other 

 large breeds, which are bought when full of 

 milk — tied in the stall until the quantity of milk 

 is reduced to a certain limit ; fed liberally, in 

 the meantime, so as to become fat, and then 

 sold to the butcher. This is and must be the 

 practice everywhere where milk is the staple 

 product. A large flow of milk, aptitude to 



fatten and large size are the points to be re- 

 gauUd — the very points which are wanting in 

 the Channel Island or Jersey cattle — admitted 

 to be the best milkers as to quality, and the 

 most regular in iheir yield. 



Willi milk at the stable worth about four 

 cents per wine quart, a stock of cows, as kept 

 by our farmers, yield each an average of about 

 2500 quarts, worth $'00, a Iract'nn less than 

 seven quarts a day. To do this ihey must be 

 liberally fed, and those that ful must he re- 

 placed by others. I have not in mind the 

 statistics of milk dairies, but cive estimates 

 gathered from my neighbors. The quality of 

 the pasturing is, cf course, an iuipoitant ele- 

 ment, as pasturing is mainly relied on for five 

 months in summer. In whiter shorts and oil 

 meal, with whatever roots can be produced, 

 are liberally fed wiih hay, to keep up the flow 

 of milk to the average named. 



Governor Boutwell's Cows. 



Since I began this letter I have visited the 

 dairy of this di^tinguished gentleman at Gro- 

 ton. Although the Governor is, perhaps, best 

 known just now as a radical politician, not ar- 

 dent in his support of the President, yet he 

 carries into his agricultural affairs the mathe- 

 matical accuracy which made him so efficient 

 as first commissioner of internal levcnue. He 

 is doing what most of us, who do not labor 

 regu!arly with our own hands, fail to do — that 

 is, making his farm por?/. 



He has a beautiful stock of Avrshire cattle, 

 with some Jerseys. He keeps an accurate ac- 

 count of the milk yielded by each cow, having 

 it weighed morning and night, every Wednes- 

 day, and takes that as the average for the 

 week. From his books he has given ine the 

 following notes, which contain some valuable 

 statistics of the cost of maintaining a stock of 

 cattle, as well as good suggestions as to the 

 various kinds of feed, and the manner of pre- 

 paring it. 



The question of the economy of cutting 

 fodder, and of cooking it, depends much on 

 the value of fodder and of the products of 

 the dairy. 



The statement of the quantity of milk given 

 by five of the cows on Gov. Boutwell's estate, 

 during the year 18GG, is interesting. The 

 cows are none of them of large size, and prob- 

 ably all of them gave more than seven times 

 their live weight of milk in the year. I think 

 the quantity will prove to be very large, and 

 I hope your correspondents may furnish the 

 means of forming a correct judgment on the 

 subject. The average amount of milk in the 

 year given by a herd of five cows, kept up by 

 exchanging them when their milk fails, is quite 

 a different matter from the average of five 

 cows kept during the whole time. 



The Governor's statements are as follows : 

 In the winter of 1861 I fed 25 cattle, 2 ox- 

 en, 1 bull, 16 cows, 5 heifers two years old, 1 



