Cattle. 343 
some unproductive cows, 600 gallans per year, may be considei'/l 
as the average quantity obtained annually from each. 
The quality of the milk is estimated by the quantity of butter 
that it will yield. Fourteen quarts of this milk will yield about 
one and a half pounds of butter. An Ayrshire cow, therefore, 
may be reckoned to yield 257 lbs. of butter per annum, or about 
5 lbs per week all the year round. This is certainly an extra- 
ordinary quantity of butter, and fully establishes the reputation of 
the Ayrshire cow, so far as the dairy is concerned. 
"To sum up all in one sentence," says Mr. Aiton, "I now re- 
peat that hundreds and thousands of the best Scotch dairy cows, 
when they are in their best condition and well fed, yield at the 
rate of 4000 quarts of milk in one year; that in general 10 or 10^ 
quarts of their milk will yield one pound of butter." 
Mr. Geo. Randall, of New-Bedford, in a letter to the writer of 
this, speaking of one of his Ayrshire cows, says, " On the 7th of 
October, 1844, the cream taken from six quarts of her (Medal,) 
milk, made one found and nine ounces fresh butter, which is, I 
think, a thing unheard of before. I put a certificate into the 
hand of the chairman of the committee on cows, signed by three 
young ladies that saw the whole process of setting the^railk, 
taking off the cream, and making the butter. I Saw the butter 
weighed the second time, believing there had been some mistake 
in the weighing, but found there had not. (A Dearborn balance 
was used.) I will add that Medal had not tasted a particle of 
meal or grain of any kind, and nothing but hay, and grass, and 
water, from the time she arrived in the United States to the time 
the butter was made." 
We have now in our possession a cow, got by the Ayrshire 
bull imported by the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agri- 
culture, imported in 1837; from eight quarts of her milk we 
obtained one pound of butter. She calved about six weeks ago, 
and now fills a common sized pail night and morning. We have 
several that will give from 16 to 20 quarts per day. 
It is conceded, we believe, that the Ayrshire cows will yield as 
much milk in proportion to their size and the food consumed, as 
