ON THE MILK OF THE COW. 
333 
long passage, and the hay having fallen short, they arrived in a most pitiable condition, and have 
not yet fully recovered. The cow from which I shall send the milk is five years old next June, 
has recently calved, and is in poor condition, has only been fed all winter upon hay, with four 
• quarts of grain daily. She gives now eleven to twelve quarts of milk in 24 hours, and the butter 
is far superior to any I have ever seen in this country. These animals I selected, myself, as the 
very best ; paying from £18 to £25 sterling, for extra cows. 
Very respectfully, yours. 
JOHN A. TAINTOR. 
Hartford, Feb. 13, 1851. 
It is, perhaps, impossible to determine the cause which operates in cows, in a manner which 
changes the proportion of elements in milk, while they are fed upon the same food. It may 
be due to the powers of assimilation and nutrition, at least in part. The pow T er of assimilation 
varies in individuals, and hence individual peculiarities, as to the quality and quantity of milk, 
are met with in the same breed, while the general characteristics have arisen from constitutional 
perfection, which is more or less transmissible to their offspring. 
Ordinary butter contains almost twelve per cent of water, and one per cent of curd. If a 
deduction is therefore made of water and curd, the two results, that by ether and churning, 
will correspond very closely. Both results indicate a remarkable richness in butter, and the 
mode by churning is direct, and can not have led to error : the one by ether is, how r ever, very 
reliable, and hence we have no occasion to distrust the results obtained. What I now say ap¬ 
plies to all the foregoing analyses—they are perfectly trustworthy. According to the fore¬ 
going results, then, the milk obtained from the Jersey cow would give 12‘32 pounds of butter 
weekly, as she yielded 154 pounds of milk; while the Ayrshire, from Prof. Thompson’s ex¬ 
periment, would yield only 11 lbs. 11 oz. and 11 dr. in sixteen days, from 309 lbs. 14 oz. 
and 6 dr. of milk. During an equal period Mr. Taintor’s cow would yield 352 lbs. of milk, 
and 28 • 16 lbs. of butter, which shows a balance of 18 lbs. in her favor. The Ayrshire of Mr. 
Prentice gave 516 grains of butter for 16 ounces of milk. Milk taken from the cans of the 
milkmen of the city yield scarcely 375 grains, with its curd and water, and the more common 
run of milk, as sold to families in the city of Albany, will only yield, 
Water,.... 90 - 48 
Casein,. 3*88 
Butter,. 2-88 
Sugar,. 2-78 
And this is regarded as very good milk. 
The Jersey cow is constitutionally quiet and docile ; the male, however, is more fierce, when 
l^e has attained two or three years. The breed is capable of being acclimated to the colder sec¬ 
tions of our country, inasmuch as it is said to stand the Scotch winters without injury. This 
power indicates a soundness in the vital powers, or of a vigor in the functions of animal and 
vegetable life equal to the Devon, or either of the breeds now reared in the pastures of New- 
