90 
JEFFERSON COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AND HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY FAIR 
produced from the piece of land mentioned in the certifi¬ 
cate of the surveyor. 
ESSAYS. 
(For publication in the next volume of Transactions .) 
For the best essay on the different varieties of wheat, $20 
For the best essay on the diseases and insects inju¬ 
rious to the wheat crop, 20 
For the best essay on subsoil plowing; with the re¬ 
sults of actual experiments in the state of New 
York, 20 
For the best essay on the introduction and culture of 
new agricultural products, _ 20 
For the best essay on the diseases of silk worms in 
this climate, and the means of prevention and cure, 20 
DISCRETIONARY PREMIUMS 
will be awarded for such implements and products not enu¬ 
merated above, as shall be deemed worthy of notice and 
encouragement. 
RULES AND REGULATIONS. 
Applicants for premiums are requested to pay particular 
attention to the premiums on dairy Cows, fat Cattle and 
fat Sheep, Butter and Cheese, field crops and Sugar. 
The statements required from those who compete for 
field crops, must be sent to the Recording Secretary, Al¬ 
bany, previous to the first of January, 1844, and the pre¬ 
miums will be awarded at the annual meeting of the So¬ 
ciety, on the third Wednesday of January. 
All premiums will be paid in cash or plate, at the option 
of the winners. * 
The premiums for Essays and for agricultural Imple¬ 
ments, will be open to the United States ; but all others will 
be confined to residents of this state, who are members of 
this Society, or who may become so by the payment of one 
dollar on entering their articles. 
Competitors for the premiums on Essays must forward 
their manuscripts to the Recording Secretary, at Albany, 
previous to the first of January, 1844, free of postage. 
1 X 7 = Particular rules and regulations of the exhibition, 
together with the list of awarding committees, will be pub¬ 
lished hereafter. 
The measure used to ascertain the quantity of milk 
given by Mr. Smith’s cow, was the wine quart, the same 
as is generally used in England, according to Mr. Berry’s 
report of great milkers. The only utility that we can per¬ 
ceive in cutting the tail, is to let blood, and this could be 
better done in the usual way of lancing a vein ; but this, 
as well as the application of spirits of turpentine, we con¬ 
sider entirely unnecessary. To produce the greatest quan¬ 
tity of milk, a variety of good food and exercise, under 
ordinary circumstances, is all that is necessary to ensure 
a strong steady appetite. For the manner in which great 
milkers are treated and fed in Great Britain, see Tour in 
England for the present number. Mr. Smith’s cow has 
produced more milk than any other we have heard of in 
the United States, save a grade Durham, owned by Dr. 
Martin, of Kentucky. We have been informed that she 
averaged 41 quarts per day, for three weeks in succession. 
Her feed, during this time, was the best of clover and blue 
grass pasture. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
AN EXTRAORDINARY MILKER. 
Repository of the American Institute , N. F., May 10,1843. 
Dear Sir —The following communication in relation to a 
remarkable cow, which commanded the premium at the 15th 
annual fair, was made by Mr. Smith, the owner, at the spe¬ 
cial request of the premium committee, and was intended 
to have been embraced in the annual report of the institute, 
directed to be printed by the legislature ; but owing to 
some neglect or mistake in the carriers of packages to 
Albany, it did not come to hand in time to be inserted. 
I shall therefore be obliged by your inserting it in the 
American Agriculturist. 
T. B. WAKEMAN, 
Cor. Sec., &c. 
The full-blooded Durham Cow, Victoria, 8 years old, was 
purchased at a fair,near Liverpool, in September, 1840, by 
Captain Richardson, of the ship Brooklyn, and came to 
the present owner in July, 1841. No certain pedigree was 
obtained, nor can be, as she was purchased for private use, 
and the name of the person who sold her can not now be 
ascertained. 
Her Milking Quality. —She calved on the 2d September, 
1841. The calf was taken away the sixth day thereafter. On 
the 9 th September, she gave 34f quarts of strained milk ; on 
the 10th, 34* ; on the 11th, 34 ; and for twenty days varied 
from 34 to 32 quarts per day; for three months in succession 
she gave not less than 32 quarts per day ; and from the 
8 th of September,. 1841, to the 8th of July, 1842 (including 
the winter months), the average quantity was 27 quarts per 
day: the milk was strained and measured once a week. 
As she will come in fresh the first of December, from the 
middle of July she fell off gradually from 15 to 12 quarts, 
the quantity she now gives. The quality of milk is ex¬ 
cellent. 
Her Feed. —Besides grass in its season, and hay, she was 
fed with ground corn and oats, meal, shipstuff, and veget¬ 
ables, such as caiTots, sugar beets, and potatoes; changing 
the kind of feed once a week, as it was found that on any 
one course of feed more than a week, the quantity of milk 
diminished, and by the change the quantity was sustained. 
Treatment.—I had her tail cut once in 6 or 8 weeks, and 
allowed it to bleed freely, and at the same time put on her 
loins a spoonful of spirits of turpentine ; immediately after 
each cutting of the tail and use of turpentine, her appetite 
was stronger and the quantity of milk increased. 
Cyrus P. Smith. 
Brooklyn, Oct. 17 th, 1842. 
JEFFERSON COUNTY AGRICULTURAL AND HOR¬ 
TICULTURAL SOCIETY FAIR. 
The fair of the above flourishing society was held at 
Washington, Miss., on the 28 and 29 April, a full account 
of the proceedings of which, and the reports of the several 
committees, we find in the Free Trader. We would gladly 
copy the whole, but from the crowded state of our columns 
can only give place to the spirited letter of our correspon¬ 
dent, Mr. Affleck. We understand that the president, Col. 
B L. C. Wailes, gave an excellent address upon the occa¬ 
sion, with which we hope to be favored as soon as pub¬ 
lished. We perceive that Mr. Affleck objects to the great 
weight of our northern plows. We can make them as 
light as the south will please to have them ; but this rather 
injures their effective work. We suspect the hands who 
use these plows, do not exactly understand their manage¬ 
ment ; and we would refer to Mr. Cornell’s letter in May 
No., p. 50, where weight and shape are explained; also to 
a communication of the same on the management of the 
side-hill plow, p. 370, Vol. I., of our paper. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Ingleside, 2 9th April, 1843. 
My Dear Sir: —Our fair is over; and I sit down, 
agreeably to my promise, to give you a short account 
of it. 
You are aware, I presume, that we have had one of the 
most extraordinary springs ever experienced in this re¬ 
ion—cold, wet, dreary, and extremely backward. Two 
eavy falls of snow, both, I think, after the middle of 
