THE CULTIVATOR. 
97 
RICH MILK. 
Messrs. Editors— Under the head (t Valuable Cow,” 
in the last (Feb.) no. of the Cultivator, we find a summa¬ 
ry of a statement made by P. H. Schenck, Esq. of Matte- 
wan, of the extraordinary yield in butter, obtained by 
him from his cow Emma. Mr. Schenck’s well known 
high standing in the community, gives us the fullest con¬ 
fidence in the accuracy of his representation, and a cow 
yielding at the rate of nearly three lbs. of butter a day, 
would be feebly characterized as a valuable cow; in truth, 
she might better be termed invaluable. Looking to the 
ordinary yield of butter from milk, which may be calcu¬ 
lated at from eight to twelve quarts, according to its rich¬ 
ness, we here find an animal giving at the rate of one lb. 
of butter to nine and one-seventh pints of milk, conside¬ 
rably less than five quarts to a pound. We have frequent 
instances of that amount of butter from cows yielding ex¬ 
traordinary quantities of milk, say from 32 to 40 quarts 
per diem, but very few (if any,) of so large a proportion 
of butter compared to the quantity of milk; in fact, on 
first reading the statement, I considered it unparalleled 
and almost incredible. Since then, however, in hunting 
up instances of extraordinary yields of butter, &c. I have 
met the following, in which the cow Emma is as much 
surpassed as she is before others. In Young’s Annals of 
Agriculture, vol. XX, p. 281, it is said, “ LordEgremont 
has a Chinese cow whose milk is singularly rich; one pint 
of it on experiment, yielded as much butter, four ounces, 
as seven pints of the milk of a Sussex cow, neither being 
set for cream, but the milk churned directly from the 
cows. 1 (Arthur Young,) did not see this Chinese cow, 
but it was described to me as smaller than any Alderney 
■—seems very fat, and as clean in the chap as any deer. 
This is an extraordinary fact, and seems much to confirm 
former observations on the quality of the milk of differ¬ 
ent cows; it is not the quantity but the quality that should 
be attended to; eight gallons of milk in one day from a 
Suffolk cow, are not uncommon, but the product of butter 
is never equally extraordinary,” &c. 
A remarkable Scotch cow is mentioned in the same 
work, vol. XXXI, p. 33, as giving 20 scotch pints of 
milk, which being skimmed thirty-six hours after milk 
ing, produced fifty-seven ounces and a half of butter, 
(English weight,) which is about twenty-four pounds a 
week. 
Soon after Mr. Schenck’s statement met my notice, 
paid a visit to this remarkable creature of his, but was 
unlucky in not finding her liberal owner at home, and 
was therefore obliged to rely upon the representations 
made to me by the person who has her in charge. 
In your notice of her, you do not mention the circum¬ 
stance of her having received an injury in her spine, as 
appears from Mr. S.’s letter; such is the fact, and I am 
sorry to say it is likely to prove fatal before her period 
of gestation has elapsed, and I believe none of her pro¬ 
geny have been reserved. The injury was received, ac¬ 
cording to my informant, from the bull, and when she is 
made to stand up she seems to suffer greatly from its ef¬ 
fects; when lying down she appears free from pain, and 
seems to have a good appetite. 
She is a large rather raw boned animal, hornless, and 
to my eye gives no indication of possessing any Durham 
blood, though the Am. Agriculturist conjectures her to be 
three quarters of that blood. Would she be hornless 
were this the case? To me she appears to be of the or¬ 
dinary polled breed, of which we have many specimens 
in the district, and generally good milkers The above 
mentioned Suffolk cows are also a polled breed. One or 
two circumstances in her history, leads me to suspect that 
the amount of butter obtained from her milk must be at¬ 
tributed not to her natural habit, but that it has been ow¬ 
ing to a stimulated secretion induced by the injury re¬ 
ceived. One is, as her keeper informed me, that her 
milk was not only of a creamy consistency, but in place 
of a rich yellow was actually red in color. Again, in 
1842, when she gave as much as 18 quarts of milk per diem, 
her yield of butter was 15 lbs.; more milk and less butter 
than during the past season, when from 15± quarts, 3 lbs 
8 oz. of butter were obtained. True, in the first case her 
&eep was only grass—probably an abundance of that, how¬ 
ever; and in the second, besides pasture, she had night 
and morning, a bushel of cut hay and 8 quarts of shorts. 
We can hardly attribute the alteration in her lacteal se¬ 
cretion to this change in her diet; the food was not suf¬ 
ficiently rich to account for the difference in the quality 
of her milk. I therefore conclude that it was owing to a 
disease in the animal function. We find afterwards in 
September, with the same improved allowance, when giv¬ 
ing 11 to 12 quarts per day, she yielded but 10 lbs. of 
butter per week. Yours respectfully, 
Jchn W. Knevels. 
Fishkill Landing, N. Y., Feb. 7, 1844. 
N. B. Will Mr. Minor, or some other manufacturer of 
the article, state the exact proportion of pure night soil in 
the poudrette offered by them for sale; until this is known, 
we cannot judge as to the economy of the application. 
SEEDING GRASS LANDS—PROPER TIME FOR 
CUTTING AND METHOD OF CURING HAY. 
Messrs. Gaylord & Tucker —Hay constituting the 
principal dependence of the agriculturist, as winter pro- 
vender for horses and cattle, it is absolutely necessary he 
should know the proper season, and most approved mode 
of cutting and curing it. 
Having been requested to make known the experiments 
I have tried and fully tested, I now submit them pro bono 
publico, with all due deference to the opinions of my sen 
iors in agriculture. 
When preparing a meadow or upland, I usually seed 
on wheat, sowing in the fall half a bushel of timothy 
seed to the acre, which is limed at the rate of three hun¬ 
dred bushels; and the following spring, after a moderate 
fall of snow, one bushel of clover seed, top dressed with 
charcoal dust, and rolled. From land so treated, I cut 
last season, three tons of hay to the acre. My practice 
is to commence cutting when one-third of the blossoms 
of clover have turned brown, and the timothy just part¬ 
ing with its bloom. The grass thus cut is drawn imme¬ 
diately into the barn, and one bushel of fine salt spread 
by hand thinly over each alternate layer composing a ton, 
as stowed away in the mow. The salt prevents mow 
burning, molding, &c. and the stock are induced to eat it 
as greedily as they would new mown grass, which it 
nearly resembles, as its most nutritious juices are pre¬ 
served, being diffused through the stem of the entire 
plant at that period of its growth. If left on the ground 
until the seed ripens, the saccharine juice of the plant is 
lost. 
The principal desire of the farmer should be to pre¬ 
serve the green appearance of his hay, and at the same 
time make it tender and palatable to his stock. The fer¬ 
mentation which ensues after it is housed, secures that 
object, and prevents the inevitable injury to his mea¬ 
dows which follows ripening grasses. By early har¬ 
vesting he obtains a luxuriant growth of aftermath or 
rowen, almost as nutritious as the first, and as much re 
lished by cattle, but peculiarly adapted to sheep. 
It is now supposed by chemists, that the plan of keep 
ing a large stock of horned cattle for the express purpose 
of manuring a farm, is an erroneous one on this account. 
The ash of all grasses, contains by analysis, in greater 
or less proportion, according to the varieties, Potash, So¬ 
da, Lime, Magnesia, Alumina, Oxide of iron, Oxide of 
manganese, Silica, Sulphuric acid, Phosphoric acid and 
Chlorine, many of which substances are required in the 
animal economy, to form muscle, blood, hoi ns, hoofs, 
etc., and are forever lost to the farmer. 
If instead therefore of keeping stock for that purpose, 
he were to convert his straw, chaff’, and refuse hay, into 
manure in a compost heap, by means of lime, lye, char¬ 
coal dust, &c. would he not save, without the least loss, 
every requisite for the ensuing crop? 
Yours respectfully, R. L. Pell. 
Pelham, Ulster co., Jan. 21, 1844. 
Dr. Thomson of Delaware, will please accept our 
thanks for his friendly suggestion. We like it much, and 
shall endeavor to carry it into effect, though it will take 
some considerable time to make the preparations neces¬ 
sary to accomplish the object in a proper manner. 
