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cream from the same, and it yielded three pounds of nice butter.

METHUEN, September 26, 1854.

Statement of Eben G. Berry.

With the exception

I offer for premium four cows, from six to eight years old, that have been in my possession more than three years; each of them has given milk more than one year, and all will be in new milk again in November and December. When in new milk in the spring, two of them have made ten pounds of butter each per week, in the month of June. Either of them will make eight pounds during the same time. of this month, their milk has been sold daily through the year. Three of them will give milk through the year, and one will go dry ten weeks. Their feed is grass only, and the product of their milk this day is as follows: first, six quarts; second, five and one-half quarts; third, four quarts; the fourth being dry. The greatest quantity of milk for any number of weeks is, first, sixteen quarts; second, fourteen; third, thirteen and one-half; fourth, fifteen quarts per day.

The fourth cow is the most strongly marked for a model as I understand Guenon's theory, but is the poorest of the lot in all respects.

NORTH DANVERS, September 26, 1854.

MIDDLESEX.

Report of the Committee on Dairies.

It was a general remark, as well by the visitors as in the committee, that the exhibition of cattle this year was much inferior to that of the last and of the several preceding years. No doubt this was owing to the effect of the severest drought ever remembered in the country, which in many towns cut off the common and by far the best food of the cattle, reducing their yield of milk, and severely injuring their appearance. Ample and well-watered pastures seem to be essential to the production of the best and largest quantity of milk and butter,

and equally so to the health of the cow. Soiling, feeding out grains, &c., can seldom be resorted to with profit when the farmer has at his command sufficient pastures for his cows to range over and feed at will. It is to the above cause, no doubt, that the liberal premiums offered by the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture failed to bring out the show of stock that our society confidently hoped to have scen at this exhibition. Let us hope that the effect of these premiums which are to be offered, until they are awarded, will another year be such as to satisfy the expectation of the public, and as to induce the trustees of the Massachusetts Society to repeat them. We may mention in this connection that the same society has decided to extend premiums of similar amount, to such other county societies throughout the Commonwealth as have not already received them, the next year, and the large sum of twelve hundred dollars is to be competed for under the auspices of the Worcester Society, at Worcester, by all the coun

ties in 1856.

There were five dairies of cows offered this year for premiums. One of these, Mr. Buckminster's fine herd of Devons, was decidedly admired by every observer, but could not be considered by your committee, because the proprietor failed to make any statement of its history or products as required by the regulations of the society. Four other gentlemen also exhibited cows, but as they, with one exception, also failed to comply with the regulations prescribed by the society, the committee could not consider them in reference to premiums, however well they might be thought to merit them. Only one of these dairies produced butter-that of Mr. A. G. Sheldon, of Wilmington. His carefully prepared statement was read with interest and profit; but, in the opinion of the committee, the produce was not sufficiently large to entitle him to a premium. It will be seen that for his butter, which is certified by competent judges to have been of the finest quality, he received only thirty cents per pound, although prepared in the best manner, and laboriously stamped. This should not be so. Many consumers in Boston pay from forty to fifty cents a pound, besides in some instances paying expenses by express from Philadelphia, for butter no better, to say the least, than his. If

he, or others who feel a just pride in producing the best butter, would also take a little pains in marketing it, they would be more justly paid for their exertions. His cows are all described as "natives." We suggest to him to add one Alderney to his herd. Her cream will give color and character to his butter, and enable him to advance his prices from one-third to one-half in a market where it would be appreciated, and where there is a demand far exceeding the present supply. Mr. Viles, of Waltham, exhibited a dairy of eight cows, partly natives and partly grades of Ayrshire. His account of their produce was truly extraordinary. The dairies of Mr. John B. Moore and of Mr. George M. Barrett, of Concord, were of a high order, showing well-selected stock and great production of milk.

And here we may be allowed to express some doubts whether the statements of extraordinary produce of cows, as given by amateurs in the public prints, and which sometimes find their way into agricultural reports, have not done something to discourage the efforts they are intended to stimulate. In a late number of the journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England there is a communication from Col. Le Couteur, of Jersey, giving the produce of his celebrated prize cow "Beauty," and of several others of the best specimens of the Jersey or Alderney cows. He says that "Beauty," in her best milk, yielded eleven pounds thirteen ounces of butter a week from one hundred and thirty-three quarts of milk, (nineteen quarts a day,) being a pound to about eleven quarts. Some of the other cows gave twenty-six quarts of milk a day for a short period, and fourteen pounds of butter a week, or a pound to thirteen quarts of milk.

This contrasts strangely with the frequent statements made of the products of the same breed of animals here. From four to six quarts of milk, it is often said, give a pound of butter; and these statements come from parties whose accuracy and truthfulness no one can for a moment doubt. But what are the circumstances? Is this extraordinary amount of butter made soon after the dropping of the calf and on good pasturage only? or is it made from farrow cows, or the strippings or morning messes? and are the cows highly fed with stimulating food? No doubt these statements, made sometimes

without all the details necessary to make them well understood, have had a serious effect on the competition for our prizes. Would it not be well to make it a condition that cows offered for premium shall in the trial months, say from May to September, have no other feed than pasturage and green fodder? Without such a general rule, it is to be feared that there can be but little fair competition, and that many people will decline it altogether for whose advantage it is especially proposed. In this department, as well as others, careful readers cannot fail to observe that amateur, and not practical, farmers generally bear off the prizes, to the disappointment, and often permanent disgust, of less-favored competitors. These gentlemen amateurs would add greatly to the obligations they have already laid the community under if they would enter their fine stock for exhibition only, and leave the prizes to parties to whom they are a pecuniary object as well as a proper ambition.

The committee have observed with great pleasure the successful efforts of many gentlemen in the county to introduce the best foreign stock to their neighbors and the public. Already the effect is obvious to the observer when passing over the county in any direction. Fine cattle of the Jersey, Ayrshire, Devon, and Durham breeds are often seen mingled with the best native stock. Much of this improvement is also to be attributed to the "Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture," which has with well-conducted liberality placed bulls of various breeds in different parts of the Commonwealth for public use.

JAMES BROWN, Chairman.

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MIDDLESEX SOUTH.

Statement of Obed Winter.

The cow I offer for premium brought a fine heifer calf the 10th of March last, which took one-half her milk, and at five weeks and three days old was sold for over eleven dollars for veal.

The first week in June she gave one hundred and twenty

nine and one-half quarts of milk-average, eighteen and a half quarts per day. I sold and made use of one-half the milk; the other half made eight and a quarter pounds of butter, being sixteen and a half pounds per week. The average weight of milk was forty-seven pounds per day.

The first week in September she gave ninety-one quarts— average, thirteen quarts per day. One-half the milk made six and a half pounds of butter, being thirteen pounds per week. She went to pasture about the middle of May. The first week in June I gave her one quart of meal per day only. In September I fed her with corn fodder, and no meal.

The milk used for butter was about the same proportion of night and morning milk. I found in June eight quarts of milk made one pound of butter; in September, seven quarts made the same.

The average quantity of her milk through May was sixteen quarts per day; in June, eighteen quarts per day; in July, sixteen quarts per day; in August, fourteen quarts per day; in September, thirteen quarts per day. The whole number of quarts she has given from the 10th of March to September 25 is two thousand six hundred and one, besides what the calf took.

FRAMINGHAM, September 26, 1854.

Statement of Abiel S. Lewis.

I offer for your consideration my half Ayrshire and half Jersey cow, Victoria, five years old. She calved in March. Her product for ten days in June was three hundred and seventy pounds of milk, and for ten days in September two hundred and eighty-three and a half pounds of milk, which yielded one pound of butter to fourteen pounds of milk,

My Durham cow, Eugenia, six years old, calved in April. Her product for ten days in June was four hundred and five pounds of milk, and for ten days in September three hundred and three and a half pounds of milk, seventeen pounds of her milk making one pound of butter.

My three-quarters native and one-quarter Devon cow, Rosa,

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