Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-03-18
Agricultural.
From tie Boston Traveller.
Fifth Agricultural Meeting
AT THE STATE HOUSE, FEB. I6.

/
raising and care Of Horned Cattle
Mr. Buckminster expressed the opinion that
English turner's, in raising stock, had paid more
attention to the form and size of their COWS than
to their mllk-gymg qualities. He thought we
might obtain as valuable COWS from our native
stock, by care in selecting, as could be obtained
from abroad. And, taking Mr. Colman's state
ment as the basis Of an opinion, our best native
COWS were even better than the English stock for
butter for Mr. c. states, that IS quarts Of milk
are allowed in England to produce one pound of
butter whereas s or 10 quarts was the usual
allowance i'll this country for one pound of but
/ ter.
Mr. Brooks Of Princeton had given considera-
bic attention for some Is or 20 years to the rails
ing of stock. His practice was to allow the calf
to suck until it was 5 or weeks old. He gen
orally put two calves to enc COW If the Gulf is
suffered to suck much longer than or weeks.
he suffers much more in weaving than he does
at that age Mr.. B. usually weaned his calves
on milk or milk and Water sometimes on water
simply. He thought it best to begin with low
teed Tor az you begin so you were obliged to
continue He preferred the Ayrshire breed for
milk. He had two hcifers Of this breed which,
at two years. yielded 10 quarts Of milk day,
10 per cent. of which was cream, and made one
pound of butter. He had remarked often, that
COWS do not yield butter in proportion to the
milk they give. If he wished to make butter,
he should choose a COW that gave moderate
quantity Of milk The native cows were the
best, in his judgment; they stood our cold win
tiers better than the imported breeds The half
breed Ayrshire COWS he thought better mixers
than the Durh1ms. The profit en- raising steers
he thought about the same as on raising heifers.
He could get little more than - per cent. on
his investment, in either case.
Mr. B. made Some remarks on the ability of
any one to learn to distinguish the qualities of
COW by examination. He had very high opin-
ion of French work, by Guenon, recently trans
lated and published by Mr.. Skinner of n. York.
By the aid of that work. a man might select his
stock with almost infalible certainty. He be-
lieved he could tell within few quarts what a
COW would yield of milk, and within few lbs,
what she would yield of butter. He had net
missed in more than l0 instances out of between
800 and 400 trials lie had known one COW
that was not dry for IA years, and had calves ev-
cry year.
Mr., Denny fully accorded with Mr.. Brooks in
his estimate of the Treatise on Cattle, by Cue
non. lie had tested its value by distributing a
number Of copies among intelligent, practical
farmers; and their united report was in favor Of
the high value of the work. One of them went
50 FIR as so say that farmer keeping twenty
COWS could well afford to give one dollar for this
treatise of Guenon if it could not be obtained at
. less cost The work could be purchased at
Mr. Dreck's, CT at Redding's for about two shil-
ings, and richly deserved the attention and con-
fdence Of farmers
;. Mr. French expressed his entire confidence in
f Guenon's Treatlse, and thought its introduction
among our flrmers was destined to work an en-.
tire revolution. He mentioned the diiicutie.
f which Gucnon encountered in getting his worl
into notice in France. For sometime none 0
, the agricultural societies would give any heed tc
his suggestions but when, at length, one o
them was induced to put Guenon to the test, the,
were perfectly astonished at the accuracy witt
4 which he applied his rules for determining thu
milk-giving qualities of cows.
i Mr.. F. had little confidence in like producin.
= like in the way Of breeding mich COWS; ther,
were SO many counteracting causes at work, tina
success in one case out Of five was about a
Y much as could be reasonably expected. lie ha
. rather tlko his Ch}nce with five calves such a
: Mr. Brooks could furnish him with, from Prince
d ton, than with the same number of the best cal
e tie. He mentioned one English COW brough
G into Brooklyn N. Y, sometime since, whic
h yielded 81 qulrts day. A most remarkabl
j. case, AMI one rlrely, if ever e1u1lled
+ Mr. Merriam had more confidence in the ab
T. ity Of frmer to raise good mixers than MI
:, French had expressed, He believed that ther
= were certain principles, which, if uhderstoo
n and regarded, would enable the farmer to &c
c like from like--to get good mixer from GOO
mixer 1t was we'll ascertaned fact that an
quality Of wool might be be bred by regardin
certqin principles and he could not see VIII
it should not be equally possible to produce Civ
en- qualities in neat cattle, You might not &c
from first rate mixer calf of the same char
acter, even though the sire was of good milk
giving breed but by taking pains to cross uni
formly with good Mixers at about the sevent
It cross he believed that the object would be secul
/ ed, so that you might calculate ON the milkin
qualities of heifer, as confidently as on the flee
: CIV qualities of a lamb. He thought that farmer.
in selecting their stock, did not sufiiciency re
o gard the quality Of their farms. The size an
|, general qualities of cattle should be adapted t
J. the qualities Of the farms on which they were
o be raised and kept 1t was piece of folly fo
o farmer on light, thin soil, to attempt to rails
I, the large and heavy Durhams, for example. TIL
l. Dentons were much more suitable.
e Mr.. Brooks thought he could produce 3 or
II good mixers out of about 10; and that, wit
5, ten crosses, he could secure uniformly good milk
:, ers.
e Mr.. Calhoun, the President of the Society, re
st marked on one serious drawback in raising goo
e cattle in this country our turner's have not &C
,e wealth, or time, or science enough, generally t
IS devote to experiments in breeding cattle. The
~ get good imported animal into their neighbo