Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-03-21
Per Cow.

The average yield of butter per COW in
Vermont is set by those who have studied
the question at not over one hundred and
twenty-five pounds. We all agree that this
is far less than it ought to be, and no man
calls himself good dairyman or at least
does not claim to have good herd of cows
unless he can show an average approaching
four tubs 1.-TWO hundred pounds.
The question is often asked, what ouqhtto
be the average, or how high may we expect
the average to be carried when scrub farm
ing is eliminated from the state Some say
it might just as well be three hundred
as one hundred and fifty pounds, and we are
often hearing of COWS that have made four
hundred and five hundred pounds in year,
while Mr.. Amasa Scott, of Craftsbury, has
just come to the front with the record of his
old COW (native) that has just returned him
"six hundred and thirty-three pounds of
good butter in twelve months.
But any man who has ever tried to make
herd of thirty cows average two hundred
pounds, has found that he has had no small
contract on his hands. There are consid
cradle number of farmers in Vermont who
do it, but it is from long-estabished herds,
carefully selected and as carefully weeded
from year to year to year, and there is a ten
dency, even then, to count in three heifers
as two COWS, and drop out of the count all
such cows as have met with any acct
dents during the year.
There are in the state few small and
select herds of cows, mostly grade Jerseys
that report from year to year an average in
the neighborhood of two hundred and fifty
pounds, and once or twice one has been
squeezed up to near three hundred pounds
There are plenty of records of single cows
that will average pound day through the
year, and almost every good herd has two or
three of that kind. But we think nobody ever
owned thirty such COWS at one time Mr..
Champion, of Swanton, an experienced cat
tie buyer, has select herd that have the best
pasturage and are literally supplied with
shorts and meal, which have made an aver
age for twenty-one COWS of two hundred and
seventy-fve pounds, and this is the best re-
made public in this state.
The question of breed enters into this
subject as an element, but by no means so
important an element as many think. The
older we get the more we are convinced that
our best dairy herds are and must be founded
on the common stock. We may introduce
the blood of choice milking stock from
abroad, and we may often mingle it with
that Of our native cows to advantage. But
unless in our cattle husbandry we are true
to the principles upon which all choice milk
ing breeds have been manufactured, so to
speak, we never can have any real or perma-
nent improvement in the average yield
"per cow"
The breeding and care of dairy cattle and
the manufacture of butter and cheese are
sciences which no jack-atal-trades can
pick up in a minute, and which no stupid
unintelligent person can ever be proficient
in. We never knew a thorough, good dairy.
man or woman who was not smart, capa
BILE person, and in their business at least
well educated, and still ready to learn. II
is the multiplication of this class-and it
seems to multiply slowly-which will raise
our average butter and cheese product " per
cow to more respectable figure than it
now presents. Until we have many more
such upon our dairy farms, the physiological
question how far the milk.secreting func
ton of the COW can be safely increased, will
not become one of immediate practica
moment. We have no doubt there is
limit, but so long as we see so many indivd
ual cows that can make their pound day
we need not fear injury from "too mucl
pushing while the average remains at on,
hundred and twenty-five poundsa year PEI
cow" And we may note, in conclusion, al
an encouraging fact that in each dairy, al
the yield "per COW goes up, so also goes "
the price per pound. He who can make hi
cows yield much milk, ought to, and usually
can, make that milk into good butter.