as interesting as any communications that can be submitted to the Society; the Committee regret that the statements are so often vague and imperfect. Few farmers are aware of the great difference in the quantity and quality of the milk yielded by different cows of the same general appearance. By actual weight and measure, it has been made certain, that some cows in Massachusetts have given fifty or sixty pounds of milk per day. In S. Adams, in Berkshire county, there was a few years ago a cow which gave seventy pounds per day. Her extra feed was four pails of cheese whey, and some rye meal. A heifer in the same town is said to have given sixty pounds per day. Our own county has furnished many instances of extraordinary yield. It may be interesting to mention some of them. The Oakes cow made in the year 1813, 180 lbs of butter; in 1814, 300 lbs; in 1815, more than 400 lbs, 1 quart per day being reserved for family use, and a calf being suckled for four weeks in each of the years. In one week, 19 1-4 lbs of butter were made, and the average for three months was 16 lbs. The Nourse cow, owned in Salem, produced 20 lbs, in one week, and the average for four months was 14 lbs. The Barr cow gave in 268 days 7517 lbs of milk. The sales, including the calf, amounted to $151.15. The Putnam cow in 14 weeks, gave 3370 lbs of milk, making 139 lbs. of butter. The Osborne cow, in 77 days gave 3127 lbs of milk. A cow in Andover, in 1836, besides suckling her calf till sold to the butcher for $8, and supplying a family with milk and cream, made 166 lbs of butter. The cow of Mr. Albert Johnson, of Lynn, which received last year one of the Society's premiums, gave in 184 days, 6840 lbs of milk. The sales from this cow, including her calf, amounted to $142.80, in six months. The cow of Mr. Charles F. Putnam, of Salem, yielded in one year, 4214 quarts, which at five and six cents per quart, gave him $244.03; estimated expense of keeping and milking $91.53, leaving a clear profit of $152.50; more than some who call themselves farmers realize from a dairy of six or eight animals, which are denominated cows, but which disgrace their family and their owners. Mr. Colman, in his first report of the agriculture of Massachusetts, makes the following statements: "The difference in the butter properties of different cows is not generally considered. In a yard of five cows, upon repeated trials, made at similar times, and as near as could be, under the same circumstances, the difference in the yield of cream upon nine inches of milk, was found to be as 13 to 3," "The yield of a cow is stated generally at 1400 quarts per year; of butter 87 1-2, 116, and 140 lbs. These returns are very small, and indicate either poor stock or poor pastures, or poor management.” The Committee recommend that the following premiums and gratuities be paid To Joshua Hale, of Rowley, for his cow, seven years old, To David S. Caldwell, of Newbury, for his young cow, To George Spofford, of Georgetown, for his Canadian cow, To Moses Pettingill, of Topsfield, for his heifer of the cream-pot breed, To David S. Caldwell, of Newbury, for six very for heifers of very good appearance. $10 3 3 5 3 1 1 John Marshall, of W. Newbury, exhibited a handsome cow, with a very large calf. Rev. Bailey Loring, of Andover, and Mr. John Hale, of Boxford, produced large and promising heifers. Enoch Silsbee, of Bradford, and Mr. Pettingill also exhibited very handsome Durham heifers. The Committee hope that the farmers of Essex county will be induced to give more attention to their dairy stock, for they are satisfied that there is no stock which more liberally remunerates for generous feeding and careful management. For the Committee, Georgetown, Sept. 29, 1841. DANIEL P. KING. JOSHUA HALE'S STATEMENT. To the Committee on Milch Cows: GENTLEMEN-The cow which I offer for exhibition is seven years old. She calved the 22d of March last, and gave milk up to the time of her calving. I sold her calf at three weeks old. She made two pounds of butter per week, on an average, while suckling her calf. The calf weighed 17 pounds the quarter. During the month of June, her milk averaged in weight forty pounds per day. In the same month I sold and used 22 1-2 gallons of milk from her, and she made in the same time forty pounds of butter. Her keeping was a fair pasture, and no other feed. Since the month of June the pasture has been very much dried, and she has never had anything except from the pasture. She has averaged 28 lbs. of milk per day since. Her winter feeding was meadow hay and stalk butts, and no grain or roots of any kind, and not more than 3 cwt. of English hay. All which is respectfully submitted, Rowley, Sept. 28th, 1841. JOSHUA HALE. GEORGE SPOFFORD'S STATEMENT. To the Committee on Milch Cows: GENTLEMEN-The cow which I offer for exhibition was two years old last spring. She was brought from the northerly part of the Canadas, and was purchased from the Indians. She calved the 25th day of March last, and her calf was taken off the fourteenth day of May. Her milk contains an uncommon quantity of cream. have weighed it from week to week during the summer, and she has given on an average about fourteen pounds of milk daily, having never exceeded 19 pounds, and never fallen short of 10 pounds per day-so that the I whole weight of her milk from May 14th to date is 1918 pounds. She has had no feed except what she has picked from a very dry and poor pasture. I have sold her milk during the summer, and it has been pronounced by those who used it to be the best milk they ever used. Yours truly, GEORGE SPOFFORD. Georgetown, Sept. 28th, 1841. ON EXPERIMENTS ON MANURES. The Committee on Experiments on Manures, REPORT: That in the department assigned to them, two classes of premiums were offered by the Society; the first for experiments to test the value of the various fossil and other modern manures, and the second, "for the largest quantity of a valuable compost manure, collected and brought into condition for use, on any farm within the county." The latter class comprises three premiums, viz., one of thirty, one of twenty, and one of ten dollars. In proposing so liberal and so many premiums, the trustees doubtless considered that this branch of agriculture was eminently deserving the encouragement of the Society, and that not a few competitors would be stimulated to enter the lists. The Committee fully concur in the opinion that the specific and relative value of the many new substances recommended for manures, deserve, nay, require the test of experiment before it can be expected that the farmers of Essex county, who always look before they leap, will enter very extensively on the use of such substances. The use of these will never supersede that of animal manure, where it can be obtained. But as the amount of animal manure made on most of our farms barely suffices to keep the land in the same heart from year to year, the enterprizing farmer must necessarily look to some foreign source for the means of increasing his crops, and improving the value of his land. Hence, in the neighborhood of the sea, kelp and muscle beds are seized upon with avidity, while from the stables and stercoraries of populous towns, large drafts are made to increase the manure heaps in the vicinity. But these supplies are limited in amount, and in the locality of their application. The point is soon passed where the expense of transportation causes them to be an unprofitable investment. Now if poudrette, ground bones, barilla, or other substances, be found to possess great value as manures, though the price paid for them in the first instance be large, yet from the comparative small expense at which they can be transported, and by rail-roads as well as other conveyances, they must at length find their way into general use. But before this period, our farmers must have facts spread before them-experiments, certain and satisfactory, and not contradictory, as have been many of the experiments with lime and other fossil manures. It becomes those, therefore, who report trials of such substances, to omit no circumstance which has a bearing on the subject. Especially should the nature of the soil upon which they are applied be stated, whether wet and tenacious, or dry, gravelly, and sandy. The character, too, of the season following the application should be strictly noted. And here the remark of an English writer may not be amiss, that "salt-petre and nitrate of soda, [and other mineral manures,] will always be considered as doubtful fertilizers, because they must be used before it can be ascertained, except by conjecture, what sort of season is to follow." The Committee trust that the agricultural community will not long be obliged to grope their way in the dark with respect to these manures, but that the light of practical experiment will be poured upon their path, so that they may see what is really beneficial, what uncertain, and what of no value at all. The farmer will not rest satisfied with theories of the chemist, or with experiments in the laboratory; for though these be ever so correct, he sees no actual results in the production of crops, or benefit to land, and until these be perceived, he will prefer to go on in the old way, rather than to attempt something great, and after all to come out at the little end of the horn. The Committee regret, therefore, that |