Part 17 (1/2)

GENERATIVE PRECOCITY.

A Mr. Gordon relates the following singular instance of fecundity and early maturity in the Aberdeen Cattle. ”On the 25th of Sept., 1805, a calf of five months old, of the small Aberdeens.h.i.+re breed, happening to be put into an enclosure among other Cattle, admitted a male that was only one year old. In the month of June following, at the age of fourteen months, she brought forth a very fine calf, and in the Summer of 1807, another equally good. The first calf, after working in the Winter, Spring, and Summer of 1809, was killed in January, 1810, and weighed 6 _cwt._ 3 _qrs._ 16 _lb._ The second was killed December 16, 1810, aged three years six months, and weighed exactly 7 _cwt._; and on Dec. 30, 1807, the mother, after having brought up these calves, was killed at the age of two years and eight months, and weighed 4 _cwt._ 1 _qr._ the four quarters, sinking the offal.”

MILK.

Cows are usually milked three times a day over the greatest part of Scotland, from the time of calving till the milk begins to dry up during the Winter season, when the Cows are for the most part in calf; nor is it found that they suffer by that practice in any degree: and it is the general opinion of all who adopt it, that nearly one third more milk is thus obtained than if they were milked only twice.

A Cow, mentioned by Dr. Anderson in his 'Recreations,' (vol. v, p. 309,) was milked three times a day for ten years running, during the s.p.a.ce of nine months, at least, every year; and was never seen, during all that period, but in very excellent order, although she had no other feeding than was given to the rest of the Cows, some of which were very low every winter, when they gave no milk at all.

A farmer of the name of Watkinson had a Cow that, for seventeen years, gave him from ten to twenty quarts of milk every day; was in moderate condition when taken up, six months in fattening, and being then twenty years old, was sold for more than 18. Mr. John Holt, of Walton, in Lancas.h.i.+re, had a healthy Cow-calf presented to him, whose dam was in her thirty-second year, and could not be said to have been properly out of milk for the preceding fifteen years.

Yorks.h.i.+re Cows, which are those chiefly used in the London Dairies, give a very great quant.i.ty of milk. It is by no means uncommon for them, in the beginning of the Summer, to yield thirty quarts a day; there are rare instances of giving thirty-six quarts; but the average measure may be estimated at twenty-two or twenty-four quarts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Alderney Cow, after Howitt.]

b.u.t.tER.

The Alderney Cow, considering its voracious appet.i.te, yields very little milk; that milk, however, is of an extraordinary excellent quality, and gives more b.u.t.ter than can be obtained from the milk of any other cow.

John Lawrence states that an Alderney Cow that had strayed on the premises of a friend of his, and remained there three weeks, made 19 lbs. of b.u.t.ter each week; and the fact was held so extraordinary, as to be thought worthy of a memorandum in the parish books. The milk of the Alderney Cow fits her for the situation in which she is usually placed, and where the excellence of the article is regarded, and not the expense.

Lord Hampden, of Glynde, had a cow which in the height of the season yielded ten pounds of b.u.t.ter and twelve pounds of cheese every week, and yet her quant.i.ty of milk rarely exceeded five gallons per day. The next year the same cow gave nine pounds and a half of b.u.t.ter per week for several weeks, and then for the rest of the summer between eight and nine pounds per week; and until the hard frost set in, seven pounds; and four pounds per week during the frost. Yet as a proof of the quality of the milk, she at no time gave more than five gallons in the day. To this may be added that, ”four or five years before, the same person had a fine black Suss.e.x Cow from Lord Gage, which also gave, in the height of the season, five gallons per day, but no more than five pounds of b.u.t.ter were ever made from it.” This is accounted for in a singular way; for there is a common opinion in the east of Suss.e.x, that ”the milk of a black cow never gives so much b.u.t.ter as that of a red one.”