In 1830, Mr. Enoch Silsby, of Boston, Mass., sent to England and brought out the Cow, Boston, by Sir Charles, (1440) and Bull, Boston, (1735) both bred by Mr. Curry, of Brandon. These animals left a numerous progeny, justly celebrated for strong constitutions as well as rich handling and dairy qualities; many of their descendants are also recorded in this book.
It is not claimed the instances of Short Horn excellence herein cited are superior to many others; they are those that have been noted and the facts made public.
Beef Qualities.
In 1843 a thorough bred Heifer, Regina, three years and a half old, having nursed her calf through the summer, was in thin flesh in the fall. Her bag having been deformed by accident, and she not being in calf, was put into a distillery stall in November, fed on slops and straw, and slaughtered in April following, and her dressed weight, beef, hide and tallow, 1005 pounds; beef of the finest quality.
In 1857, Lucy, a thorough bred Heifer, was turned to pasture with reference to making beef of her, she having proved barren, being then nearly four years old. She was put into the stable in November, fed on good hay and a very small quantity of meal, it being the design to feed her a long time. On the fourth day of January following she was sold to a butcher for ten dollars per cwt., estimated at 1,000 pounds. She was slaughtered at Hartford, Conn., being four years and five months old, having eaten less than two bushels of meal in her life. Her beef was sold, all the prime pieces at twenty-five cents per pound; was a very beautiful animal, with handling properties of the very highest order of excellence.
In the month of January, 1862, Pocahontas, a thorough bred Heifer, was sold and slaughtered, then five years and one month old. Her dressed weight was as follows: hide, ninety pounds; tallow, one hundred and twenty-seven pounds; quarters, eleven hundred and eighteen pounds; total dressed weight, thirteen hundred and thirty-five pounds; was sold for eight cents per pound, making $106.80. Her feed, other than hay and grass, being twenty and one-half bushels of meal in all.
Dairy Qualities.
Lucilla, a thorough bred Heifer, at four years old, gave in June fifty-five pounds of milk on an average for one month; her greatest yield in one day was fifty-nine pounds and eight ounces, and during this month yielded fourteen pounds and eight ounces of butter in one week; her feed, grass, with three quarts of meal daily. At five years old the first week in June, her milk yielded fifteen pounds three ounces of butter, on grass only.
Dorothy, a thorough bred Cow, gave thirty-nine pounds eight ounces of milk per day, three months after calving, on grass only; and in seven days made fifteen pounds one ounce of butter, in October.
Nymph 5th, in the month of June, 1860, gave twenty-four quarts of milk daily for two weeks in succession, and made butter at the rate of two pounds four ounces per day, or fifteen pounds three ounces per week, on grass only.