Cows Come to America
“A
young fellow wantin’ a start in life just
needs three things: a piece of land, a cow and
a wife. And he don’t strictly need that
last.” [vi]
- Old Saying
The Jamestown colony was established in 1606,
and times were very tough for a number of years.
Despite several infusions of hundreds of new settlers,
by 1610 a pitiful remnant of 60 is all that remained.
It was Sir Thomas Dale’s arrival with a
hundred cows the following year that marks the
beginning of dairying in America, and the beginning
of some prosperity for the Jamestown settlers.
An old saying has it that
The cow had a pervasive influence on America’s
history and culture, and no one has written of
this more eloquently than Joann S. Grohman in
her wonderful book The
Family Cow:
“The cow is a primary
producer of wealth. She can support a family.
She not only turns grass into milk in quantities
sufficient to feed a family but also provides
extra to sell and she contributes a yearly calf
to rear or fatten. The family that takes good
care of its cow is well off.
“Cattle are the original stock
in stockmarket. Ownership of cattle has always
been a mark of wealth. This is not just because
the cow is a primary producer of wealth, adding
enormous value to grass. In a ‘which came
first, chicken or egg’ sort of way, it’s
also because only families possessed of a hardworking,
cooperative spirit are able to keep a cow, let
alone build a herd.
“The dairy cow doesn’t
ask for much but she asks every day. People who
are creating wealth with a cow either are hard
working and reliable or they get that way in a
hurry. The need to milk the cow twice a day determined
the location of churches; people had to be able
to walk there and back without disruption to the
schedules of cows. It is certainly no coincidence
that such a large number of our finest American
statesmen were born on farms. Important virtues
are nurtured on the farm, including a graphic
understanding of the relationship between working
and eating. I have come to understand and accept
the words of that great 19th Century agricultural
essayist, William Cobbett: ‘When you have
a cow, you have it all.’” [vii]
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