Chapter V: Part 5

Alfalfa needs no top-dressing with fertilizers and manure, but simply a severe cross-harrowing with a very sharp-toothed harrow, bearing the weight of a man. The more the Alfalfa is torn and split up the better it will grow. This harrowing should be done in spring before it commences its first growth. After growing a few years, the stools project, in many places, above the surface of the ground. If an implement could be devised for the purpose of cutting off all these old stalks just below the surface, then seed lightly, giving a good harrowing, the plants would be renewed, and would thicken up rapidly, for wherever a stalk or root is cut off, dozens of new shoots spring up in its place.

However, I advocate a change of diet for brutes as well as mankind, and therefore take for the family cow a half acre of most excellent ground. I will suppose that one half of it—that is a quarter acre—is well set in Alfalfa. The rest I would have plowed twice, very deep, smoothed and laid off in drills for carrots, which, at the proper season (with us in February or March), I would enrich in the furrows with any well-rotted manure. For Alfalfa almost any good soil suits, for I find it adapts itself to various soils and endures a great deal of rough treatment, but in order to get the best results it should be well treated. I prefer a moderately sandy soil, which is naturally moist. On dry, mellow ground, it will send down a tap-root ten feet. I have drawn roots out of very sandy soil when digging post holes that would measure six feet. They seek moisture during dry weather, and although I have had Alfalfa die down, the ground being parched and cracked, yet when the fall or winter rains begin, it springs up in a few days.

As soon as the Alfalfa comes in, feed it alone, salting as suits one’s own idea. When the first scattering blooms appear I would cut the remainder—namely, that which had not been cut each day for the cow. I would then cure it as rapidly as possible, and put it under cover, sprinkling salt over it. I now advocate and practice feeding the cured hay in preference to the green. By the latter you obtain a greater flow of milk, but with the former I consider the milk richer, and this is the experience of dairymen with whom I have conversed.

A cow learns to eat the cured fodder almost as readily as the green, and all danger of bloat is obviated. Some may think because I am in California that irrigation makes some difference, but my Alfalfa grows without it. I cut mine six times last summer, 1879, and it was an exceptionally dry and hot season. Our rains fall mostly in winter, and that has to do us until the next winter.

Now, as to the cow, I would place her in a corral or lot, we’ll say, of one-fourth to half an acre in size, giving her a comfortable house or shed for winter, in which I think she should be fastened by a closed door in cold rainy weather. At other times she should be allowed the run of the lot, having access to good fresh water at least twice a day. Shade trees for summer’s hot sun are indispensable. In this lot or corral you have all the manure where it can be gathered up daily or weekly, and composted or housed, ready to be spread on the ground for future crops. Some would say a cow should be curried every morning. They certainly do enjoy it, but many California farmers never saw such a thing done. I think it should be done just before the animals begin to shed their old coats; afterwards I see little use of it.

PERMANENT GRASS AS SOILING CROP.

BY P. S. NORRIS, ANGELICA, N. Y.

The keeping of one cow seems to be generally regarded as a matter of so little importance, and one so simple in its nature, that even persons of low intelligence can scarcely fail of success. But to keep a cow in such a manner as to receive the greatest return for the least possible expense in labor and money, requires the most careful study of the nature and habits, endurance, needs, and the productive capabilities of the animal, and involves scientific principles which are deeper and broader than those generally applied to the keeping of stock of any kind.

If the average quantity of milk be ten quarts per day during the year, and the expense twenty cents per day, the milk will cost two cents per quart, and if the milk is worth three cents per quart, there is a net profit of fifty per cent upon the cost of keeping, or ten cents per day. But if the quantity of milk be eight quarts per day, and the expense twelve cents, the milk will cost only one and a half cents per quart, or twelve cents per day. Then three cents per quart for the milk will leave an actual profit of one hundred per cent upon the cost of keeping, or twelve cents per day.

One acre, and even something less, put in good condition, well fertilized and properly seeded, will be ample for a pasture, and will furnish plenty of nutritious feed, upon which, with proper care, the cow will yield an abundant flow of rich and delicious milk; while one-third of an acre of similar soil will produce sufficient hay for the winter. The pasture should be divided into two parts, the cow to be kept a few days in each alternately, with plenty of pure water and shade. Where land is high, as it always is in towns and villages of any size, the practice of “soiling,” as it is usually termed, is the most profitable way to keep a cow. For this purpose, a small yard, some twenty to thirty feet square, perhaps, or of such size as can be afforded, may be provided, containing an open shed—the more open the better for the summer—only so that it will shelter the animal from the heat of the sun and the storms. The yard and shed should be kept as clean and dry as possible, or the cow will become ill. Plenty of pure water is indispensable at all times. A comfortable place for the cow to lie down is very important. Sawdust, forest leaves, old straw, or other convenient and cheap litter will answer for bedding; or, if the ground be smooth, clean and dry, that may be sufficient. The manure is to be carefully collected and placed under another shed, or other convenient place under shelter provided for the purpose, and, to prevent bad odors, the heap should receive, once in two or three days, a light covering of muck, leaves, sods, weeds dug up in the garden or elsewhere, or fine earth—almost anything that will rot—and thus not only prevent the unpleasantness and unhealthfulness of such odors, and the loss that would result from their escape, but add largely to the size and value of the manure heap. Now, have about two-thirds of an acre of land, highly manured, and, with the exception of about fourteen square rods, well seeded with a variety of nutritious grasses. This quantity of land, if properly enriched and cultivated, will keep a cow the year round, and keep her well, without purchasing any feed. A good rack or other arrangement in the shade is necessary, in which to feed, so that nothing shall be wasted. Then, quite early in the season, the grass upon this rich soil will be large enough to be cut and fed to the cow. While the ground is sufficiently moist, in the fore part of the season, the grass will grow very rapidly, and, when the soil becomes a little too dry, about half a bushel of plaster, or twice as much lime, or two or three bushels of wood ashes, scattered upon it, will usually renew the vigor and freshness of the crop, which may be repeated with benefit two or three times before the end of the growing season. Another excellent fertilizer, which may be applied during the summer, is the waste water from the house, such as soap suds, dish water, and any other slops that are to be thrown away. These should all be saved and scattered upon the grass from pails, if no better method is ordinarily practicable, and it will pay a person many times over for the trouble. A light top-dressing of manure from the cow-yard or shed will be necessary every year, or every second year certainly, applied in the fall, or early in the spring.

As soon as the grass has fairly got into blossom, it should be immediately cut and well-cured for winter use, unless it may be necessary to save a small quantity to feed until that portion which was first cut for the cow shall be ready to cut again. Grass should never be allowed to stand until the seed has formed, as just previous to that time it is more nutritious than at any other period. Hay cut thus early will make much more and better milk, and keep a cow in better condition than that which is cut later. A portion of the grass can be mown a second time for hay, and still leave enough for green feed until foddering time. The exact proportion of the crop to be made into hay must, of course, depend upon circumstances. All that is not needed for summer use should be cured for winter, and the quantity will, generally, be sufficient, if, indeed, there is not an overplus, as will quite likely occur in many cases.

BEST KINDS OF GRASSES.

It is important to know what kinds of grasses are best adapted to the production of milk and butter, for both summer and winter feeding; and upon this depends, in a great measure, the profits to be realized. The practice of seeding with a single kind of grass, or even with a mixture of clover and timothy, is not a good one. Four of the most nutritious and productive kinds of grass, including timothy, white clover, and such other varieties as are well adapted to the particular nature and condition of the soil, are none too many to be sown together, for pasture or meadow. Five quarts of timothy, three of white clover, six of orchard grass, and three of red-top (if the ground is quite moist), or other grass suited to the soil, are about the proper quantities and proportions for general use, on an acre of land. Such a mixture, upon a rich soil, will produce fully twice as much feed as any one kind upon the same soil. White clover produces a greater quantity and better quality of milk and butter than any of the other varieties of grass, and the quantity of feed produced by such a mixture, will astonish any person not acquainted with the facts. Besides producing much more abundantly, they furnish something of a variety of feed, which is greatly beneficial in the manufacture of both milk and flesh. Weeds injure the flavor of milk and butter, and should never be in the food for cows. An acre of rich soil, well seeded with a good selection and variety of perennial grasses, will produce six tons of well-cured hay in one season; by mowing twice, and, by early cutting, this can be done without difficulty. In my own experience, the first mowing has given at the rate of full four tons per acre, and the second, somewhat injured by drouth, two tons. Some writers recommend the sowing of one or more of the rank growing annuals, as being more productive; but a careful consideration of the subject, accompanied by experiments, discloses the fact that the extra expense of preparing the ground and seeding annually, overbalances any increased quantity of feed produced, especially when the coarser and less nutritious nature of the feed is taken into the account. There is nothing suited to this climate and latitude, that will answer a better purpose as food for stock, than such perennials as timothy, red-top, orchard-grass, blue-grass, the clovers, etc., when sown upon a rich soil, thick enough to completely cover the ground and to insure fine, soft hay, when cut at the proper time and well cured. I have omitted red clover in the mixture of grasses, because soils adapted to that variety will produce white clover equally as well, and in about the same quantity, while the white gives a much better flavor to milk and butter, and an increased quantity. Blue-grass, either green or cured, is excellent feed for cattle, but is unprofitable on account of the small product, and that coming only in the fore part of the season, falling, as it does, just at the time when fresh feed is most needed. Red and white clover may be advantageously mixed with the true grasses, in many localities where the soil is suitable, though the clovers are likely to “run out” in a couple of years, and leave their places to be filled with inferior fodder plants.

MILKING THREE TIMES A DAY.

During the heat of summer, the cow should be milked three times a day, at regular intervals—about five o’clock in the morning, one in the afternoon, and at nine in the evening. The quantity of milk and butter is considerably increased, and the quality improved, by this practice. The milk is injured by remaining in the udder through the heat of the day, and the cow is made uncomfortable, which, of necessity, diminishes her usefulness. When cows are milked but twice a day in hot weather, the udder becomes too much heated and feverish, and the milk is in a similar condition—the cream seems to be melted, the milk soon becomes sour, the cream does not rise well, and the butter is soft and oily. These difficulties, almost universally attending butter-making at this time of the year, are mostly overcome by the practice of milking three times a day, and the cow being near at hand, it is a small matter.

The length of time a cow should be milked, will depend on her capabilities for giving milk a longer or shorter time. Some will give milk the year round, while others will “go dry” three or four months, or longer, in spite of all efforts to keep them in milk a longer period. But, as a rule, it is better for a cow to go dry some eight weeks, giving time for fleshing up a little, and gaining strength for another season. The cow will be more vigorous, and the flow of milk more abundant afterward.

THE ELLSWORTH OR “BARRE” SYSTEM OF FEEDING.

BY D. D. SLADE, CHESTNUT HILL, MASS.

My own experience, as well as that of others, has taught me that a cow properly fed twice a day, will give more milk, and be in better condition than when fed three times, or more frequently. This plan, which is known as the “Barre” system of feeding, may be adopted throughout the year, although it has been chiefly applied to the winter months, in the region where it has been most extensively pursued.

The poorest quality of fodder is given first, at the commencement of each meal, and before this is entirely consumed, another foddering of a better quality is placed before the cow, and finally a third, of the best hay. After this is consumed, roots, grain, etc., may be given immediately. In this way, the animal employs on an average about two hours at a meal—which occurs only twice during the day, with an interval of from six to seven hours between the morning and evening. Water, always slightly warmed, in cold weather, is offered at once, and it will be found that the cow will not drink so freely after she has begun to chew the cud. No food should be given between the meals, which should be at regular hours, and served with punctuality. So long as she chews her cud, which in the well-fed cow is about six hours, we can rest assured that her digestive organs have work enough before them, and that we cannot reasonably call upon them to do more.

The why and the wherefore of this system of feeding, which we heartily advocate, are well told in the words of Mr. Ellsworth, the originator. “The idea that a cow needs only two meals a day during the winter season, as long as she is kept upon hay or other dried fodder, notwithstanding the fact that she will eat much oftener, when obtaining her living from the pasture, may appear to the casual observer, to be contradictory to itself; but on a closer investigation we shall notice a rational, and I believe satisfactory reason for it. Of all the elements of which grass is composed, by far the larger part is water, which must render it much more bulky than an equal amount of hay, and for this reason, more is required to supply the wants of the system. During the season, therefore, when the cow must live by her own exertions, she must labor most of the time to obtain the requisite amount of nourishment, which she is not required to do while in the barn. We must not forget, also, that pastures in general are kept down so close during the greater part of the summer, that only by continual labor can her wants be satisfied.”

The same rules are applicable to the soiling of the cow during the summer months, the only difference being that green food is given in the place of dry. This may consist of rye, oats, barley, millet, or Hungarian grass, corn, English grass, etc., cut while in the milk. It will frequently be found that a proportion of dried hay will also at times be highly relished, and may be essential to allay any excessive looseness of the bowels, which may be produced by the succulent food.

During the time of eating, the milking and other necessary work may be done about the cow house, so that time may be thus economized.

As to the requisite amount of food, it may be taken as a safe rule, that a milch cow demands in food, three per cent of her weight. An average cow, then, will require from eighteen to twenty pounds of hay, in addition to a peck or two of roots per day, or the equivalent of this amount in green food during the summer months.

If the hay is good, and has been properly cured, or if rowen can be given, then there will be little or no demand for grain in any form. If otherwise, from one to two quarts of Indian meal, with two quarts of shorts per day, should be fed out, if we are to expect a good flow of milk. We have found excellent results to follow the practice of stirring the meal and shorts, or a portion of these, into a bucket of warm water, and offering this mixture immediately after the animal has consumed her dry food, and before any roots are eaten. This extra amount of fluid will be greedily taken, in this way, without any interference with a liberal supply of water at the end of the meal. Salt, at all times, should be accessible to the cow, and perhaps this article may be best supplied by placing a large lump of rock salt in the manger, to be licked as her wants may require.

Taking Central New England, as before remarked, as the latitude of experimentation, it will be found that one square rod of oats, Hungarian grass, barley, rye, and similar grasses, in proper condition, growing on land in a high state of cultivation, is amply sufficient for a cow for one day. Or in other words, to be within perfectly safe bounds, and considering the chances of partial failure, we may say, that under the conditions above mentioned, forty square rods, or one quarter of an acre, will produce ample food for one cow for thirty-five days. On this basis, upon one acre can be grown soiling material sufficient to keep a cow through the year, allowing also, a liberal amount of roots. How is this to be done?

We may assume that a man takes possession of a place on the first of April, which is the customary time in New England. Let him select an acre of the land most suitable to the purpose in view. Let him set apart forty square rods, or one quarter of it, for summer soiling, twenty square rods for the growth of roots, and the remaining one hundred square rods for crops, to be properly cured for winter use. The land having been thoroughly prepared, that is, in high tilth, sow as early in April as possible, on ten square rods, oats, or spring rye, at the rate of four bushels to the acre. This will be fit to cut, for summer soiling, in the first week of July.

On the fifteenth to twentieth of April, sow the next ten rods in a similar manner. This will be ready to cut about the fifteenth of July. On the first of May, sow oats or barley on the next ten rods, which will be fit for cropping August first.

On the tenth to the fifteenth of May put in the next five rods in drills, flat corn at the rate of three bushels to the acre, and a week later the remaining five rods are to be treated in a similar manner. This will give succulent food up to September.

As soon as the first ten rods of land, which were cleared of oats by the tenth of July, has been again prepared properly, sow Hungarian grass at the same rate as before stated. Do the same also with the next lot, cleared of oats by the first of August, putting in barley, however, in place of millet, as this is not injured by the early frosts. Barley may also be sown on the lot which was cropped about the tenth of August, or if this grain has already occupied the land, we may substitute corn, using a stimulating fertilizer to give it a rapid growth. In this way, we shall have a succession of green food up to November, augmented also by the tops of the roots when thinned out or when harvested. The larger varieties of the sweet corn may be substituted for the flat, and is perhaps better relished, although not affording perhaps so large a yield.

The twenty square rods devoted to root culture must receive attention as early in the season as possible—certainly by the first of May. The ground having been deeply plowed or spaded, and thoroughly manured, should be made perfectly level. The large sugar beet and the mangold wurzel are the most valuable for the milch cow, and may be sown at the rate of about six pounds to the acre. During their growth, careful attention should be given to them by keeping them free from weeds, and the surface of the ground loose and fresh. A good yield would give an average of about six hundred and fifty bushels to the acre, which will be eighty bushels for the plot of twenty square rods, and allowing the cow one-third of a bushel per day for the eight months of dry food. The roots should be secured from frost by placing them in the cellar or in deep pits well protected. The hundred rods which is to be devoted to the winter feeding, must be put down to oats at the same time, and exactly in the same manner as the first ten rods for summer soiling. Cut these when in their most succulent condition, which will be probably from the fifth to the tenth of July. Cure them well, and house or stack them in a suitable manner. The land having been again suitably prepared, the preceding crop must be at once followed by Hungarian grass, a bushel and a half to the acre, which will be fit for cutting as soon as the head is formed, which will be in about six weeks from the time of sowing. Cure it as far as possible in the cock, which will render it more nutritious.

The one hundred square rods being again cleared and put in order during the autumn, sow winter rye at the rate of three bushels to the acre. This will be ready to cut in the spring, and will afford green food much earlier than in any other way for soiling. If there is a surplus of any of the green crops, convert it into hay for winter use.

From the two croppings of the one hundred square rods, treated in the above manner, a fair yield will be a ton and a quarter of oats cured as hay, with an equal amount of Hungarian grass. Thus we have two and one-half tons of fodder, which will be amply sufficient for one cow through the eight months in which she is not receiving the green crops, allowing her the amount of hay per day which we have stated as necessary in conjunction with the roots and grain, in the quantities before mentioned.

Of course, where the feeding commences in April, if the place be taken in that month, food must be bought by the owner to last until the summer soiling in July. In the succeeding year, however, the crop of winter rye will come in early, to be used in conjunction with the dried fodder of the previous summer.

COW STABLED IN THE TOWN.

Again, there are cases where a single cow may be kept with profit and advantage, and that, too, in perfect health, without the agency of land, in the immediate suburbs of a town or city, or even within the very precincts of a city. It is requisite, for these conditions, that provision should be made to allow the animal to breathe fresh air, and to enjoy a certain amount of sunlight daily. Without these none should be kept. Exercise is not essential to the well-being of the milch cow; she is an animal of repose, and if she is offered every effort to ruminate, will be perfectly contented, and will do her duty. Attention to the best possible condition of the skin, as regards cleanliness, is very important when so closely housed.

The food which, under these circumstances, must be purchased, can be obtained with much economy, on account of the propinquity to the places of sale; and although we do not advocate the use of brewers’ grain, or of any other cheap articles which are too often substituted for the natural food of the cow, viz., grass, green or dry—a small quantity, especially when supplemented by the vegetable refuse from the house table, may be advantageously employed conjointly with good hay.

Finally, it may be said that no animal better repays care and attention, and can with more truth be called the poor man’s friend, than the cow.

FACTS REFUTE PREJUDICE.

BY D. B. CHAPMAN, NEW LONDON, CT.

When I was a boy it was the prevailing opinion in the section of country where I was raised, that it was better that a cow should be rather thin in flesh at the time of calving than otherwise. There was but very little grain fed in winter, to any stock in that section, except to working oxen. Cows in milk were fed hay, while dry cows, and young stock, were fed on straw or corn stalks. The result was that at the time of calving, cows were generally thin enough to conform to the popular idea of a proper condition. Cows giving a large yield of milk were scarce enough in those days, and it was very seldom that you would meet one that would yield ten quarts of milk per day (beer measure), during the flush of feed. My faith in the theory, that a cow should be thin in flesh at the time of calving, received a very severe shock, very soon after I became the owner of one, and experience and observation have only served to confirm my doubts of its correctness.

In the spring of 1848, I purchased my first cow. I came across her some twenty miles from home. She had just calved, and displayed a very large udder. Her owner warranted her to give twelve quarts of milk per day, and to be, in every respect, a good family cow. The cow suited my fancy in every particular, save one, she was too fat. But having nine points in her favor, I did not feel disposed to forego her purchase for the want of the tenth. When I drove her home, the adverse criticism on her was immense, solely on account of her condition. Said an old farmer to me: “That is a fancy cow, just suited for some rich man, who can afford to indulge his fancy, and expend for her keeping, twice as much as the value of her milk. You will find that you have got to keep her in just the condition that she is now in, or you will get no milk. If you do not keep her in this condition, you will find she will shrink in milk, before she shrinks in flesh, and she won’t give half as much, on the same keeping, as she would if she was no fatter than my cows.”

I must own, that after listening to this and that criticism in the same strain, I felt a little sick of my bargain, and would have willingly sold her at a discount, but no purchaser appearing, I concluded to make the best of a bad bargain.

My purchase was made April second. Twelve hundred pounds of hay furnished her with feed until the eighteenth of May. I then hired a pasture, for fifteen dollars, where I kept her until November, when I sold her.

I found that, although the cow lost flesh under my keeping, and a good deal of it too, she gave quite as much milk as she was recommended to give, and at the time she was sold, her account stood as follows, no account having been made of the milk used in the family, then consisting of three persons:

CR.

By sale of Milk, at 6 cents per quart $74.20
do. Calf 5.00
do. Cow, November 1 18.00
------ $97.20

DR.

To purchase, April 2d $35.00
do. Hay 12.00
do. Service 0.50
do. Pasture 15.00
------ $62.50
------
Net Profit $34.70

I was so well pleased with this result, notwithstanding the unfavorable circumstance of having started with a fat cow, that the next spring I repurchased her at the same price paid the spring previous. But instead of a fat cow then, she was thin enough to afford a good study of animal anatomy. She had had no other feed than corn stalks, for the two months that she had been dry, and was as much thinner than when I sold her; as she was at that time thinner than when I first bought her. In fact, she had been subjected to a gradual system of depletion for a year.

I sold her on the first of October, following, when her account stood as follows, no account having been made of the milk used in the family, numbering three persons, as before:

DR.

To purchase $35.00
Hay 12.00
Service 0.50
Meal 6.00
Pasture, the same as the previous year 15.00
------- $68.50

CR.

By sale of Milk, at 6 cents per quart $51.30
do. Calf, two weeks old 3.00
do. Cow, October 1 12.00
------- $66.30
------
Loss $2.20

This difference in profit was occasioned solely by the difference of the yield of her milk in the two seasons. The yield for the second season averaged full three quarts per day less than the first, and, at the same time, the quality of the milk was deteriorated in the same proportion as the quantity.

This was my first lesson, acquired by experience. At the same time, I learned another by observation. The two combined added materially to my stock of knowledge.

A neighbor of mine, a German, in the month of January, 1849, purchased a heifer, three years of age the coming spring. She had been kept poor from the time she was weaned. At two years of age she had dropped her first calf, and through her first season of milk had given but little promise as a milker. She had just been dried when he purchased her, and he, without any previous knowledge of the care of cows, commenced feeding her according to his instincts. He fed her six quarts of meal per day, in addition to all the hay she would eat. This system of feeding continued until about the twenty-fifth of March, when she calved. At the time of calving she was in better condition than much of the beef sold in our markets.

About the same time that his cow calved I repurchased mine. The feed of the two, thereafter, was very nearly alike, except that his cow had a feed of six quarts of meal per day, while mine had only two. His fat cow doubled on the quantity of milk that she had given the year before, when she came in poor, while my poor cow, with extra feed, fell short more than a third of her yield of the year before, when she came in, in good condition.

At that time I do not remember to have ever seen a work on chemistry, and knew nothing of its application; but the knowledge acquired, led to the formation of a theory in my mind, on which I have since acted, and which, I believe, has a scientific basis, to wit: “The fat laid on the body of an in-calf cow, is a store from which nature draws a large portion of the material which increases and enriches the subsequent flow of milk—a store from which she, by legitimate processes, produces oleo-stearine in the shape of butter.”

Acting upon this theory, I have endeavored to apportion to my cows a uniform daily ration, occasionally varying the material, which, although it may not sustain the cow in full flesh during the greatest flow of milk, seems to renew it during the period of the lesser flow, and render them in good condition at the time of calving. This system of uniform feeding, to my mind, pays better than it does to feed heavily while in milk, and then lightly when dry, because it furnishes a large resource of fat, on which to draw at a time when to consume sufficient food to sustain the entire flow of milk capable of being produced, might imperil health; and I feel quite sure that a certain richness is thereby imparted to the milk, that no amount of feeding will draw from a poor cow. In the autumn of 1877 I purchased a grade heifer reputed to be seven-eighths Jersey and one-eighth Ayrshire. She had dropped her first calf the spring previous, when only two years old. She was then represented as yielding three quarts of milk per day, and due to calve April the sixth. To account for the small yield of milk, her owner said she had been kept on poor pasture and milked by careless boys, who had not been particular to milk her clean.

That she had been kept on poor pasture her appearance abundantly confirmed. She came into my possession during the root harvest, in November. I commenced by feeding to her three bushels of rutabaga tops, or of beet tops, three pounds of corn meal, together with all the dry hay she would eat each day.

ONE YEAR’S EXPENSES AND RETURNS.

The cost of keeping the cow from November first, 1877, to June first, 1878, was as follows:

150 pounds of Indian Meal, at $1.40 $ 2.10
380 ” Ship Stuff, at $1.35 5.13
110 ” Oil Meal, at $1.30 1.82
4140 ” Roots, at $8.00 per ton 16.56
3392 ” Hay, at $20 33.92
1 peck Salt 0.25
------
$59.78

The cost from June first to November first, 1878, was as follows:

1530 pounds of Hay, at $20 $15.30
225 ” Oil meal, at $1.30 2.92
470 ” Bran, at $1.35 6.35
Salt 0.25
Service 2.00
----- $26.82
------
Making a total cost of $86.60

for the year, counting nothing for the garden truck consumed during the summer and autumn. This, with the exception of the corn stalks, would have been consigned to the compost heap, had she not eaten it, so that its only value to me was its value for compost. But allowing that for the purpose of feed it was equal in value to its equivalent in hay, and that my winter ration of hay had been continued through the year, her total cost of keeping would have been, in round numbers, one hundred and four dollars.

In the roots fed to her during the winter, were included the waste and parings of vegetables used in a family of ten persons, which was sometimes no inconsiderable item. These were always thrown into the feed basket, and just enough fresh roots sliced to make the required weight. After the roots stored in the cellar were exhausted no account was made of this item. I make this statement simply to show that every item of feed was entered at its full value, into the cost of the keeping.

Now for the other side. Although the cow was quite thin when I bought her, yet under this system of care and feeding, she was estimated to have gained two hundred pounds in weight by the time she calved, on the fifteenth of April, 1878, and of this weight she had not lost more than seventy-five pounds at the end of the year, November first. When I bought her she was represented as yielding three quarts of milk per day. Her yield of milk weighed on the first day exactly five and three-quarter pounds. At the end of three weeks, it had increased to eleven pounds per day, and continued at this figure with scarcely any interruption until the first of February. It then rapidly fell off, until by the twenty-fifth of that month, she yielded only seven pounds per day. I then commenced milking her once a day, and the milking on the fourth day after weighed only four and a half pounds. I continued milking her until the fifteenth of March, when I stopped, the weight of the last milking being only one and three-quarter pounds. On the tenth or April she calved. I let her calf suckle her until it was four weeks old, when it was sold for veal. On the seventh of May her yield of milk was twenty-two pounds. It averaged about that figure until she got a full feed of pea vines in June, when it ran up as high as twenty-seven pounds. In July it fell off some, and continued to run from twenty to twenty-three pounds until the middle of August. It then gradually diminished to the first of November, at which time she was yielding thirteen pounds of milk per day. I find, by referring to my diary, that her total yield of milk from the time I purchased her until she calved, was one thousand and sixty-seven pounds, equal to four hundred and eighty-four quarts, reckoning thirty-four ounces to the quart. Milk was then selling, in this vicinity, at six cents per quart, making a value of twenty-six dollars and four cents.

From the time she calved until the first of November, her total yield of milk was three thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven pounds, equal to one thousand seven hundred and seventy-seven quarts, at five cents, eighty-eight dollars and eighty-five cents; sale of calf, six dollars and fifty-cents; making a net profit of seventeen dollars and thirty-nine cents, to say nothing of the growth of the cow, or the value of her manure, which was an ample compensation for the care of keeping.

Had I estimated the value of her milk at the retail price, I should add one cent per quart for summer, and two cents per quart for winter. The next year this same cow, with the increase of the equivalent of one and a half pounds of meal per day, to allow for her increased growth, and a slight deviation in the matter of feed during the summer, whereby she obtained more green food, of which I shall speak hereafter, increased her profit almost forty per cent.

GARGET.

Of one thing I am very careful, and that is, not to allow the inflowing milk, previous to calving, to harden in the udder, and in all my long experience, in owning cows, I have never had a case of garget. When I was a boy about twelve years of age, my father purchased a very large milker for those days. I noticed that the right hind quarter of her udder was much smaller than the other, and yielded a correspondingly less quantity of milk. After she had been dried off, and the time approached for her to calve, I observed that this same quarter of her udder became very much more distended than the others. Her whole udder was very much distended, but this quarter excessively so. As her period of calving was delayed, and her udder became more inflamed, producing, evidently, great pain to the cow, I asked the privilege of milking her, and was denied. At the same time I was given to understand that it was the worst possible thing that could be done for the cow; that it was necessary that her udder should become thus distended, in order to give it the capacity to contain the flow of milk after calving; that should she be milked before calving, the yield after calving would be very much lessened, etc. By the time she calved, her udder was one indurated mass, and that particular quarter of it so much inflamed that she could not bear to have the calf touch it. In the course of time, however, by copious applications of cold water, and various liniments, the inflammation was reduced, but that particular section of the udder, which had been sufficiently distended to hold her whole yield, was shrunken to its old dimensions, and was no larger than when I first saw her. When the time approached for her to drop her next calf, I took the responsibility of clandestinely milking her, so that when she calved there was no inflamed udder, there was no fussing with liniments. Its four quarters were now evenly developed; the only difference was the former shrunken quarter was larger, if anything, than the others, and, throughout the season, the yield of milk, from the same keeping, was essentially increased over the yield of the previous year. I never disclosed the secret, however, until I was grown up. But I acquired a very useful lesson which I applied in my practice long before the theory that it was best to milk a cow previous to calving was generally adopted by owners around me.

TETHERING.

A professional friend of mine is the owner of three horses and two imported cows, all of which are kept in very high condition. He informs me that for several years, with the exception of one year, two and one half acres of land have furnished all the hay consumed by the five animals, together with pasturage for one cow; the other cow being dry during the summer, is pastured in the country. His land is naturally good grass land, being moist, well drained, and perfectly smooth. The apparatus for tethering his cow, when at pasture, consists of a pole or joist, the short end of which is weighted, swiveled on an iron upright, standing, when in position, about four feet above the ground, giving the apparatus the appearance of a model of an old-fashioned well sweep. The halter being attached to the upper end, is always above her back while feeding. This arrangement allows the cow the range of a circuit thirty feet in diameter. The upright is removed to the arc of the circle at morning and noon. In this manner she traverses the length of the lot, four hundred feet, in fourteen days, when she is brought back to the starting point, to repeat the journey again. In this manner, twelve thousand feet of land is made to furnish pasturage for one cow during the entire summer, and besides this, she has no feed whatever. The cow is always in good condition, and the ground never appears very closely cropped, and I have no doubt that were she restricted to one quarter of an acre, or ten thousand eight hundred and ninety feet, she would still be better fed than most cows that are at pasture. The droppings of the cow are daily removed from this range, so that she always has a clean feeding ground. All the manure made by the five animals is annually returned to this lot, and, in addition, the owner informs me, once in three years he gives it a dressing of a ton of ground bone.

PEARL MILLET.

After reading of Mr. Peter Henderson’s experiment with Pearl Millet, as described in the “American Agriculturist,” I determined to make a trial with it myself. Accordingly, last year, I sowed an area of eighteen square rods with it, in drills, fourteen inches apart; six rods were set apart to be cut and dried for fodder. The product of the other twelve rods was fed green. On the twentieth of June, a month after sowing, the growth measured about three feet in hight. On this date we commenced cutting it, and feeding to the cow all she would eat. She ate it with a greater apparent relish than any other green feed that had been given her. The cutting was finished on the twenty-fifth of July, on which day the last cutting measured about four feet in hight. The second cutting was commenced on the twenty-seventh of July, and finished on the twenty-second of August, the growth averaging nearly three and a half feet. The third cutting was commenced on the twenty-third and finished on the thirty-first of August. The growth was about two feet at the beginning of the cutting, but not more than ten inches at the finish. The fourth and last cutting was commenced on the sixteenth, and finished on the twenty-first of September, after which the ground appeared exhausted, and no further growth was made. The twelve rods cut and fed green yielded feed sufficient for seventy-five days, aside from her usual ration of bran or oil meal, while the product from the six rods, cut and fed dry, only two cuttings being made, was sufficient to feed her for thirty-four days, making a total feed for one hundred and nine days, from eighteen rods of ground; at which rate it would require sixty and one-quarter rods of ground to furnish forage for a year.

AN EXCELLENT COMPOST.

The only stable manure I use on my crops is that made by my cow. All my other fertilizers are artificially produced. In the course of the year, in prosecuting my regular business, I render some two hundred thousand pounds of tallow. This is all done by boiling it with sulphuric acid. The acid attacks and decomposes the animal tissue, leaving the rendered tallow floating on its surface. A part of the dissolved animal tissue, together with the bones that are sometimes smuggled in with the rough fat, settles to the bottom of the tanks, and a part remains dissolved in the acid. This spent acid, together with the deposit in the bottom of the tanks, is the source of all my nitrogen, except what may be in the manure from the cow, as well as a portion of my phosphorous. I have occasion to use considerable of the potash of commerce in some of my manufactures. For my land, I make of this a saturated solution, and then dry it, by stirring into it a mixture of equal parts of ground plaster and sifted coal ashes. This, in a few days, becomes sulphate of potash, lime, and coal ashes, at least I judge that it does, for it loses all its causticity.

In preparing my fertilizers, I mix the product of my tanks with loam, near the place to be planted; this, in the spring, is dug over and mixed with the manure from the stable. The effect of this mixing is to make the manure very fine in a very short time. After plowing, this compost is spread upon the land, and harrowed in. I then follow with ground bone, which costs me, delivered at my place, bolted, twenty-five dollars per ton, at the rate of twelve hundred pounds to the acre, and with the potash mixture, at the rate of two hundred and forty pounds to the acre, which is also harrowed in. In distributing the potash, I distribute more of it where I intend to plant peas or potatoes, and less where I intend to plant corn, squashes, and turnips. In distributing the bone, I reverse this. It is on a light, sandy loam, fertilized in this manner, with an excess of nitrogen, no doubt, that I expect, the coming summer, to raise enough feed for a cow on less than half an acre of ground. The land on which my experiment was tried last year was a turned sod that had had no manure of any kind for more than ten years. This year it will be tried on land that was manured as above last year.

A WOMAN’S SUCCESS AND EXPERIENCE.

BY MRS. MARY L. TAYLOR, NORTH VERNON, INDIANA.

My success in keeping the family cow is mainly due to the superior sense of that animal in coming into being in a latitude where a cow can live with as little care and protection, and where the face of unplowed and unharrowed nature furnishes as much food for her as any other; latitude thirty-nine.

My cow is a scrub—cost twenty dollars; had her calf on the fourteenth of February, 1879, and we complimented the saint on whose day she came by calling her Valentine.

HOW WE MANAGED THE CALF.

I put the calf in a pen made in the fence corner and covered with a few old boards, and let the cow in to her every night—first taking from the cow what milk we needed for our family of four persons. I left her with the calf all night, and in the morning milked what the calf had left for me. This was not much after the first two weeks, and after two more weeks I only wasted my time at milking in the morning. I parted with the calf at three months old for eight dollars, and laid this sum by as my capital to draw against for the cow’s winter keeping.

My farm is half an acre in extent, and all of it, except the space occupied by the cottage and a small garden, is lawn, and is well set in Blue-grass, with a sprinkling of Orchard-grass.

SUMMER MANAGEMENT.

I sold my lawn mower and put a short rope around my cow’s horns. To this I fastened the chain of an old chain-pump. The pump had served its day, and was now laid aside. This old pump-chain was about sixteen feet long, and through the end of it I stuck an old iron garden stake into the ground, and staked my cow out on the lawn. In the chain I put rings one yard apart, and by running my garden stake through a ring nearer or farther from the rope around the cow’s horns, I could give her a larger or smaller circle to graze on, and so let her eat very near to evergreens and other shrubbery without danger of having them injured. She pulled up the stake several times at first, but the remedy for this came of itself. In my desire to make her very secure, I had tied the rope around her horns too tightly and made her head sore. She ceased pulling, and though her head soon got well, she has never since pulled up the stake; so that my mistake in fastening the rope, though it caused me self-reproaches at the time, really proved a blessing in the end, for had she formed the habit of pulling the stake up, I should have been forced to discontinue staking her out for fear of her destroying the shrubbery. My cow seems to have a spite at shrubbery proportioned to its beauty, and this spite seems intensified against such plants as she cannot eat. A young cedar, for instance, she will never pass without trying to demolish it with her horns. By means of the rings in my chain, I could stake her so that she could eat up to the edge of an evergreen without being able to touch it with her horns, and I found the horns the only part that the shrubbery had to fear, for she never yet has tried to destroy anything with her heels.