TRAXSACTIOXS. 273 



sliort feed, wild grasses, mosses, bushes, &c., <S:c., seems to 

 be the universal complaint, at least, in reference to all our 

 old and long-grazed pastures. To expect cows to yield 

 large quantities of milk, butter or cheese, when grazed in 

 these old pastures during our usually hot and dry seasons, 

 from August till October, is to expect impossibilities. To 

 greatly improve the feed in these old pastures is out of the 

 question, with the present high prices of labor, guano and 

 other manures. 



The only possible remedy for the evil seems to be in 

 growing such crops for green food, or soiling, as will in 

 part supply the deficiencies of the feed in the pastures. It 

 will be safer to cultivate a variety of plants that may come 

 in in succession, than to depend upon one kind alone ; early 

 sown rape, then early York, and other cabbages ; corn sown 

 broadcast, and then the Chinese sugar cane. With a little 

 enterprise and extra labor, I have no doubt most farmers 

 could, with full feed and regularity and system in feeding, 

 readily increase the quantity of butter from a given num- 

 ber of cows, some thirty, fifty or more per cent, besides ad- 

 ding as much to its quality, over that of the same cows left 

 to shirk for themselves, in our old, dry, sunburnt pastures. 



The above opinions are not founded upon conjecture, 

 but upon the results of actual experience. At. night, 

 through the summer season, the cows should be kept tied 

 up in well aired, or ventilated hovels, well bedded with 

 sawdust, or some other litter, to act as an absorbent and 

 at the same time give the cows a " soft bed". In properly 

 arranged hovels, the cows can be kept as free of filth when 

 tied up, as if allowed to camp down in the yard, and there 

 is no racing about the yard, upsetting the milker, pail <i;c, 

 as is too frequently the case when the cattle are yarded. 

 In addition, the Quantity and quality of the summer-made 

 manure can be greatly increased, over that of the yard when 

 the cows have the range of it. 



The present and prospective high prices of the products 

 18 



