404 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



our previous chapters. He can raise a heifer to two and a half, 

 or three years old, at an expense of thirty to fifty dollars, accord- 

 ing to his locality, and she then proves altogether a good, satis- 

 factory cow, for the next ten or twelve years; or, if she does 

 prove a failure for the dairy, she can be readily fatted, and pay 

 the cost of her rearing in a good carcass of beef at the next 

 autumn. But if the directions be strictly followed, the chances 

 are scarcely one in ten that she does not prove a good one 

 much better than the average of those he can buy, as cows 

 usually run. 



We know that the impression with most of our dairymen has 

 been, that they can buy cows cheaper than to raise them, and 

 thus turn all the cattle food of their farms over to their milk 

 cows. Such, however, has proved not to be the fact. In process 

 of time, when the division of labor among our stock breeders 

 and raisers shall become so systematized that men on the cheap 

 western lands shall go into cow breeding as a business, and raise 

 choice dairy cows for market, it may be that dairymen may 

 depend upon purchasing, with some assurance that they can do 

 so satisfactorily. But, as things now are, they cannot, and the 

 sooner they adopt the plan of breeding and rearing their own 

 cows, the sooner will they be rid of the pestilent mode to which 

 they are now subjected, of buying what they do not want. We 

 are satisfied that, with less labor and expense, they can be sup- 

 plied, on their own farms, with the very best material with which 

 to prosecute their business to advantage, and at infinitely less wear 

 and tear of patience than they are now annually subjected to. 



MILKING. 



All persons reared to farm labor should know how to milk a 

 cow. So they do, generally, as far as drawing the milk from 

 the udder is concerned. But that is only a part of the process. 

 We have often seen this important labor so dirtily, bunglinglv, 

 carelessly, and cruelly done, that we have wished that a milking 



