CATTLE. 



expenditure of labor; and others in which it pays best to expend more labor and produce 

 greater crops. It depends upon the amount invested in the farm and stock. If one cow can 

 be pastured and fed on ten acres of land costing $20 per acre, $200 in all, and produces $50 

 worth of milk in the year, then it pays to pasture and grow grass and corn for her feed. 

 But if the land costs $200 per acre, the cow must be fed from one acre or produce more than 

 $50 to be even with the other case, Now a cow cannot be fed on less than five to ten acres 

 of land without soiling either partially or wholly. But by soiling, a cow can be fed the year 

 through on two acres, and the income may be brought up to at least $50 per acre. This is 

 done by combining the production of some salable crops that will produce fodder as well, 

 with the production of milk or butter, and by so utilizing the labor that as little as possible 

 may be lost in this direction. 



I have said that one boy can attend to forty cows. I repeat it. For two years I have 

 soiled cows under somewhat unfavorable circumstances. My land was very poor 

 a run-down light soil. My only hope to make anything from it was to keep cows for the 

 production of milk and butter, and make manure to enrich the soil, both to grow feed for the 

 cows and market crops for sale. Being within easy distance of the New York market there 

 could be no better situation for such an enterprise. I kept fifteen cows. Besides the fifteen 

 cows there were three horses, seven heifers, and one bull, and some pigs. All the clean 

 ing, feeding, and attendance on these animals was done by one boy of fourteen years, for 

 one year, and the boy had considerable time to spend in field work. On this result I base 

 my statement that one boy can attend to forty cows. Butt to df&amp;gt; this, there must be con 

 venience of arrangement and labor-saving methods. 



I will begin with the morning work of the boy referred to, and follow it through the 

 day. At half-past four or five in the morning he cards and brushes off the loose dirt from 

 the fifteen cows, which is an easy job as they are well bedded and lie upon a raised platform 

 with a gutter in the rear to receive the droppings. Any manure or fouled litter that may be 

 on the platform is drawn into the gutter with a broad hoe, to leave everything clean for the 

 milker. Before he has finished, milking has begun at the other end of the stable. The boy 

 then washes hin hands in a bowl kept for the purpose in the stable, and helps to milk. In 

 one hour the milking is done; the boy helps to carry the milk to the milk -house, and returns 

 to the stable and feeds the cows. 



The feed is already in the feed passage, if it is the summer time, and five minutes is 

 ample time to do this job. One hour will then have elapsed, and while the cows are feeding 

 the boy goes to breakfast. After breakfast he returns to the stable, pumps water from the 

 spring into the water trough, and turns the cows into the yard to the water. The horses are 

 then cleaned and harnessed; the yearlings and bull are fed and watered; the stable cleaned 

 out, and another hour is thus used up. 



About half-past eight he will be on his way to the field with the one-horse wagon, where 

 he hitches on to the mower and cuts feed for the next day, leaving it on the ground; he then 

 gathers up and loads what was cut the previous day, and brings it to the barn. It is now 

 10 o clock, and the boy will clean out the horse stable and pig-pen, and wheel the manure 

 into the basement under the cow stable, and spread evenly. He may then give the cows 

 some fodder in the yard, and do odd jobs until dinner time. After dinner he goes to the 

 field and works there until half-past four, when he returns to the stable, feeds the cows there, 

 and gets ready for milking about 5 o clock. Calves and pigs are fed, and such preparations 

 as may be necessary are made for the next morning s work, and at 6 o clock the day s work 

 may be finished. After supper the stable is visited and the cows are fed again, which is _ 

 about five minutes work, and that ends the day. 



It can be readily seen that to prepare the feed in the winter will be very little more 

 work than in the summer. There are roots to cut- hay or corn fodder to cut; feed to 



