294 DAIRYING PASTURE AND FOOD 



A cow pasture is better undulating than flat, provided 

 the banks are not so steep as to cause accidents. It is a 

 mistake to have pasture all thoroughly drained as if it were 

 arable land ; unless, indeed, it be arable land soured by 

 stagnant water. It ought to be dry enough for cows to walk 

 over the surface without breaking the sod and poaching it ; 

 but the hollows should be left moist enough to encourage the 

 growth of food-plants and grasses different from those that 

 occupy dry land. The moist parts, in conjunction with other 

 land, provide variety of food during the whole grass-season, 

 and are particularly serviceable in a very hot summer, and at 

 all times in autumn. Deep drains are better than open 

 surface-drains, where the land is good enough to warrant the 

 expense of their construction. Large open ditches, especially 

 with steep banks, are most objectionable in cow-.pastures, as 

 there is always the danger among horned cattle of their being 

 pushed or horned (Scotch dunched) into them. 



The water supply is of premier importance. The smallest 

 want of water is seen immediately in diminished flow of milk. 

 The water must be pure as well as abundant, for when con- 

 taminated by decaying organic matter, more particularly if 

 this be of animal origin, the milk and its products do not 

 keep well, and are liable to be injured by objectionable flavours 

 and smells. A pure running stream, with a hard bottom and 

 gradually sloping sides, is the best possible watering-place ; 

 but where drainage or river water is not plentiful, rain water 

 should be safely stored in ponds or in underground tanks in 

 times of rain against the dry season, and in such a way as 

 to preserve its purity. A stagnant pool in which cows can 

 walk and stand is most undesirable. Their solid and liquid 

 excrements are dropped into it, and it soon becomes filthy. 

 Cows are fond of standing in water in hot weather, to keep 

 cool and to avoid flies ; but the habit is not only injurious, 

 inducing rheumatism if animals go in while heated by running, 

 but it also involves waste of feeding time, which results in 

 loss of produce. 



Natural herbage from good old pasture, being an assem- 

 blage of the best perennial grasses, nutritious weedy herbage, 

 and leguminous plants, yields the finest quality of dairy 

 produce ; grass forced by high manuring or by irrigation is 

 watery and immature ; and when that or " seeds " grass is 



