74 KEEPING COWS. [No. 



heap upon the ground in a round form, and let it rise 

 up to a point. Lay over it a little litter, straw, or dead 

 grass, about three inches thick, and then earth upon 

 that about six inches thick. Then cut a thin round 

 green turf, about eighteen inches over, and put it 

 upon the crown of the heap to prevent the earth from 

 being washed off. Thus these heaps will remain till 

 wanted for use. When given to the cow, it will be 

 best to wash the Swedes and cut each into two or 

 three pieces with a spade or some other tool. You 

 can take in ten bushels at a time. If you find them 

 sprouting in the spring, open the remaining heaps, 

 and expose them to the sun and wind ; and cover 

 them again slightly with straw or litter of some 

 sort.* 



131. As to the place to keep the cow in, much will 

 depend upon situation and circumstances. I am al- 

 ways supposing that the cottage is a real cottage, and 

 not a house in a town or village street ; though, 

 wherever there is the quarter of an acre of ground, 

 the cow may be kept. Let me, however, suppose 

 that which will generally happen ; namely, that the 

 cottage stands by the side of a road, or lane, and 

 amongst fields and woods, if not on the side of a com- 

 nion. To pretend to tell a country labourer how to 

 build a shed for a cow, how to stick it up against the 

 end of his house, or to make it an independent erec- 

 tion ; or to dwell on the materials, where poles, rods, 

 wattles, rushes, furze, heath, and cooper-chips, are all 

 to be gotten by him for nothing or next to nothing, 

 would be useless ; because a man who, thus situated, 

 can be at any loss for a shed for his cow, is not only un- 

 fit to keep a cow, but unfit to keep a cat. The warmer 

 the shed is the better it is. The floor should slope, 

 but not too much. There are stones, of some sort or 

 other, every-where, and about six wheel-barrow-fulls 

 will pave the shed, a thing to be by no means neglect- 



* Be sure, now, before you go any further, to go to the end of 

 the book, and there read about MANGLE WURZLE. Be sure to do 

 this. And there read also about COBBBTT'S CORN. Be sure to do this 

 before you go any further. 



