V.] KEEPING COWS. 75 



ed. A broad trough, or box, fixed up at the head of 

 the cow, is the thing to give her food in ; and she 

 should be fed three times a day, at least ; always at 

 day-light and at sun-set. It is not absolutely necessa- 

 ry that a cow ever quit her shed, except just at calving 

 time, or when taken to the bull. In the former case 

 the time is, nine times out of ten, known to within 

 forty-eight hours. Any enclosed field or place will 

 do for her during a day or two ; and for such purpose, 

 if there be not room at home, no man will refuse place 

 for her in a fallow field. It will, however, be good, 

 where there is no common to turn her out upon, to 

 have her led by a string, two or three times a week, 

 which may be done by a child only five years old, to 

 graze, or pick, along the sides of roads and lanes. 

 Where there is a common, she will, of course, be turn- 

 ed out in the day time, except in very wet or severe 

 weather ; and in a case like this, a smaller quantity 

 of ground will suffice for the keeping of her. Accord- 

 ing to the present practice, a miserable " toilet" of 

 bad hay is, in such cases, the winter provision for the 

 cow. It can scarcely be called food ; and the conse- 

 quence is, the cow is both dry and lousy nearly half 

 the year ; instead of being dry only about fifteen days 

 before calving, and being sleek and lusty at the end 

 of the winter, to which a warm lodging greatly con- 

 tributes. For, observe, if you keep a cow, any time 

 between September and June, out in a field or yard, 

 to endure the chances of the weather, she will not, 

 though she have food precisely the same in quantity 

 and quality, yield above two-thirds as much as if she 

 were lodged in house ; and in wet weather she will 

 not yield half so much. It is not so much the cold 

 as the wet that is injurious to all our stock in England. 

 132. The Manure. At the beginning this must 

 be provided by collections made on the road ; by the 

 results of the residence in a cottage. Let any man 

 clean out every place about his dwelling ; rake and 

 scrape and sweep all into a heap ; and he will find 

 that he has a great deal. Earth of almost any sort 

 that has long lain on the surface, and has been trod* 



