DAIRY-COW. 145 



Cows require a high, well-ventilated stable, clean litter, 

 good water, daily currying, and to be foddered three times 

 every day while enclosed. 



In winter, when they are stalled, the food of cows should 

 be as varied as possible. Ruta-bagas and turnips may be 

 mixed with potatoes, parsnips with pumpkins and squashes, 

 cabbages with corn-meal ; indeed, both cabbages and tur- 

 nips should be qualified with potatoes or meal, as they 

 otherwise impart an ill flavor or watery properties to 

 milk. Vegetables should always be cut, and a part of their 

 food during the winter should be boiled or steamed, and 

 have occasionally about two ounces of salt mixed with it. 

 Sweet apples boiled in water, and mixed with coarse bran 

 or Indian meal, may be given, where apples are plenty, with 

 advantage. Carrots give the finest color and flavor to milk, 

 and consequently to butter. 



After the cow has eaten her carrots or turnips, or what- 

 ever fodder she may have given her, a little oat-straw or 

 hay should be thrown into her crib. This should be done 

 after each meal. Keep the stable scrupulously clean. 



The cow carries her young about forty weeks. The calf 

 is quietly removed on being born, before the cow recognizes 

 her, as separation always distresses her. The cow is then 

 milked, and some meal-gruel given her. The first milk of 

 the cow is fit only for the stomach of the calf. 



If you wish to economize your milk, and the calf is in- 

 tended for veal, the usual practice is to allow her but one 

 teat (if the cow is a generous milker) for the first few days, 

 and to give the calf meal and porridge. Still it is poor 

 economy to stint the calf, and she should be fed three times 

 a day regularly, and at the same hours. When the calf is 

 four weeks old, she requires, almost all the cow's milk, or 

 the last drawn from several cows. A little chalk is some- 

 times given to them in their cribs, and about half an ounce 

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