CHAPTER V. 



DAIRY MANAGEMENT, THE MILK TRADE, ETC. 



UR INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS would be 

 incomplete except we touched shortly upon Dairy 

 Management. First, as to the method and cost of 

 feeding. This will depend upon the quality of the 

 soil, the proportion of arable and grass land, and the quantity 

 and description of stock kept. On grass farms the cow lives 

 entirely on grass and hay. If the land is rich, two and a half 

 acres will be sufficient — viz., one acre for grazing, one and a half 

 acres mown, and the lattermath fed. Many authorites consider 

 that the hay from one acre should supply winter's food for five 

 months ; but it is not enough for a full-grown Shorthorn cow, 

 which, when not supplied with anything else, will consume two 

 hundred weight a week, if allowed to do so. On poor land, 

 four acres will scarcely suffice for summer and winter food ; and 

 the medium soils, which range between these extremes, will feed 

 a cow on about three acres, always supposing that the cow 

 grazes in the ordinary way. Probably the most economical 

 method of consuming our food is to keep the cows tied up in a 

 well- ventilated shed, and bring the food to them, mowing the 

 grass as soon as it is sufficiently grown, and, in the case of 

 arable land, depending upon successive crops of Italian rye- 

 grass, vetches, trifolium, lucerne, cabbage, sainfoin, clover, 

 comfrey, &c. In this way we avoid that waste which is more 

 or less inevitable when cattle seek their own food. Moreover, 

 the cow is protected from flies, and lies cool and quiet ; whilst 

 in the fields they are made half wild by flies, which, in a woody 

 country especially, are very trying ; and this continual in-itation 

 powerfully affects the secretion of milk. The objection to this 



