PASTURE — BUTTER — HOGS. 543 



grass cut upon the place, in the orchard and other patches not 

 in cultivation. During the Autumn and early Winter I give 

 them corn fodder and hay, also moderate feeds of grain, morn- 

 ing and evening. 



PASTURE. 



My cows are led to pasture on adjoining unimproved lands 

 every day from about the twentieth of May to the first of Sep- 

 tember, and taken in and yarded every night, receiving morning 

 and evening a liberal feed of bran or shorts, or of cabbage 

 leaves, green corn fodder, or unsalable vegetables. I Winter 

 them chiefly upon corn fodder and roots or bran, varied with 

 hay, two or three times a week, and allow them free access to 

 a straw stack, which is provided for clean bedding, and costs 

 but little more than the trouble of hauling it half a mile. My 

 cows are the best I can procure of the native breeds, and are 

 kept in such good condition that they yield from eight to 

 twelve pounds of butter per week, more than half of the year. 



BUTTER. 



The surplus which I have over what is needed in the 

 family, I sell at the highest market price, and it more than pays 

 for the actual expense of feed. I fatten calves for the butcher, 

 except an occasional heifer which I raise to take the place of a 

 cow that is getting too old for profit. 



HOGS. 



I usually fatten from two to four, seldom allowing them to 

 become more than one year old. I buy young pigs in prefer- 

 ence to raising them, but am now keeping a good breeding sow, 

 expecting to derive some revenue from the sale of pigs. I feed 

 upon the sour milk, waste fruit and melons, and the sweet corn 

 that is unfit for market ; thus they are no actual expense, but 

 furnish bacon and lard for the family. I do not allow them to 

 run at large. My favorite hog is the Berkshire. 



POULTRY. 



Aside from the value of their manure and the aid rendered 

 in destroying noxious insects, which poultry affords, I derive 



