KEEPING ONE COW. 17 



corn ; as fast as the corn is picked for use or market, the green 

 stalks are cut up, run through the cutting-box, and every particle 

 of them consumed. As soon as the corn is all harvested, the 

 ground it occupied is thoroughly fitted and manured, and then 

 sown to winter rye, to be used for soiling the next spring, after 

 which the ground is again prepared for corn. The remaining 

 fourth acre is devoted to early peas, beans, cabbages and other 

 garden vegetables. As soon as one crop is off, the ground is pre- 

 pared, and something else is almost always planted or sown; 

 consequently, on the most of this acre, two crops are produced 

 each season, except where sugar-beets are grown, or late cabbages, 

 which require the whole season to mature. With the clover on 

 the half acre, and the forage crop and roots on the acre, we have 

 not only had sufficient food for the cow the entire season, but 

 have also kept our family horse, with the exception of one load 

 of oat-straw purchased for three dollars, to mix in with the fod- 

 der corn ; this is hard to cure sufficiently to keep bright and 

 sweet through the winter, but by mixing a layer of corn-fodder, 

 and a layer of straw, it all comes out nice and bright. Besides 

 keeping both horse and cow, we have marketed from this little 

 farm, in berries, vegetables, butter, eggs, poultry, and one fat hog, 

 weighing, dressed, over three hundred pounds, four hundred and 

 sixty-eight dollars' worth of the above produce, keeping enough 

 for our own use, and salting down one barrel of pork. 



. THE BABN. 



The barn is twenty-five by thirty feet, with the stable on the 

 south side. The stall for "Spot" is five feet wide, and the 

 floor on which she stands is five feet long, with a manger two 

 feet wide in front, one and a half high next to the cow, and 

 three feet next to the barn floor. She is fastened with a wide 

 strap around her neck, attached to a chain eighteen inches long, 

 which is fastened to a staple driven into a post at the corner of 

 the stall adjoining the manger; this gives her room to turn her 

 head so as to lick any portion of her body. The floor is made 

 of two-inch plank, battened on the under side with thin boards, 

 raised from the ground ten inches in rear and one foot in 

 front; all the droppings and urine fall into the four-foot alley 

 behind. This alley has a clay floor beaten perfectly solid and 

 level. Next to the stable door is a large bin, ten by seven feet, 

 for storing road-dust or muck ; at the other end of the stable is 

 another bin, ten by eleven feet, for storing leaves for bedding. 



