KEEPING ONE COW. 35 



THE VILLAGE COW IN NEW ENGLAND. 



BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE KEEPER. 



BY HENRY E. ALVORD, EASTHAMPTON, MASS. 



In writing upon this subject the narrative form is convenient, 

 and while it cannot be claimed that this is entirely a " true story," 

 it may be said to be founded on fact. Personal experience is my 

 basis, and whatever of fancy may be interwoven with the facts 

 would have been quite practicable, and all ought to have occur- 

 red as narrated, if all did not. 



Lot me premise by saying that I own a comfortable little home 

 in a village of a few thousand inhabitants, not a thousand miles 

 from New York, supporting my family by a moderate income 

 earned from day to day, and my occupation is such as to enable 

 me to spend an average of three hours of daylight on my place, 

 from the middle of March to the middle of October, and occasion- 

 ally a whole day besides. Thus I can make and care for my 

 garden, which fcr some years has uniformly been an excellent one, 

 quite a model, though I say it. Of this sort of work I have 

 always been very fond, as well as of domestic animals, all kinds 

 of which were familiar to me when a boy. 



MAY IST, 1875. For several years I have kept more or less 

 poultry, and sometimes a pig ; there is so much from a good garden 

 that is otherwise wasted. The ambition of the family is to own a 

 horse and a cow. It has been talked about a good deal, but we 

 are agreed that the horse would be a pure luxury, in our circum- 

 stances, and must wait. The cow I have felt would be a luxury 

 too, that is, cost more than it would produce, but on this point 

 the good wife has differed with me, claiming that it would be a 

 real economy. It has been a part of our domestic policy to use 

 milk and butter liberally, thereby keeping down the butcher's bill 

 and buying very little lard. Of the value of milk as an article of 

 food, in its natural state, and in the many ways which it can be 

 used in cooking, there can bs no doubt, especially where there are 

 young and growing members of the family. Still, I have been 

 skeptical on the economy of keeping a cow, and to convince me, 

 the help-meet recently proved, from well kept accounts, that dur- 

 ing the last two years there have been consumed by our family of 

 five persons, one thousand five hundred and forty-five quarts of 

 milk, averaging seven cents a quart, and three hundred and sixty- 

 one pounds of butter, average price thirty-three cents a pound. 



