KEEPING ONE COW* 



ally increased, so that during the summer she received 

 daily, fed in two parts, morning and night. Later in the season 

 corn-meal was added to the ration, and at times oats were substi- 

 tuted for the bran. In the winter, eight pounds of meal and bran, 

 half and half, mixed, was the daily allowance. Buying hay in 

 small quantities I managed to keep both rowen and clover hay on 

 Land, some of it very fresh, and could thus vary the dry food. 

 Also, for variety, I frequently gave one cut feed a day, moistened. 

 Bssides this, I obtained and worked in, during the summer, a lot of 

 half-ripe oats, in the straw, which had lodged and were cured like 

 hay. The food, although thus often changed, was changed care- 

 fully. 



In my garden I made a large parsnip bed, and followed my 

 earliest peas with carrots, so that in the fall there were several 

 bushels of these roots. The carrots were buried in the garden, a 

 mellow loam, and the parsnips left in the ground. The former 

 were opened during a thaw in February, and a few fed to "June" 

 each day, lasting until the end of March ; by that time I could get 

 the parsnips and they have just given out. When I began the roots 

 the grain was gradually withheld and she has had none since Feb- 

 ruary. These roots have had a most apparent effect, giving her 

 coat a bright, thrifty look, and she is in fine condition for calving, 

 which is expected in ten days. But the roots made it hard to 

 dry off the cow. She was shrinking in milk fast when we began 

 on the carrots, then started up again and was giving about three 

 quarts a day in March, when the milk (and especially the cream) 

 began to have a sharp, unplaasant, bitter taste, and we soon had 

 to give up using it. It then took a fortnight to dry her off, which 

 was done by lessening ths roots, milking not quite dry, then only 

 once a day, and once in two days. Water has been offered three 

 times a day, through the year, all she would drink, salt has always 

 been within her reach. All summer, and every mild, dry day in 

 wintei, June" has passed some hours in the stable yard. A large 

 amount of bedding has been necessary, and for this I have used 

 the waste hay, the rakings of the yard last autumn, the scrapings 

 of the garden walks, garden litter, and the leaves from a row of 

 maple trees in front of the house, carefully saved for the purpose. 

 So much in the stall, "June" has required more personal care, and 

 it has been made a rule to rub and brush her body enough to keep 

 it clean and free from dead skin. But I never use a harsh card ; 

 nothing is better for rubbing than a piece of old seine or very coarse 

 bagging. Everything about the cow, too, is kept clean and sweet. 



