KEEPING ONE COW. 39 



MAY IST, 1877. Last spring, my neighbor, north, was willing to 

 let me have his acre and a half of meadow for pasturage, but 

 wanted thirty-five dollars for the season. I would not pay that, 

 and, instead, hired a place for " June " in a large pasture half a 

 mile or more distant, paying twenty dollars for the season, May 

 fifteenth, to October fifteenth, and four dollars to a boy for driv- 

 ing. On the ninth of May, the cow dropped a bull calf without 

 difficulty, and I gave it away the next day. No special care was 

 needed or given, except a little caution as to feeding, and on the fif- 

 teenth the cow went to pasture. She did remarkably well until 

 early in July, being in pasture during the day, and at the stable at 

 night. Then the weather grew very hot, the pasture dry, and "June" 

 began to fail rapidly in her milk; so I commenced feeding a little 

 bran, and offered hay when she came up at night. Later, a friend 

 recommended cotton-seed meal, and a hundred weight of that was 

 obtained and fed with good results, two or three pounds a day. 

 August was a month of intense dry heat, and the pasture became 

 of little use except for the exercise, shade, and water. In spite of 

 meal and hay fed at night, " Juno's " yield of milk shrank to three 

 quarts a day, and we feared she would go dry. August fifth, 

 I made the change of sending her to pasture just before six 

 o'clock in the evening, as the boy went after the other cows, and 

 bringing her up to the stable in the morning, where I kept her 

 during the day. This was an improvement, and also gave better 

 opportunity of feeding sweet corn-stalks, vegetable trimmings and 

 the like, fresh from the garden. The grain was continued through 

 August, and she ate more or less hay. At the end of the month 

 she was giving over a gallon of milk a day Rains came early in 

 September, the pasturage soon became good again, and the daily 

 mess of milk steadily increased until November. By that time 

 she was in the stable for the winter, and the treatment since has 

 been practically a repetition of last year. My root patch in the 

 garden was enlarged, as the result of last year's experience, and 

 accordingly I put eight or ten bushels of carrots into my cellar in 

 October, covering them with sand, and left a fine lot of parsnips 

 in the ground. I began feeding the carrots in Januar} 7 , two or 

 three a day, just for a relish ; gradually increased them, until in 

 February the cow received half a peck or more, and thus they 

 lasted into March. Then I dried her off, getting the last milk to 

 use March twenty-eighth. Grain feeding was stopped the first of 

 March, and she has had none since. After the cow was fully dry, 

 I began on the parsnips, and she is now getting half a peck daily, 



