40 KEEPIKG ONE COW. 



with all the hay she will eat. " June " will be fresh again on the 

 twentieth of this month. 



The season has not satisfied me. Kot only has the weather been 

 unfavorable, (we must expect severe summers occasionally,) but I 

 don't like sending the cow to a distant pasture which I can know 

 very little about, and where nobody knows how the other animals 

 treat her. I shall never do this again if any other arrangement 

 can be made. 



The account for the year is as follows : 



EXPENSES. I RETURNS. 



Interest at 7 per cent, on cost of 42 qts Milk sold at (i^c ........ 2 73 



cow ............................ $4.55286 qts. Skim-milk sold at 3c.... 8.58 



Hay from last year .............. 3.00J c^lpa ^rT^i 



Ha !8 ...... -O/iiflk for family.' at 6&V. " 



450 Ibs. Corn-Meal @ $1 .......... 4.50 Year's returns ................ $87.79 



ICO Ibs. Cotton-seed Meal ........ _l^Meinorandnm-Cost ...... $89.30 = 



Expended ..................... $91.30j Less sales... ...... 11.31 7799 



Less hay on hand ................. _MO' Plus purchases- 



Year's expense ................. $89.30 86 qts. Milk @ f$c ............ $ 5 59 



70 Ibs. Butter @ 30c ....... ... 21.00 



I Cow products cost family ...... .$104.58 



Comparing this with last year's statement, it will be seen that 

 although there is a small balance against the cow, she is still, all 

 things considered, a profitable part of the domestic establishment. 



MAY IST, 1878. Dissatisfied with the last year's management, 

 and seeing that there would last spring be a large surplus of fine 

 compost on hand, more profitable to use than to sell, I planned a 

 new arrangement in the autumn of 1876 for keeping my one cow. 

 First, I secured the meadow west of my lot, renting it from the 

 owner from October first, 1876, until April first, this year, for thirty 

 dollars. The acre and a half yielded about two tons of hay in 

 1876, but no rowen ; the aftermath was good, however, when I 

 came in possession. The south end of it, although in good heart, 

 was weedy and uneven. I drove some strong stakes, and ran a 

 wire fence across, in continuation of my southern boundary, thus 

 cutting off just about a quarter of an acre in rear of my neighbor, 

 south. This piece I dressed with compost made the summer just 

 preceding, and had it plowed and cross-plowed before the ground 

 froze, in preparation for a root crop. The soil is a deep, mellow, 

 sandy loam, but rich. Last spring the new root patch was plowed 

 once, well dressed from the compost pile of 1875-6, and that har- 

 rowed in. (There was enough of the same compost for my gar- 

 den, and to spare, so last June there was still on hand the manure 

 of about a year's collection put up in good shape.) The rest of 



