KEEPING ONE COW. 41 



the work I was able to do myself. My root-garden, laid out in 

 rows running north and south, was divided as follows: eight 

 square rods of parsnips next to neighbor, south, on the slope, 

 where they caught the wash from his garden ; twelve square rods 

 of carrots and ten rods of mangolds ; in the point west to the 

 stream I put sweet corn at first, and followed it with strap-leafed 

 turnips, ten square rods. Without going into the details of root- 

 culture, which any one who has made a good garden knows all 

 about, I put into my house cellar last fall fifty-two bushels of 

 Long Orange Carrots, and over forty bushels of Long Yellow 

 Mangel Wurzels (these monstrous, twisted, forked roots are awk- 

 ward things to measure, but there must have been a ton or more 

 in weight), left hi the ground from twenty to twenty-five bushels 

 of Hollow-crowned Parsnips, and harvested thirty-six bushels of 

 English Turnips. This was more than I had bargained for. I see 

 now that roots enough might have been raised in my old garden, 

 and the parsnips would have done much better there, but I sold 

 twenty bushels each of carrots and turnips for more than enough 

 to cover all expenditures for seed and hired labor. 



A year ago to-day^, I turned " June " into her new pasture of an 

 acre and a quarter ; the grass was then starting well, and I pre- 

 ferred to have the change gradual. She ate more or less hay until 

 the end of the month. Doors and gates were so fixed that she 

 could be in stall, yard, or pasture at pleasure, and could drink at 

 the stream bordering the meadow. 



CALYING AND AFTEK-TKEATMENT. 



On the eighteenth of May, her bag began to swell, and became 

 feverish. A quart or two of watery milk was drawn at intervals of 

 eight hours for the next three days, and the udder was bathed as 

 often in tepid water, and gently but thoroughly rubbed with goose 

 oil, in which camphor-gum had been dissolved. Each day, also, 

 she was given a quarter of a pound of Epsom Salts, dissolved in a 

 quart of " tea " made from poke-weed root (Phytolacca decandrd), 

 which all druggists now keep in store ; this was administered as a 

 " drench," from a bottle, her head being held up while she swallow- 

 ed it. On the morning of the twenty-second, being two days over- 

 due, she calved, having a hard time, but producing without help a 

 fine large heifer. Very soon after, I gave her a bucket of cool (not 

 cold) water, in which was stirred a quart of wheat bran, a half 

 pound of linseed-meal, previously scalded, and a handful of pulver- 

 ized poke or garget root. This mess was repeated at noon, and 



