KEEPING ONE COW. 43 



the cow spent most of the daytime standing in the stream where 

 shaded by trees and grazed at night. The pasturage improved 

 again befors the corn gave out, so quite a nice piece of winter 

 fodder was saved from the piece. Then all through September 

 there was every day more or less of green-corn husks, carrot and 

 beet tops, other vegetable and fruit trimmings, clean refuse from 

 house and garden, good food for the cow, so that again one acre 

 of pasture would have sufficed. During October, the carrots and 

 mangolds were harvested, and their tops gave the cow more than 

 she could manage. I also began feeding turnips the last of Octo- 

 ber, a few with mangel tops at first, increasing until she ate more 

 than half a bushel a day, tops and all. Before the ground froze, 

 the turnips were piled in the barn, without trimming, and covered 

 with hay ; were kept safely until the last were fed, November 

 twenty-eighth. The problem of winter feeding really came up the 

 first of November. I had a large supply of roots on hand of my 

 own raising, and the hay and grain to buy. So I went to the books, 

 and after studying both practice and science, decided upon the 

 following daily rations for the next six months : November first to 

 May first, fifteen pounds of meadow rowen and clover hay, in about 

 equal parts ; one pound each of coarse wheat bran and corn-meal, 

 mixed. During November, one-half bushel turnips and two 

 pounds cotton-seed meal; December and January, one-half bushel 

 carrots and one and one-half pound cotton-seed meal ; February and 

 March, one-half bushel (or more) of mangels and one pound cot- 

 ton-seed meal ; April, one-half bushel parsnips and one and one- 

 half pounds cotton-seed meal; also, one hundred pounds addi- 

 tional hay, and my corn-stalks, for February and March. 



This plan has been carried out with little variation. Of course 

 the food has not been accurately weighed daily. The grain por- 

 tions, kept in barrels, have been dipped out with tin cups, but have 

 held out just about as expected ; the quantity of hay and roots 

 has been guessed at. 



THE METHOD OF FEEDING 



and other work at the stable during the winter has been this : 

 Between six and seven o'clock A. M. stall cleaned, cow brushed off, 

 bedding and absorbents fixed, the milking done, and then a feed 

 of six or seven pounds of chaffed hay, slightly moistened, and the 

 bran and meal mixed with it. After this, a bucket of water left 

 in the stall, except in the coldest weather. The bucket is fixed near 

 the feed-box, so it can not be tipped over, and it has generally been 



