12 KEEPING ONE COW. 



meals a day until corn comes in. L. B. Arnold, in "American 

 Dairying," says of corn : " When too thickly planted its stems and 

 leaves are soft and pale, its juices thin and poor. If sown thin or 

 in drills, so that the air and light and heat of the sun can reach it, 

 and not fed until nearly its full size, it is a valuable soiling plant." 

 Now Mr. Waring, in " Farming for Profit," says : " It is a common 

 mistake when the com is planted in drills to put in so little ssed 

 that the btalks grow large and strong, when they are neglected by 

 the cattle, the leaves only being consumed. There should be forty 

 grains at least to the foot of row, which will take from four to six 

 bushels to the acre, but the result will fully justify the outlay, as 

 the corn standing so close in the row will grow fine and thick." 

 My experience tells me that Mr. Waring is ri^ht ; any way, my 

 cow will not eat the coarse stalks which will grow when the corn 

 is planted too thin. 



The one-third acre reserved for mangels, must be the perfection 

 cf richness, well drained, and manured. If the soil is deep, you 

 can plant them on the flat, but if the soil is shallow, plant them on 

 ridges, the ridges thirty inches apart (I always plant them in that 

 way) ; then thin out the plants to fifteen inches apart. Ten to 

 twelve hundred bushels may be grown on an acre, but the ground 

 must be properly prepared. In storing them, they require to be 

 very carefully handled, as the least bruise hastens decay, and we 

 want to keep them fresh and good until April, when our cow 

 ought to give us a calf. 



WEANING THE CALF. 



I thought I had tried almost everything relating to the care of 

 cows, but when I undertook to wean a five-weeks' -old calf, I found 

 my education in that respect sadly neglected. I risked a farmer's 

 wife how I was to manage. "Oh," she said, "just dipyourfingers 

 in the milk, and let the calf suck them a few times, and it will 

 soon learn to put its nose in the pail and drink." It sounded 

 simple enough, so I took my pail and started for the barn, where 

 that wretched animal slopped me all over with milk, bunted me 

 round and round the pen, until I was black and blue, sucked the 

 s!tin off my finger, and wouldn't drink. After trying at intervals 

 for two days, the calf was getting thin, and so was I. In despair, 

 I left the pail of milk, giving that calf a few words of wholesome 

 advice. When I went back two hours after, the calf was standing 

 over the empty pail, with an expression on its face, that I trans- 

 lated into an inquiry, as to why I hadn't left that pail there before. 



