KEEPING ONE COW. 



KEEPING A COW ON CAPE COD. 



BY M. T. T. NICKERSON, SOUTH DENNIS, MASS. 



We live in a section of country where nature has not been lavish 

 with her gifts. Our soil is sandy and only produces paying crops 

 by high cultivation. Farming with us comes near to being one 

 of the lost arts. We are not tillers of the soil. Living, as we do, 

 within sound of the Atlantic surf, as it beats its everlasting meas- 

 ure upon our coast, we, from associations of birth and early train- 

 ing, plow the Ocean for a living, the furrows frequently stretching 

 from pole to pole, or to the opposite side of the globe. Few, very 

 few, keep cows. A large proportion of our people do not keep 

 any, and it is not common to find many that have more than one. 



We keep a good grade Jersey, and will give our way of keeping 

 one cow, having learned long ago, that stock of any kind paid 

 for good care. Keeping a lot of cattle or hogs, or poultry, and 

 simply feeding what we happen to have, or what we can buy 

 cheap, leaving them to shift for themselves in cold and stormy 

 weather, or giving them wet uncomfortable stables, always results 

 in disease to the stock and loss to the owner. 



We sow as early in the spring as the ground is in condition to 

 work, forty rods with a mixture of oats and peas, and forty rods 

 in spring rye. We commence cutting our oats and peas as soon 

 as the peas begin to bloom. Where we have a good stand, a rod 

 per day, divided in three feeds, morning, noon, and night, is gen- 

 erally enough. As soon as we have cut about ten rods we plow 

 under the stubble, and plant Early Minnesota Sweet Corn rows 

 two and one half feet apart hills two feet in the rows, leaving two 

 and three stalks in a hill. The next ten rods we serve in the same 

 manner. If our rye is now grown enough to cut with profit we 

 commence feeding it, and cut the balance of our oats and peas, 

 and cure them for winter. 



If our rye is not fit to cut for soiling, we continue to use our 

 oats and peas until it is, and then cure for winter what is left. As 

 soon as the last of our oats are off, we plant about four rods with 

 beets (mangel wurzel). We prefer the Globe varieties, as the 

 yield is better on our soil. The balance of our oat-and-pea ground 

 we sow with Hungarian grass. 



As soon as we have cut ten rods of our rye, we manage as with 

 our oats, turn under the stubble and again plant sweet corn. The 

 earlier the variety the better. We prefer the Early Minnesota. As 



