KEEPING OI^E COW. 103 



upon circumstances. All that is not needed for summer use 

 should be cured for winter, and the quantity will, generally, be 

 sufficient, if, indeed, there is not an overplus, as will quits likely 

 occur in many cases. 



BEST KIN^DS OF GRASSES. 



It is important to know what kinds of grasses are best adapted 

 to the production of milk and butter, for both summer and winter 

 feeding ,; and upon this depends, in a great measure, the profits to 

 be realized. The practice of seeding with a single kind of grass, 

 or even with a mixture of clover and timothy, is not a good one. 

 Four of the most nutritious and productive kinds of grass, includ- 

 ing timothy, white clover, and such other varieties as are well 

 adapted to the particular nature and condition of the soil, are none 

 too many to be sown together, for pasture or meadow. Five 

 quarts of timothy, three of white clover, six of orchard grass, and 

 three of red-top (if the ground is quite moist), or other grass suited 

 to the soil, are about the proper quantities and proportions for 

 general use, on an acre of land. Such a mixture, upon a rich soil, 

 will produce fully twice as much feed as any one kind upon the 

 same soil. White clover produces a greater quantity and better 

 quality of milk an<! butter than any of the other varieties of grass, 

 and the quantity of feed produced by such a mixture, will aston- 

 ish any person not acquainted with the facts. Besides producing 

 much more abundantly, they furnish something of a variety of 

 feed, which is greatly beneficial in the manufacture of both milk 

 and flesh. Weeds injure the flavor of milk and butter, and should 

 never be in the food for cows. An acre of rich soil, well seeded 

 with a good selection and variety of perennial grasses, will pro- 

 duce six tons of well-cured hay in one season; by mowing twice, 

 and, by early cutting, this can be done without difficulty. In my 

 own experience, the first mowing has given at the rate of full four 

 tons per acre, and the second, somewhat injured by drouth, two 

 tons. Some writers recommend the sowing of one or more of the 

 rank growing annuals, as being more productive; but a careful 

 consideration of<the subject, accompanied by experiments, discloses 

 the fact that the extra expense of preparing the ground and seed- 

 ing annually, overbalances any increased quantity of feed pro- 

 duced, especially when the coarser and less nutritious nature of 

 the feed is taken into the account. There is nothing suited to this 

 climate and latitude, that will answer a better purpose as food for 

 stock, than such perennials as timothy, red-top, orchard-grass, 

 blue-grass, the clovers, etc., when sown upon a rich soil, thick 



