104 KEEPING ONE COW. 



enough to completely cover the ground and to insure fine, soft hay, 

 when cut at the proper time and well cured. I have omitted red 

 clover in the mixture of grasses, because soils adapted to that va- 

 riety will produce white clover equally as well, and in about the 

 same quantity, while the white gives a much better flavor to milk 

 and butter, and an increased quantity. Blue-grass, either green 

 or cured, is excellent feed for cattle, but is unprofitable on account 

 of the small product, and that coming only in the fore part of the 

 season, failing, as it does, just at the time when fresh feed is most 

 needed. Red and white clover may be advantageously mixed with 

 the true grasses, in many localities where the soil is suitable, though 

 the clovers are likely to " run out " in a couple of years, and leave 

 their places to be filled with inferior fodder plants. 



MILKING THREE TIMES A DAY. 



During the heat of summer, fie cow should be milked three 

 times a day, at regular intervals about five o'clock in the morning, 

 one in the afternoon, and at nine in the evening. The quantity 

 of milk and butter is considerably increased, aiid the quality im- 

 proved, by this practice. The milk is injured by remaining in the 

 udder through the heat of the day, and the CQW is made uncom- 

 fortable, which, of necessity, diminishes her usefulness. When 

 cows are milked but twice a day in hot weather, the udder be- 

 comes too much heated and feverish, and the milk is in a similar 

 condition the cream seems to be melted, the milk soon becomes 

 sour, the cream does not rise well, and the butter is soft and oily. 

 The.se difficulties, almost universally attending butter-making at 

 this time of the year, are mostly overcome by the practice of milk- 

 ing three times a day, and the cow being near at hand, it is a small 

 matter. 



The length of time a cow should be milked, will depend on her 

 capabilities for giving milk a longer or shorter time. Some will 

 give milk the year round, while others will " go dry " three or four 

 months, or longer, in spite of all efforts to keep them in m;lk a 

 longer period. But, as a rule, it is better for a cow to go dry 

 some eight weeks, giving time for fleshing up a little, and gaining 

 strength for another season. The cow will be more vigorous, and 

 the flow of milk more abundant afterward. 



