116 KEEPING ONE COW. 



anything, than the others, and, throughout the season, the yield of 

 milk, from the same keeping, was essentially increased over the 

 yield of the previous year. I never disclosed the secret, however, 

 until I was grown up. But I acquired a very useful lesson which 

 I applied in my practice long before the theory that it was best to 

 milk a cow previous to calving was generally adopted by owners 

 around me. 



TETHERING. 



A professional friend of mine is the owner of three horses and 

 two imported cows, all of which are kept in very high condition. 

 He informs me that for several years, with the exception of one 

 year, two and one half acres of land have furnished all the hay 

 consumed by the five animals, together with pasturage for one 

 cow ; the other cow being dry during the summer, is pastured in 

 the country. His land is naturally good grass land, being moist, 

 well drained, and perfectly smooth. The apparatus for tethering 

 his cow, when at pasture, consists of a pole or joist, the short end 

 of which is weighted, swiveled on an iron upright, standing, when 

 in position, about four feet above the ground, giving the apparatus 

 the appearance of a model of an old-fashioned well sweep. The 

 halter being attached to the upper end, is always above her back 

 while feeding. This arrangement allows the cow the range of a 

 circuit thirty feet in diameter. The upright is removed to the arc 

 of the circle at morning and noon. In this manner she traverses 

 the length of the lot, four hundred feet, in fourteen days, when 

 she is brought back to the starting point, to repeat the journey 

 again. In this manner, twelve thousand feet of land is made to 

 furnish pasturage for one cow during the entire summer, and be- 

 sides this, she has no feed whatever. The cow is always in good 

 condition, and the ground never appears very closely cropped, and 

 I have no doubt that were she restricted to one quarter of an acre, 

 or ten thousand eight hundred and ninety feet, she would still be 

 better fed than most cows that are at pasture. The droppings of 

 the cow are daily removed from this range, so that she always 

 has a clean feeding ground. All the manure made by the five 

 animals is annually returned to this lot, and, in addition, the owner 

 informs me, once in three years he gives it a dressing of a ton of 

 ground bone. 



PEARL MILLET. 



After reading of Mr. Peter Henderson's experiment with Pearl 

 Millet, as described in the "American Agriculturist," I deter- 



