KEEPING ONE COW. 117 



mined to make a trial with it myself. Accordingly, last year, I 

 sowed an area of eighteen square rods with it, in drills, fourteen 

 inches apart; six rods were set apart to be cut and dried for fodder. 

 The product of the other twelve rods was fed green. On the 

 twentieth of June, a month after sowing, the growth measured 

 about three feet in bight. On this date we commenced cutting 

 it, and feeding to the cow all "she would eat. She ate it with a 

 greater apparent relish than any other green feed that had been 

 given her. The cutting was finished on the twenty-fifth of July, 

 on which day the last cutting measured about four feet in hight. 

 The second cutting was commenced on the twenty-seventh of 

 July, and finished on the twenty-second of August, the growth 

 averaging nearly three and a half feet. The third cutting was 

 commenced on the twenty-third and finished on the thirty first of 

 August. The growth was about two feet at the beginning of the 

 cutting, but not more than ten inches at the finish. The fourth 

 and last cutting was commenced on the sixteenth, and finished on 

 the twenty-first of September, after which the ground appeared 

 exhausted, and no further growth was made. The twelve rods 

 cut and fed green yielded feed sufficient for seventy-five days, 

 aside from her usual ration of bran or oil meal, while the product 

 from the six rods, cut and fed dry, only two cuttings being made, 

 was sufficient to feed her for thirty -four days, making a total feed 

 for one hundred and nine days, from eighteen rods of ground ; at 

 which rate it would require sixty and one-quarter rods of ground 

 to furnish forage for a year. 



AN EXCELLENT COMPOST. 



The only stable manure I use on my crops is that made by my 

 cow. All my other fertilizers are artificially produced. In the 

 course of the year, in prosecuting my regular business, I render some 

 two hundred thousand pounds of tallow. This is all done by boiling 

 it with sulphuric acid. The acid attacks and decomposes the ani- 

 mal tissue, leaving the rendered tallow floating on its surface. A 

 part of the dissolved animal tissue, together with the bones that 

 are sometimes smuggled in with the rough fat, settles to the bottom ^ 

 of the tanks, and a part remains dissolved in the acid. This spent 

 acid, together with the deposit in the bottom of the tanks, is the 

 source of all my nitrogen, except what may be in the manure from 

 the cow, as well as a portion of my phosphorous. I have occasion 

 to use considerable of the potash of commerce in some of my 

 manufactures. For my land, I make of this a saturated solution, 



