130 KEEPING O^E COW, 



KEEPING A COW IK A VILLAGE STABLE. 



BY ORANGE JUDD, FLUSHING, L. I. 



A business man of New York, living in one of the neighboring 

 villages, being troubled to get good milk for young children in his 

 family, took our advice the latter part of the winter and, so to 

 speak, went into the dairy business on his own account. The re- 

 sult will be instructive to tens of thousands of families in cities 

 and villages. He has no pasture grounds, the only convenience 

 being a roomy stall in a carriage barn, with opportunity for the 

 cow to sun herself and take limited exercise in a small area, say 

 fifteen by twenty feet, at the side of the barn, and this was seldom 

 used. The stall is kept clean and neat, with fresh straw litter, 

 and the cow has remained in excellent health and vigor. Chewing 

 her cud and manufacturing milk seem to give all the exercise 

 needed. Her feed has been bale hay, cut in a small hay-cutter, 

 and mixed wet with corn-meal, bran, and shorts, with some un- 

 cooked potato parings, cabbage leaves, left over rice, oatmeal, etc., 

 from the kitchen. 



A laborer is paid one dollar a week to milk and feed and brush 

 her night and morning, and take care of the stable, and he is al- 

 lowed any excess of milk she gives over twelve quarts a clay. He 

 prepares a mess for her noon feed, which is given by one of the 

 boys at school when he comes home to lunch. The cow is a grade, 

 probably three-fourths Jersey and one-fourth common blood. Her 

 milk is rich, yields abundant cream, and, as the owner's family 

 say, <4 Is worth fully double any milk we ever got from the best 

 milk dealers." One neighboring family gladly takes six quarts a 

 day at seven cents a quart, and would willingly pay much more if 

 it were asked, and other families would be happy to get some of it 

 at ten cents a quart ; but six quarts are kept for home use, and it 

 is valued far above seven cents a qaart, and worth more than that 

 amount in the saving of butter in cooking, making puddings, etc. 

 So it is a very low estimate to call the whole milk worth seven 

 cents a quart. No one could deprive our business friend or his 

 family of their good, home produced milk, if it cost ten or twelve 

 cents a quart. An accurate account is kept of the feed ; the man 

 in charge orders at the feed store anything he desires for the cow, 



