The Nursery 109 



it is like having two milk seasons instead of one. 

 About the middle of August the nutrition in the 

 pasture begins to diminish, and then, to maintain 

 the albumenoid ratio, I have vetches ready. As 

 winter approaches, the yield of milk falls faster 

 still, and then I have rape, grown where I cut the 

 earliest plot of vetches, in May to June. This 

 year, I have had a statute acre of vetches, in four 

 succeeding plots, with catch crops following in the 

 two earlier plots, and I consider that the total 

 product of the acre is worth more to me than the 

 best ten acres of my pasture. Yet they pay for 

 the out-grazing of one wretched heifer, on 

 wretched grass, what would raise first-class food 

 for four good cows during the whole season from 

 a single statute acre. 



Now, reverse the plan, getting the calves 

 dropped at mid-summer, and compare what 

 happens. The period of natural decline in milk 

 coincides with the check in the food value of the 

 pasture during August, doubling the loss ; and at 

 the first snap of winter, the decline in milk is 

 sharper still, some cows drying up altogether, at 

 a stage in their milk season, which corresponds 

 with the renewed yield in summer from the 

 winter-calving cow. Add to this the popular 

 incapacity for feeding, and it is easy to infer the 

 ruinous difference between a cow calving in 

 February and one calving in June or July. Yet 

 nine out of ten prefer the mid-summer calf, when 

 you find them rushing to buy calves and raising 

 the prices to an unprofitable figure. While other 



