BRITISH DAIRYING. 



my own experience in times gone by, and, indeed, are coming 

 still. Mr. Barham has ample faith in the dictum that if you 

 feed the land the land will feed the cattle ; and he carries it 

 out to the utmost, or nearly the utmost expedient limit. 



A Special Point. 



The number of cows in milk on the farm averages about 40 

 all the year round ; there are also four Shire horses, two of 

 them mares in foal, several roadsters for running the milk vans, 

 and a very breedy mare with a foal at her heels. About the 

 live stock I shall have more to say presently. Well, for these 

 animals there are 30 to 40 acres of pasture, while the meadows 

 cover 70 to 80 acres; that is, in a grassy season, 30 acres of 

 pasture will suffice, leaving 80 for mowing. As I have said 

 before, the meadows cut very heavy crops, as meadows will if 

 they be dressed every winter with manure from cake and corn. 



Mr. Barham evidently believes in having a large accumula- 

 tion of hay on the premises in times when other people's hay is 

 cheap in the market ; but he takes care that the accumulation 

 is all of his own growing, for the hay grown on well-farmed land 

 is above average hay in nutritive value. I do not remember 

 ever seeing before, on a farm of 120 acres, such a wealth of big 

 hayricks, of 40 to 50 tons each, six or seven of them. When 

 meadows are manured as these are at Finchley, and when the 

 cows constantly eat cake, corn, brewers' grains, and, in winter, 

 roots, it is quite feasible to accumulate a large stock of hay 

 against the inevitable time of scarcity ; and half a dozen big 

 ricks of good hay, framed by the oak fence of a rickyard, form 

 a picture which any dairy farmer may regard with satisfaction. 

 They are like having a good balance at one's bank. 



Mr. Barham does not concern himself much about silage ; he 

 looks upon it as not the right sort of thing to produce milk 

 from, and not a pleasant thing to use. Brewers' grains and 

 roots, supplemented by corn and cake, suit his purpose better ; 

 and he is in no fear of tainted milk, as he would be if silage 

 were given to the cows. 



