AN IDEAL DAIRY FARM. 9 



the husk of cotton-cake is understood to possess an astringent 

 property, and may be used with advantage on farms where cattle 

 "scour." At other times, pea-meal, oatmeal, bran, and " bis- 

 cuit middlings," at the rate of 4 Ibs. or 5 Ibs. per cow per day, 

 are mixed with grains, and half a bushel of this mixture is given 

 to each cow twice a day. Besides this, they have in winter half 

 a bushel each of roots per day, and a truss of hay is divided 

 among eight of them. Cows that yield a large quantity of 

 milk have their corn specially allotted, and so have those that 

 are barren and are being fattened for the butcher during the 

 fag-end of the milking period. When a barren cow begins to 

 fall off in milk she has extra corn, and the result is that her 

 milk improves somewhat in quality, whilst she takes on flesh 

 for the butcher. 



In a subsequent chapter I shall probably have something to 

 say about the effect of improved food on the quantity and 

 quality of milk. (See pages 59 and 60.) 



Crops. 



Of the ten acres of arable land (which is friable loam, in- 

 clined to burn in a hot summer) six are generally planted with 

 yellow globe, golden tankard, and long red varieties of man- 

 gels. A variety of this particular root is grown, because some 

 seasons suit one kind, while other seasons suit another, and 

 there is no chance of telling beforehand what any season is to 

 be. In 1890 and 1891 the yellow globe made the best crop, 

 but in other years the long red have averaged 45 tons per acre, 

 when the yellow globe have averaged but 40^- tons. As soon 

 as the mangels are all lifted and the tops consumed, the land is 

 cleaned and ridged up for the winter, and the ridges are heavily 

 manured in March from the cow-sheds ; i% cwt. of nitrate of 

 soda per acre is sown before the ridges are split to cover the 

 manure. 



No fertiliser is bought save nitrate of soda, though it is 

 likely that mineral superphosphate would be found very use- 

 ful. An acre is sown with kohl rabi seed, and this supplies 

 plants to fill up gaps among the mangels, and for the head- 



