50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



and, if the cows can satisfy themselves on the part that 

 grows the most palatable herbage, they will leave the less 

 desirable untouched. If these places are not fed off in the 

 beginning of the season, they will be entirely neglected, and 

 left to grow up to ferns and brush. To get the most from 

 the average Massachusetts pasture, a sufficient number of 

 cows to feed it closely should be turned on it quite early in 

 the season. The cows should always have a feed of hay at 

 night for the first few days they are in the pasture ; then, to 

 insure sufficient feed in all exigencies of weather and season, 

 a supply of green or soiling feed should be planned for. 



A regular system of feeding is best in summer, as well as 

 in winter; and the cows should have a daily feed in the 

 stable, larger or smaller, as the supply of pasture feed varies 

 in abundance. Sometimes a small feed of grain is all that is 

 necessary ; but abundant provision for green feed should be 

 made, for New England droughts have no settled habits, 

 and may put in an appearance at any time from May to 

 November. If the pasture feed is luxuriant, any surplus 

 of green feed can be dried or ensilaged for winter use. The 

 green feed should be fed at night, so that the cows may go 

 to the pasture hungry ; otherwise they will lie down and 

 spend the early morning in chewing the cud, and when they 

 are ready to go to feeding the sun may be so hot on warm 

 days that they will prefer lying in the shade to feeding short 

 pastures, and so get little good from them. A grain ration 

 in the morning would not have this effect. 



Those who have had experience in the dairying business 

 know that, when the cows once drop off in yield, it is im- 

 possible to bring them back again. It makes no diflerence 

 how carefully you attend to them, you can never get them 

 back again. If you keep them at their best, they will go 

 through a season and furnish a very much larger yield than 

 they will when a hap-hazard plan is followed. If there is 

 plenty of food in the pasture, I would bring the cows into 

 the stable every night, and feed them something, if not more 

 than a pint of bran. If you are in the habit of leaving the 

 cows in the yard and food becomes short in the pasture, you 

 keep putting off feeding them, and the evil is accomplished 

 before you know it. My point is to have a regular method 



