CROPS AND PROFITS 



A small pasture-close, with strong fencing — 

 with gates that will not swag, and with abun- 

 dance of running water, supplied from the 

 hills, serves as an exercising ground for the 

 cows for two hours each day. Other times, 

 throughout the growing season, they belong 

 in the open and airy stalls. The crops which 

 are to feed them, are pushing luxuriantly 

 within a stone's throw of their quarters. An 

 active man with a sharp scythe, a light horse- 

 cart and Canadian pony, will look after the 

 feeding of a herd of fifty, with time to spare 

 for milking and stall cleaning. 



From the tenth of May to the first of June, 

 perhaps nothing will contribute so much to a 

 full flow of milk, as the fresh-springing grass 

 upon some outlying pasture on the hills. After 

 this, the cows may take up their regular sum- 

 mer quarters in the building I have roughly 

 indicated. From the first to the tenth of June, 

 there may be heavy cuttings of winter rye; 

 from the tenth of June to the twentieth, the 

 lucerne (than which no better soiling crop can 

 be found) is in full season; after the twentieth, 

 clover and orchard grass are in their best con- 

 dition, and retain their succulence up to the 

 first week in July, when, in ordinary seasons, 

 the main reliance — maize which was sown in 



149 



