CHAPTER XXX. 



THE: CARE; OF STOCK. 



S several years of our farming were devoted to the 

 care of stock, that being our main source of income, 

 at least one chapter should be given to this subject. 

 Considering the chances we had, we certainly were 

 quite successful in this line. And I would be willing 

 to leave this to the animals we cared for, too, to de- 

 cide. We wintered the cows of my old friend, Samuel Wright (long 

 since gone to his rest), for several years in succession. As soon as 

 the first bad weather came in the fall, they had to watch carefully 

 or those cows would get out and come to my place, some three 

 miles away. They never offered to do this in the summer. 

 One stormy Sunday, about the last of November, I think, I did 

 my chores in the barn, leaving the stable door open, as was also 

 the yard gate. .1 was sitting by the fire, when in came Samuel 

 Wright. After talking a while he said : " My cows gave me the 

 slip this morning and I followed them all the way over here and 

 they are all quietly standing in their old places in your stable." 

 I was surprised enough and went out and there they were, and 

 there they staid* for the winter. I tell you, friends, I felt as though 

 this verdict of even a cow jury in my favor was no small matter. 

 Mr. and Mrs. Wright were very kind to their cows, but they 

 hadn't the chance to care for them in the winter that I had, and 

 the cows knew it and appreciated the difference. Here they were 

 always fed regularly and with a nearly perfect ration. If straw 

 or marsh hay was fed, enough oil meal or wheat bran or both, was 

 put with it to make it all right. They were watered regularly 

 with freshly pumped well water, pure and nice. I always tended 

 to it myself that every cow had all she wanted. If she was ex- 

 ceedingly, yes, provokingly, slow sometimes about drinking, no 

 matter ; it was my business to see that she drank and to have 

 patience to match the case, and I did. The cows were always bosses 

 in my barn, unless I could boss by coaxing. No, I never used a 

 club or whip to enforce my authority. I can say that truthfully, 

 and I would have been ashamed to, nor could I afford to. I will 

 admit that I have now and then taken hold of a cow and pushed 

 her head down in the water when she was provokingly slow about 

 drinking, but even that was foolishness. To be really successful 

 with animals, cows in particular, one needs to be very patient. 

 Any one who is not so, or cannot school himself to it, has no busi- 

 ness with them. He cannot make a great success of the business. 



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