No. 10. 



Dairy Cows. — Obstacles to Improvemeiit. 



821 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Dairy Cows. 



Mr. Editor, — HavirijOf broken up my sod- 

 ground, and believing that the corn would be 

 better for a delay of a few days in planting, 

 to allow the earth to become dry and warm, 

 I thought I could not do better than take the 

 opportunity to cross the hill and see what my 

 Ciiester-county friends were doing, thinking 

 that I should be a gainer by the journey, 

 whether the consequences proved agreeable 

 or otherwise — whether the lesson operated 

 " for reproof or for comfort;" and my absence 

 of a few days will be repaid by months of ad- 

 vantageous observation and years of experi- 

 ence. I found them on the alert, as I ex- 

 pected, and determined not to allow X\\e grass 

 to grow under their feet, even in those mea- 

 dows which our friend Solon Robinson has 

 immortalized by his happy remark — "If, Ne- 

 buchadnezzar-like, it should ever be my lot to 

 be turned out to graze, may it be on such 

 meadows as these!" — In fact, the corn had 

 been sown in some places, and was absolutely 

 up in others — I confess, a little to my astonish- 

 ment, but not to my chagrin, as I prefer wait- 

 ing a little, which I can well afford to do. 



It is but reasonable to expect that the oc- 

 cupiers of such pastures should be good 

 dairymen, and when I say they are, first rate, 

 I know I shall be readily believed. I saw 

 also several cows that would tempt some men 

 tn break the tenth commandment; amongst 

 the rest "Bessie," the property of Paschall 

 Morris, whose portrait you must not forget 

 you promised to give us in the Cabinet, with 

 an account of her great milking properties; 

 and whose present appearance is such as to 

 recommend her strongly to that distinction : 

 and with her is a young progeny which bid 

 fair to eclipse their ancestors, whether for 

 beef or butter. I saw also very many splen- 

 did specimens of half-breds, a single cross 

 with the Durham bull, that are real cream- 

 pots in embryo, the only fear being, that in 

 such pastures they will grow unnecessarily 

 large for the purpose of the pail — a thing by 

 no means desirable. Indeed, I believe that 

 much of the complaint, so common, that the 

 improved stock has baffled the attempts of 

 their owners to render them regular breeders, 

 has arisen from the circumstance of their 

 having been kept too high in their youth; 

 many accidents also happening at the time 

 of calving, proceeding from the same cause. 

 My object would be to breed them neat rather 

 than gaudy, as there will be no fear of their 

 laying on fat, at the time when that alone 

 would bo desirable. At some farms in these 

 rich districts it is customary to purchase cows 

 with their calves from Eastern droves, milk 

 them for a season, and then turn them off to 



feed in the winter — an excellent practice in 

 these Nebuchadnezzar pastures. Amongst 

 some of them are to be found kickers of every 

 degree, but here I learnt a cure for the disor- 

 der, when in its most inveterate state ; it is, 

 merely to place the patient in a stall with a 

 beam over head, and fixing a running noose 

 over her horns, throw the end of the rope 

 over the beam and pull away, so as to raise 

 her head pretty high in the air, but not so as 

 to lift her legs from the ground : in this posi- 

 tion she will not only be disabled from kick- 

 ing, but will give down her milk without the 

 least hesitation. These cows are also liable 

 to the hoof-ail, as well as sore teats, both 

 which are easily cured by the application of 

 white paint laid on with a small brush ; the 

 body of the paint acting mechanically in pre- 

 venting the action of the air on the sores, and 

 the lead operating chemically or medicinally 

 in drying and healing them. Care must 

 however be taken not to apply the lead to the 

 teats while they are suckling calves; and af- 

 terwards, caution must be used at the time 

 of milking, but no danger need be apprehend- 

 ed in the hands of careful persons. In inve- 

 terate hoof-ail it might first be necessary, 

 either to cauterize the sore, or dress with 

 blue-stone, after which, and in all slight af- 

 fections, white-lead dressing — in other words, 

 painting the sores, will be tbund sufficient to 

 effect a cure. 



Now here are two recipes for the cure of 

 some of the most troublesome diseases with 

 which dairymen have to contend. In the 

 first place, many first-rate milking cows have 

 been sent to the butcher as the only cure for 

 the disease of kicking and withholdincr their 

 milk; while the hoof-ail, when once become 

 inveterate, is almost perpetual in some dai- 

 ries. The knowledge, how to cure these dis- 

 orders, has cost me only a dollar and twenty- 

 five cents in travelling expenses; but if, as I 

 conscientiously believe, " it is more blessed to 

 give than to receive," I shall become a gainer 

 by the transaction — perhaps to the amount of 

 a couple of dollars — in transmitting the recipes 

 for publication to the pages of the Cabinet. 

 Your subscriber, 



James Jones. 



Obstacles to Improvement. 



Extract from an Address by J. Garnett, Esq., before the 

 Agricultural Society of Fredericksburg. 



I HAVE reserved until the last, the notice 

 of an obstacle to our improvement in hus- 

 bandry, which I might, perhaps, as well have 

 omitted, since there seems to be hardly a 

 hope, either of removing it, or of diminishing 

 its power. The cause is, the conversion of a 

 large portion of our female population from 

 stay-at-home-atives into a tribe of wanderers. 



