356 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



The cows are pasturing about four months of 

 the year, commencing the first of June. They are 

 stabled nights during the time, are milked at eve- 

 ning and morning in the stables, and have green 

 feed, such as clover, corn stalks, «fcc., in their 

 mangers, evenings and mornings. The rest of the 

 year they are stabled night and day. Once a day 

 they are turned into a warm shed erected over a 

 well of water with a pump in it, the shed contain- 

 ing a long water trough, with stanchels in front of 

 it, where the cows are fastened until the stables 

 are cleansed, and until they have drank their fill. 

 Aqueduct water was formerly brought to the barn 

 for the cows, but was found to be inferior to the 

 well water because of its greater coldness in win- 

 ter. Experience has taught that the cows must 

 be kept warm in winter, in order that they may 

 be thrifty and give a good quantity of milk. 



During the eight months that the cows are kept 

 exclusively in the barn they are fed upon hay and 

 meal. Twice each day they have a quart of meal 

 apiece, (in the proportion of three-fifths oil meal 

 to two-fifths corn meal,) sprinkled upon cut hay, 

 and the whole moistened with water; they are al- 

 so fed frequently during the day with a little dry 

 hay at a time; twice a day they have a mess of 

 "slops," or in other words, one quart of meal 

 apiece, each time, (two-fifths corn meal to three- 

 fifths oil meal,) with sufficient water added to 

 make a mess of three gallons measure to each cow. 

 The meal, an hour or two before being fed in this 

 form, is put into a large box, set upon low truck 

 wheels; the water is immediately poured on, and 

 the contents are frequently stirred, so that the 

 meal may become thoroughly soaked and swelled, 

 in which state it is thought to be more digestible, 

 and to produce more milk, than if fed as soon as 

 mixed with the water. A little finely cut hay is 

 stirred in with the meal and water, to give the 

 mess greater consistency. When this drink is to 

 be given, the box containing it is trundled along 

 on the barn floor, in front of the stalls, and from a 

 large ladle, holding just the right quantity, each 

 cow receives her mess in a water-tight manger. 

 The cut feed is mixed in the same large box, 

 which is moved along from stall to stall, for con- 

 venience of feeding. A clock in the meal room 

 indicates the times when the cut hay and meal, 

 and the "slops" are to be given, and strict regu- 

 larity of hours is observed in dispensing the same. 

 More milk is obtained from the cut feed and the 

 drink, than could be derived from dry hay and 

 meal; more milk is obtained from feeding part of 

 the meal in form of "slops," than could be realized 

 by feeding all upon cut hay. 



The meal keeps the cows in fine sleek condition, 

 and in eight to twelve months from the time they 

 are purchased, they are good beef. They are 

 carded daily, and kept perfectly clean. A trench 

 behind them, four inches deep, twenty inches wide, 

 receives the manure and urine, so that the platform 

 or floor upon which they stand, or lie down, is al- 

 ways dry and clean, and so is the walk behind 

 them, beyond the trench, dry and clean. Mr. Ad- 

 ams says, that in consequence of keeping the cows 

 clean, the barn well ventilated, and of dispensing 

 the feed with great regularity, he is seldom trou''- 

 bled with a sick cow. 



Exact regularity of time is observed in milking, 

 and the cows average about eight quarts each per 

 day. The milk, as soon as drawn, is taken to a 



room at the house, and strained into large tin cool- 

 ers, set in a vat containing ice-water in summer, 

 and cold water in winter, in order to take out the 

 animal heat, so that the milk may be fresh and 

 sweet when delivered in town. The morning's 

 milk is cooled as speedily as possible, and mixed 

 with that drawn the night previous; the whole is 

 then taken immediately to the city in small tin 

 cans, and delivered to customers in two hours' 

 time. All vessels into which milk is put, are dai- 

 ly washed and scoured, and kept perfectly bright 

 and sweet. The milk room is always neat and 

 clean. The milk sells at five cents per quart in 

 summer, and six cents in winter. 



Mr. Adams, by keeping so many cows, and 

 feeding them high with meal, is enabled to make 

 a large quantity of very strong manure. In order 

 to preserve its strength, to save all the urine, as 

 well as for convenience of cleaning the stables, he 

 has a cellar under the barn large enough to hold a 

 year's stock of manure. It is thrown into the cel- 

 lar through scuttles in the stable floor, and about 

 once a month, the heaps accumulating underneath 

 are spread evenly about, and a quantity of loam 

 tipped in, sufficient to cover the manure four 

 inches thick; or, in other words, three parts of 

 loam are mixed with two parts of manure. Before 

 carting the compost out to the fields, it is shovelled 

 over from top to bottom, and so thoroughly mixed 

 as to make it of uniform quality throughout. 

 Without the addition of loam, and the thorouoh 

 mixture of shovelling over, the manure would be 

 so wet and heavy as to create great inconvenience 

 in loading, carting, and spreading the same, as 

 there is a great deal of liquid manure, in conse- 

 quence of the cows receiving so much of their 

 food in a wet state. 



In addition to the stock of cows, Mr. Adams 

 keeps four or five horses for the distribution of 

 the milk and for work on the farm, and two to 

 four working oxen. It is therefore a great object 

 with him to produce a large quantity and a good 

 quality of hay for the support of his numerous 

 stock. He has 30 or 40 acres of sandy and grav- 

 elly land, 20 acres of salt marsh, all of which 

 produce hay exclusively. Each field of the dry or 

 upland soil is plowed every fifth year, in August 

 or September. The land is smoothly turned over 

 to the depth of eight or nine inches; thirty loads, 

 or ten cords, of compost to each acre spread upon 

 the furrows and harrowed in; one-half bushel of 

 herds-grass, three pecks of red-top, and ten to 

 twenty pounds of clover seed sown to the acre, 

 and bushed in; and the surface is then smoothed 

 with the roller. In July of the next season the 

 new seeding is fit for the scythe; and the land 

 produces good crops of hay for five years. For 

 the first year or two the hay made from the new 

 seeding is principally clover, which is mostly 

 mowed and fed in a green state to the cows, in 

 their stalls. For the remainder of the five years, 

 the hay is red-top and herds-grass, with a mixture 

 of white clover, which comes into the sward of it- 

 self. Twenty acres of moist land, lying upon a 

 flat surface between the upland and salt marsh, are 

 never plowed, but are kept in perpetual grass by a 

 top-dressing of twenty-five loads of compost to the 

 acre, every third year. Red-top and white clover 

 are natural to this land, and at haying time a heavy, 

 thickly matted swarth of grass rolls from the 

 scythe, which makes remarkably milk-producing 



