210 SUMMER FOOD CALCULATIONS. 



our domestic animals. Of the artificial grasses, 

 lucerne stands first, and green tares are a very suc- 

 culent and nutritious food for Milch Cows. The 

 saving method of managing grass, and it will be 

 found excellent economy where the proprietor may 

 have only a small close or two, is to keep it constantly 

 shut, and free from the tread of the cows, and to 

 cut the grass as soon as of sufficient length and sub- 

 stance, and carry it to them ; no more being cut at 

 once than can be consumed in a day, the cutting 

 being made in the morning. This to continue 

 throughout the season, and as late in autumn as any 

 growth can be obtained. 



According to Mr. Curwen's experience, some 

 years since, three acres of grass cut and carried, 

 supplied thirty milch cows with two stone each, or 

 twenty-eight pounds, during two hundred days. 

 He observes that, to have supplied them with two 

 stone of hay each, during the same period, would 

 have required seventy-five acres of land for its pro- 

 duction. And to have grazed such a number of 

 cows at liberty, that length of time, it is obvious, 

 must have taken a very considerable number of 

 acres. To enable the meadow to support this ex- 

 haustion from the scythe, it should be cleared at the 

 end of every autumn, from all kinds of weeds and 

 rubbish, and fresh grass seeds of the best kinds, 

 cast upon the bare places. A coat of good manure 

 should be then allowed, consisting of all that can be 

 collected from the household, or procured elsewhere, 

 mixed up and augmented with virgin earth. The 

 garden will assist with its superfluity in feeding the 



