CORN-FODDER FOR COWS. 91 



lip in small cocks, throw our hay-caps over it, and we can keep 

 it there and feed it day by day, until winter drives the cattle 

 into the barn. And that appears to me to be the real succe- 

 daneum, if any method could keep our cattle through the fall 

 season ; because, when we have got to house our cattle from 

 October until nearly the first of June, it takes capacious barns, 

 large farms and an immense deal of labor to procure hay 

 enough for those animals ; but by the use of corn-fodder, — feed- 

 ing it out from the time it arrives at a proper growth, say the 

 8th of July, until the frosts are about falUng, and then partially 

 curing it in the manner I have described, — you have something 

 by which your hay is saved ; and my experience as a butter- 

 maker is that I get better butter in the fall from that fodder 

 than any other thing, except the earliest grass. But there is no 

 doubt that the principle the doctor lays down is the true one — 

 that grass is the natural food of the cow, and the nearer we can 

 approach to this grass the better. The farmers are arriving at 

 that conclusion, because they are arriving at this one point — 

 that if they can commence cutting their hay the middle of June, 

 and get it into the barn before tlie first of August, they are get- 

 ting the hay that will best carry their cattle through the winter, 

 and give them the best butter and milk. Therefore the great 

 principle in our cattle breeding is to get the best crops of hay 

 we can ; and as we cannot continue our pasturing through the 

 year, we want the best substitute we can get for that before we 

 put them on hay. 



Now in regard to these small animals the doctor speaks about, 

 although he did not allude to them by name. My theory is 

 somewhat different from his. I claim, with all due deference, 

 that we have a perfect right to indulge in the luxury of raising 

 Shorthorns, if we can afford to do it ; and we want to engage 

 in the luxury of raising Jerseys, because, as a mere butter ma^- 

 cliine, you cannot find anything equal to that cow upon the face 

 of the earth ; and, differing from the other animals, — the Ayr- 

 shire or Shorthorn, — the progeny of the Jersey is almost inva- 

 riably as good as the dam. She is a great butter machine — a 

 cow that will make a pound of butter to five quarts of milk ; 

 and we are getting cows in this country that will give now from 

 fourteen to sixteen and twenty quarts of milk a day. These are 

 going to be our great butter-makers ; and when you can get an 



