20 



the first to be a decent cow. But for the trial, I might 

 have kept her for years, without knowing what poor 

 milk she gave. Such milk is hardly fit to supply even 

 the Boston market I Test yours I doubt not many of 

 you have just such cows. The profit in raising m^ilk de- 

 pends upon the quantity of food a good cow can be 

 made to consume. A poor cow should not be kept, for 

 she affords no profit. Except in the season for pasture- 

 or soiling, hay, roots, shorts and Indian meal are fed to 

 advantage in producing milk ; meal should be given 

 sparingly to young cows, lest they be injured by it. 

 Old cows will bear a larger quantity. I once fed nine- 

 ty bushels of meal to one old cow in one year, at a 

 large profit. She gave twenty quarts per day the whole 

 time, and became very fat for beef A young cow would 

 have been spoiled by such poor feeding. 



If the growing of roots and vegetables be his choice, 

 he should raise his own seed, unless he is sure of getting^ 

 it of a reliable grower. For whatever may be his culti- 

 vation, a poor harvest will be the result of poor seed. The 

 choicest specimens should be carefully selected year af- 

 ter year, that the seed may be tJioroiigJi-hred. For the 

 laws of selection and reversion are just as applicable to 

 the growing of vegetables, as to the breeding of animals; 

 and, generally speaking, the laws that govern animal 

 and vegetable life will be found to be wonderfully alike. 

 Therefore, let every farmer be sure and use none but 

 thorough-bred seed, and that the centre of the top of all 

 vegetables selected for seed be uninjured, for the sprout 

 that issues from the centre is the only one that producej? 

 the best seed. 



The seed from u turnip or a rutabaga that has had 

 the top cut close, causing thereby the sprouts to issue 



