MILCH KINE. 19 



ing cows, yet they will undoubtedly continue to be pastured until a 

 denser population and an increased demand for land shall bring about 

 a less wasteful and more enterprising and satisfactory plan. 



No farmer can fold his hands and justly claim to have mastered his 

 business so long as he holds an acre of land that is not producing all 

 that it is profitably capable of. The application of this rule would at 

 once convert all of our pastures into either mowing, tillage or wood- 

 land. No one will contend that a pasture requiring from two to eight 

 acres to keep one cow, bears favorable comparison with a piece of 

 mowing land producing three tons, at two crops, even at the valua- 

 tion usually placed upon each, and yet very much of our pasture land 

 is made up of as good soil, and is as favorably situated as the best 

 mowing, requiring only proper working and manuring to make them 

 equal. If a pasture is too rocky, or by reason of its location or oth- 

 erwise, it is found to be impracticable to work it, the jjlanting of forest 

 trees offers a very much more remunerative return to the holder than 

 pasturage. The price of wood and timber promises in the near future 

 to command a relatively higher price than it bears even now. 



It may be said that cows do much better when pastured than when 

 confined, either upon the system of green soiling, or what may be de- 

 nominated dry soiling. This however is never asserted by those who 

 have tried both methods, the whole of such testimony being the other 

 way. We feel convinced, from our own limited experience, that it is 

 perfectly feasible, and that no valid argument can be brought against 

 the system of keeping milch cows in the barn, with perhaps an hour 

 or two occasionally in a yard. They are perfectly contented under 

 such circumstances and thrive as well, and in a year will give more 

 milk than when allowed to range in ordinary pasture. It is not by 

 any means necessary to raise green food for soiling, but they may be 

 kept upon early cut grass made into hay. This has been our custom 

 for two years past, the cows not getting a bite of grass, nor indeed be- 

 ing allowed to be once outside the barn. A writer in the Scottish 

 Farmer mentions four cows that he reared from calves that had never 

 set foot in a pasture, and in fact had never stepped out of the stall ex- 

 cept when sent to the bull. He fed with mown grass during the sum- 

 mer season and upon hay in the winter. 



The result of such a system of feeding is an accumulation of ma- 

 nure that will easily hold the grass land up to a high point of produc- 

 tiveness, in comparison with which pasture land grows more and more 

 unsightly and unremunerative. The relative prices which dairy pro- 

 ducts bear in the market, and which they must continue to maintain, 

 for tht) reason that the limited dairy region is constantly becoming less 

 in proportion to the increasing consumption and demand, ought to sug- 

 gest to the farming interest on all suitable lands, that its success lies in 

 making the most of its opportunities ; that its great leading staple 

 should be grass, to which other crops are only adjuncts or secondary ; 

 that the best crop of grass is not to be obtained by a system of culture 



