234 MILK DIFFICULTIES AMATEURS. 



your milk and butter produce will be in exact pro- 

 portion, and the cow, when dry, emaciated and of 

 little worth. 



A farmer, some years since, in my neighbourhood, 

 kept eighteen cows upon a common, and was often 

 obliged to buy butter for his family. The common 

 was inclosed, and the same person supplied his family 

 amply with milk and butter from the produce of four 

 cows well kept. 



Great milkers seldom carry any flesh upon their 

 bones, and are perhaps as seldom made fat, but they 

 pay as they go, and never retire in our debt. The 

 difficulties in cow-keeping are these the expense of 

 their food is considerable, more especially with respect 

 to any which must be purchased, and, if the produce 

 be inconsiderable, it may be a losing concern. You 

 may be feeding a sparing milker into flesh, and if 

 you stint her, or allow only ordinary food, you get 

 neither flesh nor milk. 



Amateurs in this line should procure the largest 

 milkers, and, I had almost said, give them gold, could 

 they eat it. In this case, it may be depended on, 

 milk is always of more value than the best cow-food, 

 which is the jit ; and a cow, the natural tendency of 

 which is to breed milk, will convert all nourishment, 

 however dry and substantial, into that fluid ; in fact, 

 will require such solid kind of nourishment to sup- 

 port her strength, and stimulate her to procreation, 

 in which otherwise, great milkers are very apt to be 

 deficient, and frequently to miss their bulling at the 

 proper season. But should corn be allowed, oats 

 are the most proper ; they should be ground or 



