236 SUMMER FOOD CALCULATIONS. 



and comforts, have never been able to obtain milk 

 for the sustenance of their offspring and their own 

 most innocent enjoyment, even in the dairy counties. 



SUMMER FEEDING : and, let it always be recol- 

 lected, that economy is the leading feature in our 

 plan. Natural grass is the first and best of all food 

 for our domestic animals. Of the artificial grasses 

 lucern stands first, and green tares, a very succulent 

 and nutritious food for Milch Cows. The saving 

 method of managing grass arid 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 production ; 

 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 exhaustion from the 

 scythe, it should be cleared at the end of every 

 autumn, from all kinds of weeds and rubbish, and 



