338 CATTLE-BREEDING. 



mon. Of course, in a majority of cases if due 

 care is used such accidents will not occur, but 

 they do occur sometimes despite the utmost 

 foresight, and it is wisest to avoid even such 

 possibilities. Where there is no young bull 

 available and an old one must perforce be 

 used, he should in no case be allowed to serve 

 the heifer more than once. A yearling or two- 

 year-old bull is always greatly to be desired for 

 the first service of young females. 



When the heifers are eighteen to twenty- 

 four months old, and safely in calf, all that 

 they require in this latitude is good pasturage 

 in summer such as our blue grass so richly 

 affords and, in winter, hay and corn-fodder in 

 addition to the scanty food afforded by the 

 winter fields, fed out of doors in racks, or, in the 

 case of the corn-fodder, fed on the ground by 

 being forked out each morning from a wagon. 

 As no more fodder is fed than the cattle eat up 

 cleanly, and the strong turf of the blue grass 

 makes it possible to feed it in a clean spot, there 

 is no waste from this method. I find such fare 

 ample to keep heifers and dry cows in good 

 condition. Where the winter is severe they 

 may profitably be housed at night, though I do 

 this as little as possible, and where they do not 

 keep in good condition on the above described 

 diet it should be supplemented with such grain 

 as the case demands. 



