166 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK ^ 



horse manure), is caustic, and acts upon the skin like a blis- 

 ter upon the human flesh. If Providence had ordained that 

 a sore should break out on the owner, for every one on his 

 stock occasioned by his negligence, animals would have 

 a much better time than they now do. 



Cows WITH CALF. Especial attention should be paid to 

 these. As they grow heavy, toward spring, they should 

 not be chased by horses or dogs, or beaten by unmannerly 

 boys and men. Their food should be abundant and nutri- 

 cious. A cow brought to calving in spring in a very thin 

 and lean condition will not recover through the whole sum- 

 mer, no matter how carefully tended. The cow, the calf, 

 and your own profit in both, require that you should bring 

 your cows to the spring in first-rate condition. If you have 

 roots, feed them ; but if not, give a slop of shorts, meal, and 

 flax-seed cake. This last ingredient is eminently service- 

 able in laying on flesh. 



MILKING Cows. Let them be milked regularly without 

 regard to weather. A careless girl will, if not watched, 

 milk irregularly, and what is worse, leave the cow unstript. 

 The morning work presses, or the cold pinches, or she is in 

 haste, at night, to go a visiting, or some one of a hundred 

 other reasons tempt her to milk out the full flow, and leave 

 the strippings. A cow so abused will be injured, in a short 

 time, so much, that all the care in the world will not bring 

 her back again. 



See that stock are treated with gentleness and patience. 

 It is a shame to abuse a kind and docile animal, and it is 

 useless to thrash those that are not so. In either case, kind- 

 ness is the best policy. A man who is brutal to cattle is 

 more of a beast than they are. We have seen many a man 

 who, if he had two more legs, would not fetch the pree of 

 a stock-hog. 



