CATTLE AND THE DAIRY 



more than six or seven months after calving, and only 

 at that season of the year when nature provided an 

 abundance of pasture feed. All the grains grown were 

 needed to support the family. The coarse fodders that 

 were harvested whenever the work could be done, were 

 the chief food of livestock. The haying season gen- 

 erally lasted from the time the rye and wheat harvest 

 was finished until the corn was ready to cut. With 

 loosely constructed stables and with woody, coarse fod- 

 ders that could barely sustain life as the main source of 

 feed, such a thing as winter dairying was never heard 

 of, and the good housewife was fortunate if she got 

 milk enough in winter to feed the young children. 



In the early days of the colonists there was no im- 

 proved livestock in the sense that we think of improved 

 stock to-day. The cattle and sheep brought over from 

 England, where they were accustomed to a milder cli- 

 mate, did not prosper as in their native country. It is 

 said that the farm animals that were raised here, for 

 the first two or three generations, were smaller and not 

 as well developed in their useful qualities as those im- 

 ported. This was probably due to the severe climate, 

 poor shelter, rough pastures and the poor quality of 

 the dried fodder. The natural grasses were not as 

 nutritious as those later introduced from Europe, and 

 the clovers were at first entirely unknown, as this was a 

 crop of European origin. 



[67] 



