TEANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 649 



and yearlings fetch from 41. 10s. to G/. at the August fairs, and as pony stock can 

 be wintered on the farms at from Is. Gd. to Is. a week, and 6f/. for suckers, the 

 ownership is both cheap and profitable. The care of a troop of five costs little 

 more than the care of a single animal, and such a troop with average good luck 

 brings in 20/. a year. Ponies are not wintered nor cared for imless they begin to 

 stray and leave the Forest. And now that the winter-heyning is practically abo- 

 lished, ponies begin to stay out longer. The cost of wintering is thus reduced by 

 10s. to 4s. per head. The ponies are habituated to some locality, and are left to 

 themselves, being driven in only for marking by the agister, or when wanted for 

 sale, so that they cost the owners nothing but the marking fees of Is. Gd. a head 

 per annum. The fillies are usually left at large ; they run with the mares, and in 

 their fourth year breed a good colt. Brood mares are much valued, and rarely 

 sold ; a very good one will fetch 15/. Heifers are less costly to buy, say 21. to il., 

 and are nearly as self-maintaining as pony stock, until they have their first calf; 

 but they need better pasture, and they cost about \s. per week more if wintered. 

 In the spring, they may be sold with calf at side for 10/. to 14/. each. But the 

 cottager's ambition is to own a cow. In one case, quoted below, the calf was ac- 

 quired as a weanhng seven days old, costing 10s., and was paid for out of its own 

 milk two and a half years afterwards. In another, a heifer was bought for about 

 21., and paid for from its own butter a year or two after it came to maturity. No 

 trouble, shift, or economy is spared — first to obtain, and then to rear the future 

 cow. Nothing is wasted, and even the furze-tops are gathered in winter, and cut 

 up with the other food. The residt is that almost every cottager owns some 

 animal — at least a forest mare or a heifer, if not both a cow and a pig, each of 

 which makes the other more profitable. 



It is estimated by our cottagers and small farmers that, if there were no wastes, 

 a minimum of -3 acres of our forest meadows would be required to keep a single 

 cow, i.e. an acre for hay and 2 acres for the usual little crops of mangel, &c., and 

 to be used for pasture alternate^. The rent of such a 3-acre lot would not be less 

 than 4/., and might be considerably more. But with the use of the wastes, the 

 usual house-plot of 2 or 3 roods, if a good cow common adjoin, will support a 

 single cow, except in a winter of exceptional severity. The cow lives % the 

 common from May to November, while two crops of hay are secured from the 

 heavily manured orchard, and a good after-grass is growing ; but everyone who 

 can afibrd to do so will give the cow a little something nightly. An expenditure 

 of 2s. to 2s. Qd. per week in winter on hay, swede-turnips, and pollard, and on 

 the materials for a mash (to the amount of about oOs. to 3^.) will increase the 

 average weekly produce of butter throughout the year by one-half, say, from 3 lbs. 

 to 5 lbs. per week. This butter is sold at the gate for Is. 2d. a lb. on the average. 

 Cases occur where a small capital of about 10/. wiU enable a second cow to be kept on 

 the house-plot and common by the purchase of additional food. The calf will he 

 sold at six weeks old for about 10s. profit, and all the skim milk will then go to 

 fatten the pig. Each pig bought, fatted, and sold at about four-score weight may 

 produce in six or eight weeks a profit of Is. per week up to 10s., and with high 

 feeding will produce a little more ; but the value of the pig has lain, until lately, 

 rather in the fact that he helps to turn everything to use and provides a valuable 

 manure. Of course the number bought and sold annually will depend on cir- 

 cumstances, capital, and on the mast-time. Widows and such-like owners of a 

 single cow often kill and salt a joig, the cost of which may be cheapened by about 

 a third if there is a good mast. The profits of a house-plot and single cow, with 

 its complement of pigs, may be estimated at from 4s. to 10s. per week, according 

 to the means and opportunities of the cottager, and, speaking roughly, it is 

 probable that our labourers not unfi-equently earn the double of their weekly 

 wages by such stock-keeping as the foregoing. If an acre or 1| acre of mead(5w 

 can be added, there will probably be two cows and a sow, and two or three fatting 

 pigs on the premises. As before, the cows are 'turned out' while the hay is grow- 

 ing, and will maintain themselves entirely on the co mm on from May until Novem- 

 ber. The wife's spare time suffices for the management of two cows and the corre- 

 sponding number of pigs ; meanwhile the husband is earning regular wages abroad. 



