126 THE COW 



limits. It may be practicable under skilled and in- 

 tensive agriculture on the best lands (especially if 

 far enough south so that some double-cropping 

 may be practiced) to approximate one cow for each 

 acre of arable land, although this will imply the 

 purchase of a large part of the grain food. In most 

 of the dairy regions of the northeastern United 

 States, a Cow for each three to five acres will be a 

 much more reliable and conservative estimate. 



It is perhaps foolish to specify any farm, real or 

 imaginary, and lay down a hard and fast system 

 of rotation and cropping. All schemes of this 

 character must be more or less elastic. However, 

 as a sort of working hypothesis, we may imagine a 

 farm somewhere in the dairy belt containing one 

 hundred acres of cleared land. We will assume 

 that fifty acres of this area are too steep and rocky 

 to be tillable and hence must be used as permanent 

 pasture. The remaining fifty acres are level and 

 smooth enough and have sufficient fertility to 

 make good meadow or to grow com. How many 

 dairy cows such a farm will support will depend 

 very largely on the character and agricultural 

 condition of the soil and on the skill and energy 

 of the owner. Nevertheless, there is something 

 like an average farm and average efficiency in 

 management and, bearing this in mind, we may 

 venture to make some estimates as to the produc- 

 tivity of this farm. 



Suppose we see whether this farm is fitted to 



