COMMON MODE OP OBTAINING COWS. 403 



extra hand to hold her while milking, or having to strap her 

 legs during the process. A fourth has lost the use of a teat or 

 two, and gives but httle out of the others. Another is breachy, 

 jumps, or throws down fences, and lets the herd into mischief. 

 Perhaps half a dozen others have faults, or vices, before he gets 

 through with them, and so on. Possibly a third, or one-half of 

 the cows answer his purpose — after a fashion — and there may 

 not be more than two or three first-rate ones out of the whole. 

 They have been picked up by drovers, from those who culled 

 out their own dairies, having no reaWy prime cows to dispose of, 

 and will at no price sell their best ones. 



If a cow drover comes along to sell his commodities, the result 

 is the same, let him recommend them to the dairyman as he may, 

 for ten to one he knows nothing of the real qualities of the cows 

 which he has on sale. The result with our dairymen is, that at 

 the end, or half way to the end of his dairy season, he is obliged 

 to turn off a portion of his herd. Some go to the butcher, if he 

 can get flesh enough on their bones to partially cover them. 

 Others are dried off, and turned out to pasture for the next 

 winter's beef Some are sold to another itinerant drover who 

 comes along, and buys them at a cheap rate, to victimize another 

 innocent purchaser, and so on, to the end of the chapter. Out of 

 twenty, the dairyman may perhaps find half a dozen wliich 

 answer his purpose, and prove really good cows, when they 

 once get wonted to the place, and feel at home — for your cow is 

 a wonderfully home-feeling body, and it frequently takes some 

 weeks, or months, for her to become reconciled to a new locahty, 

 and yield her natural flow of milk. 



"We have given some thought, as well as observation to this 

 matter, and think there is a better method for the dairyman to 

 supply himself with cows, and in a cheaper way, in the long run, 

 with much less labor and vexation of spirit. Let hnn breed 

 and raise his own cows, by following the directions laid down in 



