Cow-Keeping hy Farm Labourers. 
513 
of mv informants supplied me with the abundant information 
contained in these pages. The following is a list of the 
queries : — 
1. Is it desirable tliat a cow should be kept for a faiin labourer's family, or 
is milk otherwise readily obtainable by the labourer '? 
2. Should the cow be kept by the man or his employer ? 
3. In the latter case, what is the customary arrangement in your district? 
4. When the labourer keeps his own cow, how much pasture ground is 
usually allotted to him for that purpose, and what proportion is annually fed 
and mown, for summer and winter maintenance? 
5. Is the pasture hired with the cottage ? and is it hired from the owner or 
the occupier of the land ? 
6. What food does the cottager purchase, during the year, for his cow ? 
7. What manure does he purchase for the pastures ? 
8. How does he obtain litter ? 
9. Does he sell or consume the produce of the dairy ? 
10. How does the quality of the butter compare with that of larger 
dairies ? 
11. What extra buildings have been necessary to enable r. cottager to keep 
a cow, and what has been the cost of such buildings ? 
12. What method of assurance has been adopted to secure the cottager 
against loss in case of the death of his cow ? 
13. In some parishes there are six or eight cows' pastures lying apart from 
the cottages, and supplied with tenants as the reward of good conduct, by the 
proprietor, or by others at his request ; do you know of such a case, and could 
you describe how the letting is managed, and the effect of the system ? 
14. What are the moral and material advantages of farm labourers keeping 
cows ? 
The answers to these queries proved far too voluminous to be 
placed before the reader in an unabridged form. In many cases 
I have been compelled to give the substance only of the replies, 
in as few words as possible, and as a rule I have omitted mere 
expressions of opinion, and have given the experience only of 
my correspondents. In several cases useful information has 
been sent on the milk question generally, by correspondents 
who do not reside in cow-keeping districts, and were, therefore, 
not in a position to contribute information on the subject- 
matter of this paper. I hope that the information thus received 
on the milk question generally may be embodied in a future 
article on that subject. 
As Cheshire is a dairy county overflowing with milk, I sent 
several of the lists of queries into that county. The replies 
were to this effect, that milk, in many neighbourhoods, is not 
an article of sale. Mr. David Reynolds Davies, Agden Hall, 
Lymm, thinks that if a certain number of farm labourers kept 
cows, others might obtain skim milk from them. He adds, that 
the privilege might be granted as a reward of good conduct, 
and that the effect would be to encourage habits of thrift, 
and give the labourers comfortable homes and healthy children. 
Happily for the labourers on his estate, the largest landowner 
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