Cow-Keeping hy Farm Labourers. 
521 
or three occupiers. The pastures are all hired with the cottages from the 
landlord. I have been told that at a still earlier period there was a large 
common field in which labourers' and small farmers' cows grazed promiscuously, 
and that there was a general milking time under an old elm in the village. 
I think that cows are not valued quite so much as they were twenty years 
ago, and that the use of tea and coffee supersedes that of milk. The cows are 
kept to make as much butter as possible, and every particle of cream is 
extracted for that purpose ; aud then the skim milk goes to the pig. A little 
cake or corn may be purchased, and perhaps a load or two of turnips; no 
manure. Each cow-holder has an allotment of one or two roods of arable land, 
from w hich he gets a certain amount of straw. These allotments, formerly 
cultivated altogether by the spade, are now ploughed and sown by small men 
who keep two ponies, a little plough, and a cart for hire, leading coals, &c. 
" The produce of the dairy is all sold. The quality of the butter compares 
very well with that of larger dairies, aud generally commands the top market 
price. 
" I think one reason for the decreased mmiber of cow allotments has been 
the expense of buildings. By degrees I am, on sanitary grounds, rebuilding 
most of the cowhouses, pigstyes, &c., and I find it very expensive, and get no 
pecuniary return for my outlay. Many of the old cottages had the cowhouse 
under the same roof, sometimes communicating with the kitchen. 
" On a small estate in the East Hiding, several labourers keep a cow each, 
which grazes in the lanes in summer. They feed them in winter mainly on 
the hay mown from some large drain banks, which the tenant farmer either 
gives or lets at a small rent. On this estate the cottages are generally let with 
the farms, and the cattle-man or head horseman has a cow. 
" The advantages should be first a good supply of milk for the children, but 
as I before said, 1 fear the desire to make all that can be made of the butter 
very often spoils the milk. There is always an excellent market for butter in 
this neighbourhood, and if a cottager has luck with his cow, and if his wife 
be fond of a dairy, the cow should be a considerable source of profit. But I do 
not think the labourer is quite so keen about keeping a cow as his prede- 
cessor was twenty-five years since. The best of our young men do not seem 
to care to settle down to country life, and their wives have not the knowledge 
of the dairy which was possessed by their mothers. Farmers say it is almost 
impossible to get a good dairy-woman, and in consequence they give up 
breeding stock, and the same thing applies to the labourer's wife ; still I 
believe the cow, if properly itsed, is a most desirable adjunct to the labourer's 
position." 
There is a cow-club among Mr. Dent's tenants. On entrance 
tiiej pay 1 2s. each for each cow ; they subscribe Zd. for each 
cow every two months. When a cow dies the member receives 
lOZ., and all the members pay 2s. once in two months until 
the lOZ. is made up. The money is kept in the Savings Bank. 
Mr. Stanhope, one of the Commissioners engaged in investi- 
gating the effects of the agricultural gang system, is a cordial 
witness in the Second Report, 1869, to the thrifty habits induced 
among labourers, and the comforts which they derive from 
keeping cows. But although the Report of the Commission 
is lull of the same kind of evidence in favour of the plan, 
gleaned from Derbyshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Lincolnshire, 
Northumberland, Yorkshire, and elsewhere, yet both tenants 
and landlords, as a rule, are unaware of the merits of the 
