Cow-Keeping by Farm Labourers. 
529 
and buying forage. To eke out or improve his forage he will often Luy 
millers' refuse aud odds and ends, or he will look round for some cheap 
rice-meal or maize-meal, or anything else that happens to be cheap on the 
market. 
" It is seldom that he will purchase manure for his pastures, unless it be a 
load or two of lime ; but he will not uncommonly buy artificial manure for 
his meadow-land, to eke out the natural manure his cow and pig produce. 
"Sometimes he bays litt*r, that is if he docs not grow a bit of com 
of some kind ; at other times he will hardest rushes and sedges where they 
are available, and if he is at liberty to do so. But, as a rule, he uses no litter 
whatever for his cow, nor, indeed, is it necessary that he should, and he will 
want it for his pig if for anything. 
" He will generally sell a little butter, using the skim-milk for food, and 
not unfrequently he will sell milk to neighbours. Sometimes he will make a 
little cheese in summer. In the one case he wiU use his butter-milk, and in 
the other his whey, for the pig. 
" The extra buildings are merely a shed, which he will put up himself at a 
very light cost, thatching it with rushes or straw, or covering it with gas- 
tarred boards, or with any other material that may commend itself to him on 
the score of cheapness and efficiency. His ordinary pantry will serve as 
a milk-room. 
" When his cow dies, he generally goes round to all the farmers within a 
couple of miles or so, and to others who can afford to help him, and people 
give him half-crowns, shillings, and sixpences. The clergyman, or some other 
capable person, draws up a short petition, and heads the subscription list. 
" In one case that I am acquainted with, a tract of iminclosed land has been 
set apart for generations to pasture in common the cows of different persons, 
and the right of pasturage goes with certain houses. The right of pasturage 
for each cow is called a 'cow-gate,' and some houses are entitled to two, 
three, or four gates, and others to only one. A given rent per cow is paid, 
and the pasture accommodates a given number of cows through the summer. 
The forage for winter is procured Irom inclosed land bordering on the pasture. 
This land may at some time have been set ai^art as a reward for good conduct, 
but the rights are not rearranged on that basis. Some pei-sons sell or sub- 
let their ' cow-gates.' 
" The moral advantages, where a little land is held, consist in the laboiu-er 
having a stake in the jjarish, and not being merely a lodger, as it were, in a 
cottage. It gives him a certain social standing which he values highly, and 
he feels himself to be a small capitalist. Having something that he regards 
with no little pride, he has every inducement to be fragal and industrious in 
order to increase his store. His interest in life, and in the aflairs of the parish, 
is increased. He has more self-resjiect, is regarded more favoiarably by others, 
and is, perhaps, a thought more consequential. He has always something of 
his own to turn to, by which he can profitably fill up his overtime, and this 
keeps him out of the public-house. Tiie moral advantages are probably more 
valuable than the directly material ones; for they give a better tone to his 
life than he would get from the same material advantages supplied to him in 
some other way ; tbey give him an incentive to exertion in his spare hours, 
aud keep him out of the mischief which is left for idle hands to do. 
" But the material advantages are not inconsiderable. They enable him, if 
he has his land cheap enough, to live much cheaper and better than he could 
without them, and they enable his wife to take an important part in the 
struggle to live. This, indeed, is a great moral as well as material advantage, 
for the wife is something more than a mere compani«in; she is, in part, a 
bread-winner for the family. By the aid of a cow, a pig, and a good garden, 
a labourer can provide his family with nearly all the food they require except 
