530 
Cow-Keeping by Farm Labourers. 
bread ; and if he has land enough to rear a calf every year, having thus an 
animal to sell annually, his position is not so dependent ; he has always a some- 
thing to fall back upon, and where he is in regular employment, and sickness 
does not invade the family, his life contains the chief elements of happiness." 
Earl Nelson, who writes from Trafalgar, near Salisbury, has 
devoted great attention to this subject. 1 have been often 
asked how much grass-land fed and mown is required to main- 
tain a cow summer and winter. Lord Nelson gives the follow- 
ing details in reply to the query on that subject : — 
Rent. 
£ 
alf being water-meadow •• , 14 
eluding garden and cow-| 9 This is only pasture, and no 
laud, and generally accom- cottage. 
panted by half an acreJ 13 Including cottage, garden, and 
allotment for roots orj pasture, 
vetches, at an additional 13 Ditto ditto. 
rent v 9 Only pasture. 
0 38 j This is a carpenter's .. .. ( 15 Including house, garden, pas- 
A. 
B. 
p. 
(la)4 
0 
0 
(1) 2 
3 30' 
(2) 3 
0 
29 
(3) 3 
1 
13 
(4) 2 
3 
30 J 
(5) 5 
0 
38 
(6) 5 
0 
32) 
(7) 2 
2 
(8) 2 
1 
S) 
ture, and orchard. 
5 Poorer quality cf land. 
Both labourers | 3 each. 
" There is a turn-out on the common, but it is not much good, being over- 
stocked, except in one part." 
The replies to the other queries are as follows : — 
" I should think very little ; but the cows are fed by roots grown on 
allotments and on the hay. Those who live near the Common have a 
summer turn-out ; and those who can, keep a boy to tend them on the Common. 
" They nearly all keep two cows, one coming on ; and these with their 
pig seem to make enough manure. 
" Dried fern is purchased from the woods. 
" Sells all, except the skim-milk. 
" The butter has a ready sale. They reckon the cow at 5s. a week gain. I 
doubt their putting their own labour as an outlay against this. 
" A cow-house ; two if put at the corner of two pastures may come under 
one roof, and of course some extra fencing, which has to be kept by the land- 
lord in repair. This accounts for the high rent, as it causes a l^J'ge out- 
going. The rent also includes rates and tithe rent-charge paid by the landlord. 
" Our cow-land people are all very anxious to insure their cows. My idea 
is to try and insure for all the cows as belonging, for this jnirpose, to a com- 
pany in one insurance for all, as a farmer docs, each paying their share, and 
the landlord perhaps subscribing also to encourage them, but at present I have 
not met with a comjiany willing to take the insurance. 
" The labourer's only title to cow-land thus becomes a reward on his own 
providence, as I profess to refuse to let a cow-land unless proof is given that 
the labourers have saved enough money for purchase of a cow, and I should 
certainly not knowin'j;ly let one to a drunkard. 
" In the neighbourhood of the New Forest the old freeholder still exists to a 
certain extent ; and until his cottage is mortgaged, he manages, with a cow 
or two and a pony, and a turn-out in the forest, to sui)port himself during 
the winter, and in summer there is a body of labourers on the spot ready to 
