532 
Cow-Keeping by Farm Labourei's. 
" The cottager rarely purchases any manure. 
" He obtains for litter a little straw from his employer, and the grass edges 
of arable fields, which are also given to him. 
" He consumes a portion of milk and sells butter. 
" The quality of the butter compared with that of larger dairies is equally 
good where the person who attends to it is of cleanly habits. 
" A cow-shed will cost, with a piggery, 251. 
" No method of assurance has been adojited on estates that I am connected 
with. A man of good character will have many friends to help him in case 
of loss, but I approve of assurance." 
Lord Cathcart notes here, " I have been a member of a cow- 
club for many years. We have a balance to credit." 
Mr. Mills's answer to query 13 is — 
" I have the management of estates where there is a pasture set apart for 
cottagers' cows, and also a meadow. A certain iiortion of meadow is allotted 
to each cottager, the after-grass is eaten in common within certain dates, and 
there is a fixed time for stocking the pasture. The extent of pasture and 
meadow is four acres, and the rent 81. a year. The fields are near to the 
village, and the cowsheds and pigstyes are built in them and all together, and 
this plan I strongly recommend. Generally these buildings are placed imme- 
diately behind cottages, and are at variance with all sanitary views." 
In reply to query 14, Mr. Mills says — 
" Careful habits to obtain the means of buying a cow. Good conduct to 
obtain the land when a vacancy may occur, and good conduct on the part of 
the whole family resident in the village to retain it. A farm labourer is not 
of a migratory character when he can have his cow and his pig ; and during 
the period such high wages were paid in the mining districts, those who bad 
these privileges were the only men who could be relied upon as permanent 
labourers — the young strong men who did not possess them went away." 
The Duke of Northumberland, having forwarded the queries 
to Mr. Snowball, his commissioner in Northumberland, I have 
received some interesting communications from that part of the 
country, as well as from the Duke himself. His Grace thus 
describes the change that has taken place : " Formerly every 
hind in Northumberland, if married, had a cow, and was allowed 
grazing ground for her by the farmer hiring him ; latterly, 
however, I fear this custom has been on the wane, and going 
out with that of paying the hind in kind, once prevalent 
throughout the district." The result has been that, as Mr. 
Snowball remarks, " the keeping of a cow is the exception 
instead of the rule, which I much regret." 
Mr. John Patten, farm bailiff to the Duke of Northumberland, 
writes " that the labourer ought not to be dependent on the 
farmer for milk ; he should be the owner of a cow maintained 
by his employer." " The keep of a farm labourer's cow is 
regarded," Mr. Patten says, " as part wage, equal to from As. to 
OS. per week. For this his cow has grazing in summer apd 
