534 
Cow-Keeping by Farm Labourers. 
" A little nitrate of sotla and superphosjiliate or guano are purchased for the 
pastures. 
" The cow, tied up in a stall, requires little if any litter. Straw is in this 
district as dear as hay, and is only bought for thatch. 
" Most of the milk is generally used for butter-making, the skim-milk being 
jiartly consumed by the family, and partly used in rearing a calf, or, with 
maize meal, in fattening a pig. 
" The labourers' wives have in this district usually been in farm-service 
where dairy work has been done, and their butter is generally of average 
quality. 
" The moral and material advantages of farm laboiu'ers keeping cows are 
the encouragement of thrift and increased attachment to the home. 
" In districts suitable for pasture and the growth of hay, from 3 to 6 acres 
of grass-land attached to a labourer's cottage are much prized by industrious 
married labourers who have saved a little money. The labourer need not 
lose his daily wages, except for a day or two at mowing or haymaking. His 
wife looks after the cows, and is enabled to keep poultry — no mean advantage 
where well managed. The milk is of great use as diet where there is a young 
family. Children rarely look rosy and in robust health except where thej' 
get a good supply of milk. There is a decided contrast in the appearance of 
cbildren in those districts where milk is abundant and those in arable districts 
where the sup))ly is deficient. 
" I supply all my labourers with as much pure new milk as they wish for 
the consumption of their own families at 2d. per imp. quart all the year 
round, and I think that the general adoption of such a system would improve 
the physical health of our agricultural youth. 
" The children of a labourer who keeps a cow learn early to milk — a desirable 
acquirement. Few, except those who learn young, become good milkers. 
"The plan of giving large allotments of arable land for occupation b}' farm 
labourers is undesirable, but very much more is to be said in favour of a small 
grass-land holding contiguous to the cottage." 
Sir Edward C. Kerrison, Bart., Oakley Park, Scole, Norfolk, 
has favoured me with several valuable suggestions, but, as 
Sir Edward remarks, he resides in an arable district, and quite 
the wrong district for cow-keeping. The men do not under- 
stand the business, the women are not good dairy-women. A 
few cows are kept, but they are uninsured, and although in 
some districts uninsured cows, when they die, are replaced 
somehow by the losers, that would not be the case, I am afraid, 
in Suffolk. This is what would happen in some parts of 
England that I am acquainted with — if a man heard his cow 
cough in the night he would immediately rouse his wealthy 
neighbours, running to them with a " brief," i.e. a begging 
petition for raising a sum of money wherewith to buy another 
cow. 
Mr. J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, resides in a heavy land 
locality, but the clays of Herts are not of the pastoral kind, the 
people are completely ignorant on the subject of dairying, and 
Mr. Lawes has declined attempting the introduction of cow- 
keeping on his estate. He writes : — 
" The subject of cow-keeping by labourers was very carefully considered by 
