DAI RY FARMING. 
4G1 
framed splendid cattle being kept in blooming condition and 
in full profit on grass alone. Very different, however, is the 
case of the farmer who farms on a medium soil, the grass of 
which gets burned up when overtaken by a lengthened 
drought, as if he has not provided supplementary food, his 
cattle cannot possibly give a profitable return, falling rapidly 
off both in produce and condition. Growing a few suc- 
cessive breadths of green food to be given in the house at the 
morning and evening milking pays well, as it not only in- 
creases the flow of milk for the time being, but keeps it up 
till a much more advanced period of the season than is the 
case when the cows have to subsist on the pastures alone. 
The large quantity of manure made by the partial house- 
feeding system is another source of profit, as it gives the 
farmer the means of sustaining the fertility of his land, 
making it in fact self-supporting, but little money being re- 
quired to be spent on fertilizers of any kind when substantial 
farm-yard manure of the best sort is manufactured so exten- 
sively. At one time we supposed that it was an impossibility, 
even wfith the utmost care and forethought, to provide such a 
regular supply as would ensure a hearty feed twice a day 
from the time the roots were finished in May, until again 
available in September ; but a neighbour of our own has shown 
the fallacy of that idea by keeping a stock of about fifty head 
for the past seven or eight years without letting them into 
the fields even for a single night during the entire year. 
Tares, irrigated grass, and second- crop clover are his prin- 
cipal dependence for house food; and so well does he manage 
that he has every beast fat, from the youngest-calved heifer to 
the oldest cow. Winter tares sown in September are a 
valuable crop, giving a large amount of food, and permitting 
the ground to be cleared in time for a full crop of turnips. 
Tares have this useful property, that however succulent, they 
do not scour cows fed on them, and may be given fresh from 
the scythe without injury; indeed, there is no way they can 
be given so appetizing to the animals as when newly cut. 
They do not so much increase the flow of milk as add to its 
richness, and sustains it throughout the season, the butter 
made being firm in texture and delicious in quality. On 
ordinary land tares are not worth growing for cattle-feeding 
purposes, unless highly manured, the crop having no bulk, 
and moreover runs too late in the season to be of any per- 
ceptible benefit. Much of the profit of a dairy is lost by 
keeping the cows out in the fields at night too far into the 
autumn, as they are chilled by the frosty dews, and the milk 
prematurely dried. This course is compulsory on those who 
