230 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[June, 
hewing posts. Either one of the Blocks, IV, can 
be laid against the machine to suit a right or a left- 
handed operator. The butt end of post must al¬ 
ways be put in the machine. Every farmer or fence 
maker ought to have such a machine, as the rails 
can be pointed more regularly and with ease.” 
[first prize essay.] 
The Family Cow, and How to Keep Her. 
She’s broad in her hips and long in her rump, 
A straight and flat back without even a hump. 
She’s wide in her lips aud calm in her eyes, 
She’s fine in her shoulders and thin in her thighs, 
She's sleight in her neck and small in her tail, 
She’s wide in her breast and good at the pail; 
She’s fine in her bone and silky of skin, 
She’s a grazier without and a butcher within. 
—Milburn. 
There r.re several ways of providing for the wants 
of a cow, but in all cases it is absolutely necessary, 
in order to ot tain the best results, that certain rules 
be followed with regard to the treatment the cow 
receives. She must be fed and milked at regular 
times, be kept thoroughly clean, have plenty of 
fresh air and water, and her food composed of those 
substances that will keep her always in good con¬ 
dition, do away with the milk bill, reduce the gro¬ 
cer’s account, and contribute greatly to the health 
and comfort of the family. I have tried various 
things, and have found fresh grass or fodder, 
provender, bran, oil-cake, mangels, and hay, the 
best bill of fare for “Daisy” or “Buttercup.” Avoid 
brewer’s slops or grains as you would poison, for 
although they increase the flow of milk, it is thin 
and blue, the butter white and tasteless, and after 
a time the cow’s teeth will blacken and decay. I 
was told the other day by a very intelligent dairy¬ 
man that after feeding his cows one season on 
brewer’s grains he was obliged to sell his whole herd. 
Mr. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., in his “ Ogden Farm 
Papers,” says he expects to be able to feed a cow 
from May 15th to November 15th from i acre of 
ground, but the average citizen had better not at¬ 
tempt it, but keep his half acre to raise vegetables 
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PLAN OF COW STABLE. 
and fruit, buying what food he requires to keep his 
cow. A cow can be made very profitable if kept in 
the following way: First, as to the accommodation 
required, a yard 15 feet by 15, and a stable or cow¬ 
shed arranged as in the following plan. A, manure 
shed; B, bin for driedearth; C, cow; JD , store-room ; 
F, window for putting in hay ; F, door; G, trap to 
loft; H , feeding trough. Her food to be provided 
as follows: Into a common wooden pail put one 
quart of provender (provender is oats and peas 
ground together, and can be purchased at any feed 
store), 1 lb. of oil-cake, Then fill the pail nearly full 
of bran and pour boiling water over the whole; 
stir well with a stick, and put it away covered with 
an old bit of carpet until feeding time ; give her 
that mess twice a day. Her dinner from June to 
November to consist of grass or fodder cut and 
brought in twice a week by some farmer or market 
gardener in exchange for her manure and sour 
milk. In Montreal, grass and fodder is brought to 
market by the “Habatants,” and sold in bundles. 
As to quantity, a good big armful will be sufficient, 
and it is more healthful for the cow if it is a little 
wilted. In the winter, hay and mangels are to be 
fed in place of the grass and fodder. She should 
also have salt where she can take a lick when so 
minded, and fresh water three times a day. The 
yard should be kept clean by scraping up the ma¬ 
nure every morning into the little shed at the end 
of the stable. The following table shows the 
food required to keep one cow well the entire year: 
Hay, the best, 2 tons, at $10 per ton.$20 00 
200 lbs. of oil-cake, at $4 per 100 lbs. 8 00 
800 lbs. of provender, at $1 per 100 lbs. 8.00 
x ton of bran, at $12 per ton. 6 00 
1 ton of mangels. . 5 00 
$47 00 
Your cow will require the following “ 
1 five-gall >n stone churn. 
iy z doz. tin milk-pans, at $2. 
1 milk pail and strainer. 
1 butter bowl (wooden). 
1 paddle and print. 
2 wooden pails for feed. 
1 card. 
Cost of a good cow... 
Interest at 8 per cent 
Any ordinary family will take from a milkman at 
least one quart a day. We in Ottawa pay 8 cents 
per quart, making per year 365 x8c., $29.20. 
It is a very poor cow that will not average 5 lbs. 
of butter a week for 40 weeks, and that at 25 cents 
perlb., that is, 40 weeksx51bs.,x25c., equals $50.00. 
So the account stands thus: 
Butter.$50 00 
Milk. 29 20 
$79 20 
Cost of food for one year.$47 00 ) M 
Interest on cow aud trousseau. 3 69 S 
Profit..$28 51 
I have found that two acres of land is the least 
possible area that will provide cow-food for the en¬ 
tire year, and that should be divided thus : One 
acre for hay, the other for fodder aud mangels. If 
you have no land already seeded down, plow up 
your acre, sow clover and timothy, 6 lbs. of each. 
In May, when the grass has fairly started, top-dress 
it with two bushels of land plaster; if you can ap¬ 
ply it just before a rain it is the best time. The 
first year you will have all clover hay, and it must 
be cut before the second blossom comes; if not 
cut early enough, the stalks become tough and 
woody, and are wasted by the cow. The second 
year, if top-dressed in the fall with the manure col¬ 
lected during the summer, you will have a fine crop 
of timothy, and if the land was good for anything 
you can cut hay from it for three years by giving it 
a little manure every fall. As early as the ground 
will admit, sow some peas and oats ; one bushel of 
each will plant one-third of an acre. Peas do well 
on old sod, and are the best crop to plant on new 
ground. In about six weeks you can commence cut¬ 
ting it for fodder, and it should give the cow two 
good meals a day until corn comes in. L. B. Arnold, 
in “American Dairying,” says of com: “When 
too thickly planted its stems and leaves are soft 
and pale, its juices thin aud poor. If sown thin or 
in drills, so that the air and light aud heat of the 
sun can reach it, and not fed until nearly its full 
size, it is a valuable soiling plant.” Now Mr. War¬ 
ing, in “Farming for Profit,” says : “It is a common 
mistake when the corn is planted in drills to put in 
so little seed that the stalks grow large and strong, 
when they are neglected by the cattle, the leaves 
only being consumed. There should be 40 grains 
at least to the foot of row, which will take from 
four to six bushels to the acre, but the result will 
fully justify the outlay, as the corn standing so 
close in the row will grow fine and thick.” My ex¬ 
perience tells me that Mr. Waring is right; any 
way, my cow will not eat the coarse stalks which 
will grow when the corn is planted too thin. 
The one-third acre reserved for mangels, must 
be the perfection of richness, well drained, and ma¬ 
nured. If the soil is deep, you can plant them on 
the flat, but if the soil is shallow, plant them on 
ridges, the ridges 30 inches apart, (I always plant 
them in that way); then thin out the plants to 15 
inches apart. Ten to twelve hundred bushels may 
be grown on an acre, but the ground must be prop¬ 
erly prepared. In storing them, they require to be 
very carefully handled, as the least bruise hastens 
decay, and we want to keep them fresh and good 
until April, when our cow ought to give us a calf. 
I thought I had tried almost everything relating to 
the care of cows, but when I undertook to wean a 
five weeks’ old calf, I found my education in that 
respect sadly neglected. I asked a farmer’s wife 
how I was to manage, “Oh,” she said, “just dip 
your fingers in the milk, and let the calf suck them 
a few times, and it will soon learn to put its nose in 
the pail, and drink.” It sounded simple enough, so 
I took my pail and started for the barn, where that 
wretched animal slopped me all over with milk, 
bunted me round and round the pen, until I was 
black and blue, sucked the skin off my finger, and 
wouldn’t drink. After trying at intervals for two 
days, the calf was getting thin, and so was I. In 
despair, I left the pail of milk, giving that calf a 
few words of wholesome advice. When I went 
back two hours after, the calf was standing over 
the empty pail, with an expression on its face, that 
I translated into an inquiry, as to why I hadn’t left 
that pail there before. I have weaned several 
calves since then, but have never had any trouble. 
Leave them with the cow 3 or 4 days, then take a 
little milk and hold the calf’s nose in the pail, it 
must open its mouth or smother, and when once it 
tastes the milk, will soon learn to drink.* When 
it is a week old, commence feeding with oil-cake, 
skim milk, and molasses. Into an old 2-lb. 
peach can, I put one tablespoonful of oil-cake aud 
one of molasses, fill up the can with boiling water, 
and set it on the stove until thoroughly cooked. 
That quantity will be its allowance for one 
day, mixed with the skim milk. The next week 
give it that quantity at each meal, and the next 
week twice that. The calf will then be four weeks 
old, and the butcher ought to give you a price 
for it that will pay for all trouble and the family 
milk bill while the cow was dry. It does not 
pay to raise calves where you only keep one cow. 
(Mr. Cochrane, the owner of the celebrated cow, 
“ Duchess of Airdrie,” told me the other morning 
that last year he sold a calf of lier’s to an English 
gentleman for 4,000 guineas ($20,000). I think it 
would pay to have a wet nurse if one had a calf like 
that). A tablespoonful of lime-water put in the 
milk now and then will prevent the calf from 
“ scouring,” a complaint very common among calves 
brought up by hand. I believe that winter rye 
makes a valuable soiling plant, but I have never 
tried it. 
A Few "Words as to G-eneral Management. 
I think it cruel to keep cows tied up all summer. 
They do not require much exercise, but fresh air 
they must have, and it is a great comfort to them 
to lick themselves, although they ought to be well 
curried every day. It is better to milk after feed¬ 
ing, as they stand more quietly. Don’t allow your 
milk-maid to wash the cow’s teats in the milk pail, 
a filthy habit much in vogue. Insist on her taking 
a wet cloth and wiping the cow’s bag thoroughly 
before she commences to milk. A cow ought to 
be milked in ten minutes, although the first time I 
undertook to milk alone, I tugged away for an 
hour. I knew how much milk I ought to have, and 
I was bound to get it. An old cow will eat more 
than a young one, but will give richer milk. If 
you can get a cow with her second calf, you can 
keep her profitably for 5 years, when she should be 
sold to the butcher. There is nothing that will 
keep your cow-shed so neat, and add so much to 
the value of your manure pile, as a few shovelfuls 
of dry earth or muck thrown under the cow. It 
will absorb the liquid manure better than anything 
else. Don’t allow your milk pans to be appropri¬ 
ated for all sorts of household uses; you cannot 
make sweet, firm butter if the milk is put into rusty 
old tin. Skim the milk twice a day into the stone 
churn; add a little salt, and stir it well every time 
you put in fresh cream. Use spring water, but 
don't allow ice to come in contact with the butter; 
it destroys both color and flavor. If your cream is 
too warm the butter will come more quickly, but 
it will be white and soft. When the cream is so 
cold that it takes me half an hour to chum, I always 
have the best butter. Don’t put your hands to it, 
work out the buttermilk with a wooden paddle, and 
work in the salt with the same thing. There is an 
old saying that one quart of milk a day gives one 
lb. of butter a week, and I think it is a pretty fair 
rule, but don’t expect to buy a cow that will give 
your 30 quarts of milk a day. There are such cows 
I know, but they are not for sale. Be quite satis¬ 
fied if your cow gives half that quantity. Place 
the cow’s food where she cannot step on it, but 
[* It is better, as a rule, not to allow the calf to suck at 
all. The aptness to learn to drink is influenced largely 
by heredity. Calves from ancestors that have not been 
allowed to suck, learn to drink more readily than those 
which have been allowed to run with the dam.— Ed.] 
