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AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
now beginning to spring up ; and so long as they 
will eat hay with an appetite, they should be regu¬ 
larly fed, night and morning, as in mid-winter. 
At this time, from the middle of April to the 
middle of May, or even to the first of June, as cli¬ 
mate, soil, position, and the earliness or lateness 
of the season may govern, the dairy cows will 
have produced the most of their calves, and are 
in fresh milk, and from the day that they get their 
noses to the ground they will gain in milk both 
morning and evening. This shows that exercise, 
and change of food, even if they get but a trifle 
from the pastures, are good for them. By thus 
early turning them out, they also gradually be¬ 
come accustomed to the change from dry to 
green forage, without that sudden looseness in 
the bowels which usually affects them when sud¬ 
denly turned from the stables and hay, on to the 
pastures with the first “ washy ” growth of the 
young grass. There need be no fear of their hurt¬ 
ing the permanent growth of the spring grass by 
such usage, beyond what the increase of milk, 
and the butter or cheese made from it, will pay 
for. It is all made up in the dairy product. 
When the cow can get her full bite of grass she 
will refuse hay any longer, and except in severe¬ 
ly cold rains, may then be turned again to the pas¬ 
ture after milking, or herded in the barn-yard. 
CHANGE OP PASTURES-THEIR PERMANENCY. 
On this subject there are different opinions, 
to some extent, but we believe the experience of 
our most successful dairymen is against it. We 
will stale the two propositions. The advocates 
of change say: Fresh pastures are clean; the 
grass is even, full, and vigorous — therefore, most 
nutritious. A pasture long run over, becomes 
soiled from the treading and droppings, and lying 
down of the cows upon it. A. better flow of milk 
follows a change into a new pasture, over a con- 
inuance on the old one, and it is more economical. 
Turned off from a closely fed pasture, the rains 
bring it up anew, and in a few days or weeks it 
is ready for the cows again, while the one last 
fed again grows to supply its place when that is 
exhausted. On the other side, it is said : No con¬ 
siderable extent of pasture land is commonly 
found on a proper dairy farm but what contains 
inequalities of surface, where the different varie¬ 
ties of grass grow more or less unequally, accord¬ 
ing to the character of the surface, the difference 
in soil, or other circumstances beyond the imme¬ 
diate control of the farmer. The cows, ranging 
at will over the whole extent of the field, select 
such varieties of the grass as in different parts of 
the day are most agreeable to their appetites, and 
they will feed, in the course of the day, upon 
each, and all, as their inclination may crave. In 
short, like men, they like variety in food. Be¬ 
sides this, they no more tramp, or soil the grass 
than when in a more restricted enclosure ; the 
rains wash and clean the grass in one, as well as 
in the other ; therefore, there is no more loss of 
grass on that account than in the shifting sys¬ 
tem. The grass grows stronger as the season ad¬ 
vances, the sap in it is more matured, and a less 
quantity serves a better purpose—that is, if it 
produces less milk in quantity, its superior quality 
gives more butter and more cheese. The cow is 
kept in uniform condition of the bowels, while the 
flashy fresh grass frequently sets her to scouring, 
thus doing her positive injury, and frequently les¬ 
sening instead of increasing the quantity, while 
it surely depreciates the quality of her milk. 
That in the permanent pasture, although the cow 
may neglect considerable portions of the grass, 
for weeks together, she will return to it in some 
part of the season and feed it down alike 
wUh that which af another part of the Summer 
she most preferred. In short, the pasture is uni¬ 
form, and taking the season altogether, it is most 
profitable. It may be added, also, from our own 
experience of many years, that a cow is more 
contented in an accustomed range wb p»v» she is, 
every day, alike at home. Turn a herd of cows 
into a new field, and if not exceedingly hungry, 
the first thing they do is to range over the whole 
extent of it, to find out what there is about it, and 
they do not content themselves to quiet, sober 
feeding until they know the entire breadth, and 
length, the springs, and water courses, or what¬ 
ever comprises its chief features, and character. 
On a very considerable stock farm, we have a 
range of about three hundred acres of pasture 
land, although a very considerable portion of it is 
as well adapted to mowing and grain cropping of 
different kinds, as to pasturage. In this great field 
we turn our cattle of all sorts, sheep, and horses. 
Yet if kept exclusively for dairy purposes, the 
sheep and horses should be excluded. On two 
sides of it is a large water-course, and one side 
a narrow strip of marsh land, which is not drain- 
able, from a want of sufficient elevation above 
the water-course, and on which grows a species 
of rank coarse water-grass of several varieties. 
On another portion, which is a sort of second 
bottom, there grow red-top, and other lowland 
grasses. In a scattered grove of old woods, are 
still other varieties of grass; while a large majori¬ 
ty of the whole field is closely stocked with blue- 
grass, white clover, timothy, red clover, and June 
grass, with a few other minor varieties. The 
sheep and horses usually confine their feeding to 
the upland, shorter grasses, but the cows almost 
invariably range over the whole, every day, 
throughout the feeding season, and eat more or 
less of each variety in turn—not with strict regu¬ 
larity, to be sure, but with certainty. And so they 
continue throughout the season, until the frosts 
kill and make worthless the marsh grasses, when 
they reject them ; and when the close of the sea¬ 
son arrives, the pasture is pretty much all fed off 
alike. The weight of our experience and obser¬ 
vation is in favor of the permanent summer-pas¬ 
ture, for dairy purposes. 
EXTRA SUMMER FEEDING. 
This must depend measurably on the position of 
the dairy-farm, the prices of its products, and 
somewhat on the season—droughts making it 
sometimes absolutely necessary—although it is 
happily so ordered in the meteorological features 
of our best dairy-lands, that they are, as a rule, 
less subject to extremes of drought and excessive 
rains, than our grain or stock-grazing lands, by 
reason of their higher altitude, and more rolling 
or hilly surfaces We believe the best possible 
food for producing the best butter and cheese, is 
white clover and bluegrass, mainly, with the 
other grasses peculiar to our dairy-lands inter¬ 
mixed ; and enough of such food throughout the 
dairy-season will supply the cow with all the nu¬ 
triment required for the most profitable result. 
Yet, high prices of butter and cheese often tempt 
the dairyman to buy considerable quantities of 
corn meal, and “ mill feed” to increase the quantity 
of his milk, and to cultivate crops of green clover, 
oats, and drilled corn for cutting and feeding in a 
season of protracted drought. All these are timely 
precautions with a thrifty dairyman, but not usu¬ 
ally practiced. The whey is in many instances 
fed to cows instead of to hogs, as making a better 
return in the way of cheese, than in pork, and we 
have known instances where the cheese product 
has been increased from the common average of 
I 350 or 400 pounds per season to 500 pounds and 
upwards by the use of these extra foods. Of all 
this, however, the dairyman must be the judge, 
as his particular circumstances may for the time 
determine. 
WATER. 
This indispensable article the cow should 
have—always, at will, immediate, and frequent. 
She is capricious in the want and in the use of 
it, and should have it accessible, and of a pure 
and good quality. Bad and filthy water can not 
produce good dairy-milk ; and although the cow 
will frequently drink out of a stagnant, green, 
warm, and filthy puddle, she takes it medicinally, 
and not as her usual beverage. Pare water is her 
choice, however, and therefore she should have it 
in constant supply. Having large cisterns to our 
own main barn, during summer in a long space 
between rains, it sometimes becomes dark color¬ 
ed and brackish, sowewhat like bilge water, and 
we usually pump more or less of it into the 
troughs every day, and have frequently known 
the cows to come up at evening from the past¬ 
ures, where they had the purest of water at will, 
and go to their troughs, and fill themselves almost 
to bursting with the noisome stuff, which it would 
make a man sick to drink, and they seemed to be 
all the better for it. But these are exceptions to 
the general rule. 
SALTING. 
This should be done weekly and regularly, and 
the quantity a gill to half a pint for each cow. 
The best way is to lay it on the clean grass, in 
piles a few feet apart, or in troughs, where each 
one can get her own proper rations. We usually 
place it in the mangers, where the cows are 
night and morning secured for milking. 
EXTENT OF PASTURE LAND TO EACH COW. 
Lands vary so much in quality that this must 
be measurably left to the experience and judg¬ 
ment of the dairyman himself. One and a half 
acres on some farms, will pasture a cow well 
through the summer, in an ordinary season, while 
three acres will be required on others. For pro¬ 
fit, dairy-pasture should never be overstocked. 
The grass should always afford a full bite. The 
less labor a cow has to perform to fill herself, so 
that she can lie dow-n and chew her cud in quiet,the 
more and better milk will she give. We say, an 
“ ordinary season.” That is the rule to calculate 
upon. Droughty seasons are extraordinary, and as 
we do not know when they are to occur, they 
must be met. as best they can, and provided for 
accordingly, if possible. If not, of course the 
dairy products must suffer. The extra foods 
we have spoken of may then afford a timely and 
profitable supply. Generous food to the cow gives 
a generous return in milk. Pinch the cow in her 
feeding, and she pinches you in her milk. An 
equivalent for one, is sure to be returned in like 
way for the other. 
In all that we have said on the subjects of this 
article, no positive or fixed rule can be laid down 
to govern every dairyman alike. He must pos¬ 
sess a judgment, and have an experience of lik 
own, with which to govern his action; but 
the main drift of our directions are to be heeded, 
if he expects to achieve the highest amount of 
success in his endeavors. 
--■ » * — m &u *—— - 
The Breeding In-and-in Discussion. 
Those of our readers interested in stock rais¬ 
ing especially, and indeed most others will be par¬ 
ticularly entertained with the articles on In-and In, 
or close Breeding, the third of which will be 
found on the next page. The subject is one of 
importance, and the two writers who are discus¬ 
sing it in these columns are, without doubt, the 
