220 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 8, 1S8*. 
of cream, good butter, white soups, custards, trifles, and 
other articles of diet into which daily produce enters 
largely. 
A disappointment is, however, in store for our friends 
at the outset, for we are bound to tell them that a 
■constant supply of milk the year round is not to he 
had from one cow. For at least two months of the 
time before and after calving the milk supply will cease 
entirely, and there will be a steady falling off in quantity 
for some time previously ; and, therefore, to have a con - 
stant and full supply of milk two cows at least are 
necessary. Into this we need not enter further, and it 
will answer our purpose fully if we now proceed to con¬ 
sider the selection and management of a cow. 
Our correspondent mentions a Jersey or a half-hred 
Jersey as being the best breed for butter, and we agree, 
but question the wisdom of going out of the way to 
obtain a single cow of a particular breed, because there 
are always cows of local breeds that ai’e good enough for 
all practical purposes. For example, “ H. S. E.” resides 
in East Anglia, and he cannot do better than purchase 
a polled Suffolk cow, for most of them are deep milkers, 
the milk is rich and the butter excellent. A neighbour 
of ours has a fine herd of polled cows kept solely for 
butter making, the quantity of butter made annually at 
the farm being upwards of two tons. It is true enough 
that certain local breeds like the Sussex cows are not 
good dairy cows, but there are plenty of good cross-bred 
cows to be had in Sussex. 
If, possible, select a young cow soon after it has had 
its second calf, for it will then be at its best, and a safe 
opinion may be had of its good and bad qualities. Older 
cows may, of course, be purchased provided sound 
judgment is brought to bear upon the matter. Do not be 
tempted to buy a cow sent to market for sale with its 
calf, however tempting its appearance may be. Depend 
upon it the cow is sold for some fault, such as poverty of 
milk either in quantity or quality, a vicious temper, a 
tendency to barrenness, or difficult parturition. A 
beginner should either purchase a well-known cow at the 
Michaelmas auction sale of an outgoing farm tenant, or 
get a person upon whose judgment he can rely to procure 
one for him : the price will be from £12 to £20, very 
useful cows being now sold for prices very little beyond 
the lower sum. 
If the cow is purchased at Michaelmas there would 
probably be enough grass upon the pasture for the next 
month, but the cow should not be exposed to the heavy 
downpour of rain which we so frequently have in October; 
a little stall feeding with hay and some Oat straw in the 
yard must therefore be taken into our calculation of ways 
and means. Stall feeding from the end of October till 
the end of March—a period of five months—is a certainty, 
and there must be due provision of food for the whole 
of that time. A cow requires about 70 lbs. of food 
daily, or say about 1 ton a month, so that at least 5 tons 
per cow should be stored for the winter months, and with 
such a late spring as we had this year there should be a 
surplus for April. Of the 5 tons one at least should 
consist of meadow" hay and the remainder of roots, Oat 
or Barley straw, and bran. A mixed diet is altogether 
best, and to 14 lbs. of hay and 7 lbs. of bran we may 
aid sliced Carrots or Mangolds, with some chopped straw, 
and if a supply of "Cabbages can be had a moderate 
quantity tends materially to the maintenance of a full 
flow of milk. Turnips should never be used uncooked 
for milch cows, as they impart a rank bitter flavour to 
the butter that is very unpalatable. If cooked and the 
water poured off the}' may be used with chaff, and cow s 
are very fond of them so prepared. 
Pure 'water, fresh air,and cleanliness are indispensable. 
The cow shed should be snug and warm, but there should 
he thorough ventilation both day and night. The floor 
should be of asphalte or cement, and if litter is used 
for bedding it should he removed every morning and the 
floor sv r ept clean. We hold that cleanliness in the cow 
house is as important as it is in the dairy, and we have 
no doubt that the filthy state in which cows are so often 
seen tends to spoil both milk and butter. It will be 
understood that we never turn out cows on pasture in 
winter; they have exercise in the yard upon fine days, 
but are kept in the shed at night and from exposure to 
cold and wet. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK OK THE HOME FARM. 
Enough rain has fallen to keep stubble Turnips growing, and we 
now hope to have sufficient for the ewes and lambs next spring, but 
the roots at best can now only be small. Mangolds are growing freely, 
and on some farms the crop will be a heavy one ; on others it will be 
inferior. Some flockmasters have been compelled to pull Mangolds for 
the half-starved sheep, as there was nothing for them upon the meadows, 
and we have seen Mangolds pulled and thrown upon the stubbles for 
the sheep. We have made no purchases of old sheep for folding this 
autumn, for the scarcity of green food and of roots convinced us that 
we could not do so profitably. Yet there was some temptation to buy 
sheep, for much of the second growth of Red Clover was worthless, both 
for seed and stover. We turned what growth there was to account by 
letting it for grazing at about £1 per acre, upon condition that the 
sheep had a given quantity of oilcake daily, the flockmaster sending a 
shepherd in charge of the sheep with hurdles and troughs, and they 
were to be kept in each fold for twenty-four hours. Under these 
conditions we have had some 1200 sheep upon two of our off farms, 
which have manured the land and left it quite ready for ploughing 
for Wheat, and we have received a handsome sum of money for rent 
into the bargain. We mention this matter, by the way, as an illus¬ 
tration of our teaching that a farmer should not invariably act by line 
and rule, but rather adapt himself to circumstances, and try and turn 
to account each outcome of peculiar seasons. 
The tups are now with the ewes for service in order to have lambs 
early in January. The ewes are strong selected animals in high con¬ 
dition, which, at this season of the year, is maintained solely by grazing 
upon sound pastures, the tups only having corn when they are kept 
from the ewes upon alternate days. We use lamb tups of the Hamp¬ 
shire Down breed with half-bred Suffolk ewes. From this cross we 
obtain fine lambs, which come to hand for market by the first week in 
June, or in about eighteen weeks from the birth, and we believe them 
to be more hardy and to come to maturity earlier than the pure bred 
Suffolks. We may mention that every faulty ewe was withdrawn from 
the flock immediately after the lambs were weaned. Among such are 
included barrens, crones, or over-age ewes, and any having bud udders 
or any other faults rendering them unsuitable for rearing lambs. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
L&t. 61° S2'40"N.; Lon^, 0° 8'0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. ; 9 A.M. | IN THE DAT. 
1887. 
Aug.—Sep. 
&?>*_: 
|S|3 
Hygrome¬ 
ter. 
Direction 
ot Wind. 
Temp, of 
soil at 
1 foot. 
Shade Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Temperature 
a 
*5 
« 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
sun. 
On 
grass 
Inches. 
deg 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
dez. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Pnnday . 
28 
29 75(5 
66 7 
65 0 
E. 
62 6 
75 7 
00.3 
110.9 
57 6 
— 
Monday. 
29 
29.67(5 
64 2 
59.2 
s. 
631 
73.5 
57.7 
118 2 
528 
0 2 51 
Tuesday .... 
30 
29.739 
65 3 
59.9 
s.w. 
627 
72.1 
59 0 
1127 
6(5.4 
0.6'3 
Wednesday.. 
3L 
29.473 
62 6 
57.3 
w. 
62.2 
70.4 
56.6 
117.2 
53 7 
0 094 
Thursday .... 
1 
29.728 
61.6 
5S.4 
s. 
61.2 
G5.2 
54.3 
84.6 
51.L 
0.239 
Friday . 
2 
29.783 
56 9 
51.0 
s.w. 
60.5 
63 7 
56 1 
1012 
51 8 
0 069 
Saturday .... 
3 
29 812 
6U.1 
54 7 
\\\ 
595 
69.2 
62 4 
112.8 
47.9 
0.308 
29.612 
62.5 
57.9 
G1.7 
70.0 
56 6 
108 2 
53.0 
1.58 
REMARKS 
28th.—A shower in early morning ; then fair, though frequently threatening, throughout. 
29th.— Heavy rain in the morniog, with thunder at 9 AJI. and at 10 A.M ; line afternoon ; 
rain again at night. 
30th,—Fine morning ; wet afternoon and evening; gale and heavy rain at night. 
31st.—Stormy, with squalls of r iiu early and in the morning, bright between whiles ; one 
peal of thunder at 2 45 PM, followed by a sharp squall of rain and hail, then bright 
sunshine ; another sharp shower about an hour later ; fair evening; much wind 
throughout. 
1st.—Dull, with heavy showers at 11.3) A M. and 1 P.M.; wet evening; stroDg S.W. gale 
at night. 
2nd.—Gale continued, but with diminished force; dull aad showery till after 3 P.M., 
then fine. 
3rd.—Fine bright morning, clouding over towards noon : fair afternoon ; wet night. 
A wet and windy week. Mean temperature about 3 Q above the average, aud almo-t 
exactly the same as that of th ? preceding week. This week, however, the mean maxi¬ 
mum temperature approximated to the average, and was about G° lower tliau that of the 
preceding week, while the mean minimum temperature was about as much above both 
the average and that of the preceding week.—G. J. SYMONS. 
