1851 
THE CULTIVATOR 
295 
must be kept warm in winter, in order that they may be 
thrifty and give a good quantity of milk. 
During the eight months that the cows are kept ex¬ 
clusively in the barn, they are fed upon hay and meal. 
Twice each day they have a quart of meal a-piece, (in 
the proportion of three-fifths oil-meal to two-fifths corn 
meal,) sprinkled upon cut hay, and the whole moistened 
with water; they are also fed frequently during the day 
with a little dry hay at a time; twice a day they have 
a mess of “ slops,” or. in other words, one quart of 
meal a piece, each time, (two-fifths corn meal to three- 
fifths oil-meal) with sufficient water added to make a 
mess of three gallons measure to each cow. The meal, 
an hour or two before being fed in this form, is put into 
a large box, set upon low truck wheels; the water is im¬ 
mediately poured on, and the contents are frequently 
stirred, so that the meal may become thoroughly soaked 
and swelled, in which state it is thought to be more di¬ 
gestible, and to produce more milk,, than if fed as soon 
as mixed with the water. A little finely-cut hay is stir¬ 
red in with the meal and water, to give the mass greater 
consistency. When this drink is to be given, the box 
containing it is trundled along on the barn-floor, in front 
of the stalls, and from a large ladle, holding just the right 
quantity, each cow receives her mess, in a water-tight 
manger. The cut-feed is mixed in this same large box, 
which is moved along from stall to stall, for convenience 
of feeding. A clock in the meal room indicates the 
times when the cut-hay and meal, and the 11 slops” are 
to be given, and strict regularity of hours is observed in 
dispensing the same. More milk is obtained from the 
cut feed and the drink, than could be derived from dry 
hay and meal: more milk is obtained from feeding part 
of the meal in the form of :i slops,” than could be real¬ 
ized by feeding it all upon the cut-hay. 
The meal keeps the cows in fine, sleek condition, and 
in eight to twelve months from the time they are pur¬ 
chased, they are good beef. They are carded daily, and 
kept perfectly clean. A trench behind them, four in¬ 
ches deep and twenty inches wide, receives the manure 
and urine, so that the platform or floor upon which they 
stand, or lie down, is always dry and clean, and so 
is the walk behind them, beyond the trench, dry and 
clean. Mr. Adams says, that in consequence of keep¬ 
ing the cows clean, the barn well ventilated, and of dis¬ 
pensing the feed with great regularity, he isseldom trou¬ 
bled with a sick cow. 
Exact regularity of time is observed in milking, and 
the cows average about eight quarts each per day. The 
milk, as soon as drawn, is taken to a room at the house, 
and strained into large tin coolers, set in a vat con¬ 
taining ice-water in summer, and cold water in win¬ 
ter, in order to take out the animal heat, so that the 
milk may be fresh and sweet when delivered in town. 
The morning’s milk is cooled as speedily as possible, and 
mixed with that drawn the night previous; the whole is 
then taken immediately to the city in small tin cans, and 
delivered to customers in two hours’ time. All vessels 
into which milk is put, are daily washed and scoured, 
and kept perfectly bright and sweet. The milk-room is 
always neat and clean. The milk sells at five cents per 
quart in summer, and at six cents in winter. 
Mr. Adams, by keeping so many cows, and feeding 
them high with meal, is enabled to make a large quanti¬ 
ty of very strong manure. In order to preserve its 
strength, to save all the urine, as well as for convenience 
of cleaning the stables, he has a cellar under the barn 
large enough to hold a years’ stock of manure. It is 
thrown into the cellar through scuttles in the stable floor, 
and about once a month, the heaps accumulating under¬ 
neath are spread evenly about, and a quantity of loam 
tipped in. sufficient to cover the manure four inches 
thick; or, in other words, three parts of loam are 
mixed with two parts of manure. Before carting the 
compost out to the fields, it is shoveled over from top to 
bottom, and so thoroughly mixed as to make it of uni¬ 
form quality throughout. Without the addition of loam, 
and the thorough mixture by shoveling over, the manure 
would be so wet and heavy as to create great inconveni¬ 
ence in loading, carting, and spreading the same, as there 
is a great deal of liquid manure, in consequence of the 
cows receiving so much of their food in a wet state. 
In addition to the stock of cows, Mr. Adams keeps 
four or five horses for the distribution of the milk and 
for work on the farm, and two to four working oxen. It 
is therefore a great object with him to produce a large 
quantity and a good quality of hay for the support of 
his numerous stock. He has 30 or 40 acres of sandy and 
gravelly land, 20 acres of moist land, and 50 acres of 
salt marsh, all of which produce hay exclusively. Each 
field of the dry or upland soil is plowed every fifth year, 
in August or September. The land is smoothly turned 
over to the depth of eight or nine inches; thirty loads, 
or ten cords, of compost to each acre spread upon the 
furrows and harrowed in; one-half bushel of herds-grass, 
three pecks of red-top. and ten to twenty pounds of 
clover seeds sown to the acre, and bushed in; and the 
surface is then smoothed with the roller. In July of 
the next season the new seeding is fit for the scythe; 
and the land produces good crops of hay for five years. 
For the first year or two, the hay made from the new 
seeding is principally clover, which is mostly mowed 
and fed in a green state to the cows, in their stalls. For 
the remainder of the five years, the hay is red-top and 
herds-grass, with a mixture of white clover, which comes 
into the sward of itself. Twenty acres of moist land, 
lying upon a flat surface between the upland and salt 
marsh, are never plowed, but are kept in perpetual grass 
by a top-dressing of twenty-five loads of compost to the 
acre, every third year. Red-top and white clover are 
natural to this land, and. at haying time a heavy, thickly 
matted swath of grass rolls from the scythe, which 
makes remarkably milk-producing hav for the cows. 
Thirty acres of the marsh produce a good quality of 
salt hay. and twenty acres, lying low, and being subject 
to flowage, yield an ordinary quality of hay. In feeding 
cut hay to the cows, a mixture of salt and fresh hay is 
given, which is agreeable to them, and promotive of 
health and thrift. 
Mr. Adams raises a variety of fruit. His orchards of 
the apple, give, in good seasons, from five to six hun¬ 
dred barrels of fruit. There is an old orchard upon the 
farm that contains some of the largest apple trees I have 
ever seen; they are very sound and thrifty; their tops 
spread over a wide surface of ground, and the trees are 
very productive. The soil in this orchard is kept open 
