THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
385 
August 29.] 
“ In planning the turning up of my ground for spade cul¬ 
tivation, I went on the supposition of keeping only one cow; 
and for seven months we kept only one. But I considered 
the inconvenience of the cow being dry for three months out 
of the twelve ; and that there was room in the stable for a 
second, and little more trouble, in keeping two than one; 
and a pretty certain market among my neighbours for what¬ 
ever butter and milk I might have to sell. So I bought a 
‘ spring calver ’ as companion to the ‘ autumn calver,’ and we 
find that we very nearly maintain them both on little more 
than three-quarters of an acre of grass, and less than half 
an acre of garden. The second cow pays her way by her 
manure and milk. 
“ Our first consideration was the manure. It is as true 
with relation to our small concerns as to a greater, that ‘ the 
more manure, the more green crops; the more green crops, 
the more stock; the more stock, the more manure.’ There 
are two tanks, well llagged and cemented, well closed, so 
that not a drop can ooze out. One is connected with the 
house, and the other with the cottage and cow-house, receiv¬ 
ing all their drainage of every kind. A barrel on wheels 
stands at the back-door to receive all the slops, soap-suds, 
cabbage-water, <fcc., and this liquid manure is wheeled away, 
and applied where it is wanted. There is a compost pit at 
the back of the kitchen garden ; and a compost heap behind 
some young trees at the bottom of the field. What with the 
clippings, and weedings, and sweepings, and nothing being 
wasted, the pit being kept clean, and the cow-house swept 
out twice a day, we have abundance of manure ("without buy¬ 
ing any whatever), which accounts for the abundance of our 
crops thus far. One instance of my servant’s passion for 
economy amused me so much that it seems worth telling 
you. Early one morning, returning from my walk, I looked 
in upon the pig, just when his breakfast was approaching in 
another direction. I said to Robert, ‘ I think piggy looks 
very r well, only that he wants a washing.’ * Yes, ma’am,’ 
said Robert, ‘ that will be to-morrow. To-morrow is washing- 
day, and the suds will wash the pig first, and then be as 
good, and better, for manure; and then the soap serves three 
times over.’ 
“ Our available ground is—of pasture, three roods twenty- 
eight perches; and of tilled ground, one rood fifteen perches. 
There are besides about twenty-six perches of grass in the 
little plantation, orchard, and slope, which yield some fresh 
grass when mowed in summer. I shall turn up a little more 
ground this spring in order to provide completely for the 
maintenance of two cows, though I cannot encroach much 
more on the grass, on account of the views from the win¬ 
dows. But for this, we should give our cows no grass or 
hay, which are the most expensive kinds of food. Our soil 
is good ; neither very rich nor very light; laying at varying 
depths irpon limestone. Much of our newly-clug portion was 
full of stones. Our neighbours advised us to cover them up 
again, but we judged differently. I thought we might as 
well make drains of the new path-ways we must have, so, by 
deep digging, v r e obtained drains, and the large stones were 
thus disposed of. Some more were carted out to mend the 
roads, and when my servant was in despair at there being 
yet more, it occurred to him to dig out good earth from cor¬ 
ners of the plantation, and supply its place with stones. He 
actually dug pits breast deep for this purpose. 
His digging for crops w'as not less than two spits deep, 
dug straight down, and the whole was richly manured. The 
ground being ready, our method is this :— 
“ In August we sow cabbage-seed, and by the end of Sep¬ 
tember we begin to set out the young plants, about 400 per 
week, for six weeks, to secure a succession. We set them in 
rows, the plants being eighteen inches apart, and the rows a 
yard apart. In March and April we sow swedes and beets 
in alternate rows between the rows of cabbages. By the 
time we are beginning to cut the cabbages, the tramps and 
beets are past the danger of the fly, and may be thinned— 
the removal of the cabbages letting in air aud sunshine. We 
also keep a portion of ground for Belgian carrots, which 
afford excellent cow food. We succeeded less with these 
this year than with our other crops, from their not being 
sufficiently thinned. But we had twenty-five stone of them, 
and four or five carrots per day were very acceptable to the 
cows. By the end of March the cows can get a bite in the 
pasture, and the mowings of the grass in the orchard, &c., 
are brought to them fresh. While the pasture is shut up 
for hay the cabbages begin to ripen. They weigh from 4 lbs. 
to 12 lbs., and each cow eats about eighteen per day. This 
is their food from June to November, with such grazing as 
they get after our hay-making, and a handful or two per day 
of Indian meal, scalded and given with their grass. The 
pasture haring been well manured in the winter and wonder¬ 
fully retrieved by good care, yielded more than a ton and a 
half of the finest hay. This year, I think, I shall try for a 
second crop, as we have abundance of manure. But last 
year I had half the pasture hurdled off, and the cows let out 
for some time every fine day to graze, the one half for one 
fortnight, and the other the next. By the time the grass 
and the cabbages were done, we had laid in less than we 
hope to produce this year, but a fan - amount of crops. For 
I the cows one and a half ton of hay, twenty-five stone of Bel¬ 
gian carrots, and at least ten cwt. of swedes and beet. 
“ We laid out too much of our ground for household vege¬ 
tables, haring had a surplus after the following supply:—■ 
Fine green peas—from the 12th of June till the middle of 
September—peas, lettuces, radishes, spinach, turnips, and 
carrots, and onions, enough for the whole winter—five or 
six stone of early potatoes, vegetable marrow, a few cucum¬ 
bers, abundance of cauliflowers, broccoli, and cabbages, and 
plenty of rhubarb and gooseberries. A strawberry bed is 
laid out, too, and we are to have plenty of apples, and pears, 
and cherries, and damsons, hereafter. We used enough 
green vegetables for a family of five persons for the whole 
summer and autumn. 
“ The average yield of the cows is about ten quarts per 
day each, i. e., about four pounds of butter per week. The 
skimmed milk is eagerly bought, being as good as I used to 
buy for new milk. The butter-milk improves our bread and 
cakes very much, and the pig has what we do not use. The 
cows give sixteen quarts per day for some time after calving, 
and are dry for about three months beforer One cow calved 
in October, and we sold the calf (a cow-calf) for a guinea at 
the end of a fortnight. The same cow is to calve again in 
September, and the other in May, and thus a continued 
supply of milk is provided for. We kill two pigs in a year, 
and selling half each time, get our hams and as much bacon 
as we want for little or nothing. What we have to buy is 
three barrels of Indian meal in a year (at an average of 16s. 
each), some of which we use ourselves for puddings and 
cakes, and which goes far towards feeding the fowls; a few 
trusses of wheat-straw after harvest (when it is cheapest) to 
chop and mix with the cows’ boiled turnip-food in winter, a 
few pennyworths of grains per week, and two or three loads 
of turnips after Midsummer, and perhaps a little (but a very 
Httle) hay. As I consider that the cows maintain the man, 
this expenditure is all that I have to make in return for our 
large supply of vegetables, pork, bacon, and hams, eggs, and 
a few fowls, our gardening, and the keeping of the whole 
ground in high order, and, moreover, through the good 
nature of my excellent servant, our window-cleaning and 
coal-shifting. It may not be out of place here to mention 
his other proofs of zeal and kindness. His sister is my 
maid, and she has care of the plate. In the short days, or 
in excessively bad weather, lie comes up and offers to clean 
the plate, which is, in consequence, better kept than it ever 
was before. Again, the tenant of the next field besought me 
to take possession of the fence (by permission of the owner), 
as it was a great expense and trouble to him. I long refused, 
though the hedge was very ugly, with eight hideous pollards 
and eternal rows of wet linen hung on from the other side. 
At last my servant begged me to take the hedge, saying that 
he would grub and fell the whole, and that, if the wood did 
not pay me for a new fence, the gain in land would. I put 
up a cross pole fence, which is highly ornamental. My 
neighbour and I gain each ten square yards of ground, I am 
safe from sheep and trespassers, and I have wood enough for 
about two years’ consumption, besides pea-sticks and poles 
as many as we want. The new fence cost £0 and a lew 
shillings. The purpose of setting forth this man’s merits is 
to be fair; for I am aware how essentially the success of my 
experiment depends on the quality of the servant who has to 
work it out. 
“ The cow-house is, as I said, swept out (into the entrance 
of the tank) twice a-day; and it is whitewashed twice a year-. 
The cows are rubbed down daily, and kept almost as sleek 
