Keeping one cow / Being the experience of a number of practical writers, in a clear and condensed form, upon the management of a single milch cow

by Various

CALVING.

The cow should be milked as long as her milk is good, or until she runs dry, which may in some cases be six or eight weeks of calving (in others not at all.) Her rations should be curtailed a little for a short time before that period, in order to carry her safely through the crisis. After she has the calf, she may receive warm bran-mashes for a day or two, containing a little of her own milk, and should not be fully fed for the first few days. This treatment is all that is required before and after the period of calving. The cow will generally pass through this event in safety, without assistance. Should there, however, be a false presentation, or other difficulty of parturition, the best thing the owner can do, if he has no experience in the matter, is to call to his aid a veterinary surgeon, or a neighbor who knows what course to pursue in such cases.

As long as the cow is fresh, and yields a large flow of milk, she should be milked three times a day, early in the morning, at noon, and late in the evening; afterwards two milkings daily, will be sufficient. She should be fed, watered, milked, carded, and led out of and into the stable, at the same hours every day. She should not be beaten, or pelted, or harshly spoken to or dealt with in any manner. Kind and considerate treatment inspires her with confidence and contentment, makes her the pet and delight of the household, and is rewarded by an abundance of wholesome milk. But there are many matters of detail in keeping a cow, which it is impossible to notice in a limited essay like this. If the owner desires to be fully informed on the subject, he will do well to purchase a few books that treat upon the subject.

The stable for the cow should be warm, dry, well ventilated, and large enough to contain two or three tons of hay and litter, together with other material to be described hereafter, besides a stall for the cow, and room for the calf. If the owner of the cow has a stable that fulfils these requirements, it will answer his purpose if he makes a proper stall in it. If he has no stable, and cannot afford the expense of building a good one, he must at least have a proper stall to save the manure of the cow, and to shelter her from the inclemency of the weather. A stable that will fully answer this purpose, should be at least fourteen feet square, and about twelve feet high to the eaves, and should have a loft for storing hay. The annexed figures represent such a structure in outline:

Fig. 17.

Fig. 18.

Figure 17 is a ground plan, and shows that the lower story is divided into two parts, S, representing the stall, and R, all the remaining portion below. The stall is ten feet long, and should be five, or nearly five feet wide; M, represents the manger, which is about two feet deep, eighteen inches wide, and in length equal to the width of the stall. The cow is tied to the manger with a halter or chain; T, is a trough in the manger for feeding roots, salt, etc., and is about one foot wide, eight inches deep, and in length equal to the width of the manger. The floor of the stall should slope a little to the rear, and must be water-tight, so as to conduct the urine of the cow into the brine-pit, B. The floor may be composed of cement, or of two-inch plank closely fitted together. The brine-pit, B, consists of a water-tight box made of plank, and should be about one foot wide, six inches deep, and in length equal to the width of the stall. This pit is sunk into the ground so that its top is on a level with the floor, in order that it may receive all the liquid discharges of the cow that are not absorbed by the litter. If the floor is laid in cement the pit may be made of the same material. The object of the brine-pit is to save the liquid manure; to accomplish which the latter must be retained by some absorbent. Dry earth is used for this purpose. At first the bottom of the pit is covered with dry earth, and as soon as this is moist, more earth is added until the pit is full of the saturated substance, when the latter is thrown upon the compost heap, and the same process repeated. A door is placed at e, for admitting the cow, and carrying away the manure. The partition between S and R may be made of boards or rails, and need not be over four feet high.

The division, R, is used for keeping litter, dry earth, artichoke roots, green fodder, and the calf. It should have a door at some convenient place for entrance from the outside, and a window with a glass-frame, preferably on the south side. It is in communication with the stall by means of a gate at d.

Figure 18 is a view of the gable-end, L, representing the loft for storing hay and other dry fodder. The loft has a shutter in one of the gable-ends or sides, and a ladder or steps running up to it from within, for convenience of feeding. P, is a post in the corner of the manger. The other letters in figure 18 indicate the same parts as in figure 17.

The cow-yard will be large enough if it contains an area of two square rods; but it can be made somewhat larger with advantage. It ought to adjoin the stable so as to give the cow direct access to the stall; and ought to be shaded by trees in order to afford shelter to the cow from the direct rays of the sun in summer. The cow should be kept in the yard only a part of the day, and the rest of the time she should be in the stall. The stall-door should be left open when she is in the yard, so that she can enter the stable at will. Some manure will be lost by suffering her to run in the yard; but the benefit that she will derive from it, in health and contentment, will more than compensate for the loss.