FOOD OF THE COW.
But let us return to the cow. On the morning of June twenty-ninth, we began giving her a fair feed of green corn, adding to it wheat bran, and cotton-seed meal. July second we fed her all the corn stalks she would eat, continuing to add bran and cotton meal, giving four quarts of the former and two of the latter; and this was her daily food, including the German Millet, treated in the same way, until September. The green food was given three times a day, but the bran and cotton meal added only morning and night. Occasionally a day’s supply was cut early in the morning, and allowed to wilt before feeding, but in this, as well as in many other matters, my man-of-all-work did as circumstances permitted. His various duties about the place gave him but little time to reduce to an exact system the care and feed of a cow. She had a good stable, and plenty to eat, received daily a good brushing, and was treated kindly. Yet, she was our servant (and a most faithful one she was), and we were not her’s, or slaves to any arbitrary clock-work regularity. She was fed and milked at regular intervals, but beyond this it was not always convenient to have regular hours at her stable. We did not keep her as an exhibition of a model cow in a model stable, and to exemplify a model system of care and keep. Like thousands all over the land, we kept her simply for the profit she yielded, in the way of milk and butter. It has often struck me, in reading the many suggestions and hints about how to keep a cow, to be found in some agricultural and live-stock journals, that were they all carried into practical operation, it would take the entire time of two able-bodied men to attend one animal—one to be always on hand during the day, the other to serve at night. Now common sense is a good thing, even when applied to the management of cows, and my experience convinces me that the average man wishes only to know the cheapest and easiest way to have an abundant supply of rich, wholesome, and clean milk, and with pride enough in the possession of a good cow to furnish a good shelter and comfortable quarters. Beyond these, breeders of fancy and high-priced stock may go to any extreme, and find a paying business in doing so, but the village or city owner of one or two cows, kept solely for his own use, can not afford to indulge in any of this “upper-tendom” style of cow life; it won’t pay him. As a row of corn was cut and fed, the land was plowed, manured, and more corn (common field) drilled in thick, so that the ground for the whole summer presented the appearance of an experimental corn field, with corn at every stage of its growth.
This was kept up through the months of July, August, September, and October. Indeed, the half of this yield was more than sufficient for keeping the cow in superb condition, so that much the greater portion was cut in the tasselling stage and cured for winter feed. After September begins, it will not do to sow corn; the worms destroy it, but in our southern Bean, or “cow pea,” we have one of the very best of soiling crops. Sown either broadcast, or in drills, it does equally well, makes a rapid growth, and affords a tempting and nutritious food for cattle. It grows until checked by frost, and I know of no plant, save Indian corn, that produces more weight to a given quantity of land. In this instance we fed it daily during October and late into November, before a frost put an end to its use in its green state. Anticipating a frost, it was cut and cured for winter feed. Properly cured, no hay equals it for cattle.
November twenty-fourth our cow went into winter quarters, and for her winter feed there were over four thousand eight hundred pounds of well cured corn-fodder, and one thousand five hundred pounds of good pea-vine hay—far more than she could consume.
Early in December, after spreading over the land all the manure on hand, it was plowed again with a two-horse turning plow, and sowed thickly to oats, harrowing them in. A seasonable rain gave them a good start, so they were well prepared for the vicissitudes of winter—a good stand and vigorous growth. The cow now received a daily ration of corn fodder and pea hay, run through the cutter, and after mixing thoroughly three quarts of wheat bran and one quart of cotton-seed meal, were wet with water (warm in cold weather). This was given her in the morning, and the same quantity at evening. The corn fodder and pea-hay for a day’s feed were fifteen pounds of each, more or less. On this food she was kept through the winter, giving milk of excellent quality, and in good quantity.
In February, she was tethered every fair day in the oats, and in March, we fed her a good mess of fresh cut oats, still, however, keeping up the winter feed of corn fodder, pea-hay, wheat bran, and cotton meal. About April first, the feed of green oats was increased to all she would eat, feeding three times daily, and the excellence of this diet was shown by a marked increase in the quantity of her milk. Though due to calve again in July, she continued to supply a family of ten persons with an abundance of milk. Late in April, when the oats were in the milk state, they were cut and cured for hay, making a little over a ton of good food.
Upon summing up the result, the following dollar and cents view of the experiment of sustaining a cow on a half acre is submitted. The labor expended in cultivation is not put down as an item of expense, as the carriage horse was used in plowing, and the hired man did the rest.
| Dr. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| To | 1,500 | pounds Wheat Bran, at 90c. | $13.50 | |
| ” | 200 | pounds Corn Meal, at 70c. | 1.40 | |
| ” | 800 | pounds Cotton-seed Meal, at $1 | 8.00 | |
| ” | 300 | pounds Hay, at 75c. | 2.25 | |
| Total | $25.15 | |||
| Cr. | ||||
| By sale of | 2,200 | pounds of Corn-fodder, at 60c. | $13.20 | |
| ” | 2,100 | pounds of Oats, at 75c. | 15.75 | |
| $28.95 | ||||
| Profit | $ 3.80 | |||
But the profit above shown does not express the real profit. A year’s continuous supply of rich milk in abundance, for a large household, cream for special occasions, and that best of luxuries, delicious home-made butter, and one hundred dollars for the little heifer when six months old, aggregate the chief results of the experiment.
For the best results in soiling, no crop compares, as far as my experience goes, with our Southern variety of Indian corn; on rich land it produces marvellously. I have raised it at the rate of one hundred thousand pounds (or fifty tons) per acre. There is no difficulty in producing three crops in one season on the same land. But cattle need a variety of food in soiling, as in other forms of feeding. Oats are excellent, and come in early. Cat-tail Millet (“Pearl Millet”) is a rapid grower, but cattle are not specially fond of it; they like German Millet better. Garden (or English) Peas make an excellent food, coming into use in March, and lasting to June. I remember one year I produced five crops for soiling, on the same land, in one year, namely: oats, three of corn, and one of cow-peas. The last named is a superb food late in the year, after corn has gone. I have never experimented with roots, nor am I aware of any being cultivated in the South as a soiling crop. Cabbages set out in September and October will be ready for feeding in December, and will, next to corn, produce the largest weight of green food. One year I fed them to a considerable extent, and found my cows were very partial to them. By beginning with cabbages in December, to be succeeded by oats in March, then peas, corn, and millet, to wind up in November with cow-pea, a cow in our climate can be soiled every day in the year.
Fig. 3.—THE JERSEY COW “ROSALEE.”
THE VILLAGE COW IN NEW ENGLAND.
BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE KEEPER.
BY HENRY E. ALVORD, EASTHAMPTON, MASS.
In writing upon this subject the narrative form is convenient, and while it cannot be claimed that this is entirely a “true story,” it may be said to be founded on fact. Personal experience is my basis, and whatever of fancy may be interwoven with the facts would have been quite practicable, and all ought to have occurred as narrated, if all did not.
Let me premise by saying that I own a comfortable little home in a village of a few thousand inhabitants, not a thousand miles from New York, supporting my family by a moderate income earned from day to day, and my occupation is such as to enable me to spend an average of three hours of daylight on my place, from the middle of March to the middle of October, and occasionally a whole day besides. Thus I can make and care for my garden, which for some years has uniformly been an excellent one, quite a model, though I say it. Of this sort of work I have always been very fond, as well as of domestic animals, all kinds of which were familiar to me when a boy.
May 1st, 1875.—For several years I have kept more or less poultry, and sometimes a pig; there is so much from a good garden that is otherwise wasted. The ambition of the family is to own a horse and a cow. It has been talked about a good deal, but we are agreed that the horse would be a pure luxury, in our circumstances, and must wait. The cow I have felt would be a luxury too, that is, cost more than it would produce, but on this point the good wife has differed with me, claiming that it would be a real economy. It has been a part of our domestic policy to use milk and butter liberally, thereby keeping down the butcher’s bill and buying very little lard. Of the value of milk as an article of food, in its natural state, and in the many ways which it can be used in cooking, there can be no doubt, especially where there are young and growing members of the family. Still, I have been skeptical on the economy of keeping a cow, and to convince me, the help-meet recently proved, from well kept accounts, that during the last two years there have been consumed by our family of five persons, one thousand five hundred and forty-five quarts of milk, averaging seven cents a quart, and three hundred and sixty-one pounds of butter, average price thirty-three cents a pound. These have amounted to a cash expenditure of one hundred and thirteen dollars and sixty-four cents a year, which was a decided surprise to me, and feeling pretty sure the expense need not exceed two dollars a week, I yielded to the argument; am the owner of a cow, and here record the result of my experiment. One of the pleasant spring days of last week, we took a drive among the farms of the vicinity, and selected a good looking cow which had just dropped her second calf. The price paid was sixty-five dollars, to be delivered to me to-day, without the calf. The man I bought of called her “pure Alderney,” but she looks large of her age for that race, weighing somewhat over seven hundred pounds, and if, two or three generations back there was a cross of Ayrshire, or of Guernsey, it is all the better. My belief is that she has a streak of Ayrshire blood, and that she will make a fine cow. Being three years old next month (exact date unknown), it has been decided that our cow is to be known as “June.”
May 1st, 1876.—When “June” was bought, it was in the full expectation that pasturage could be hired in a small lot adjoining the rear of mine. I supposed it was fixed, but the spring had been favorable, the grass on the meadow promised well, and the owner concluded he would mow it, so that arrangement fell through. By that time I was too late to secure room in the only pasture convenient to the village, and I have been forced to keep her in the stable and a small stable yard, the whole year. The result is more than satisfactory, considering the disadvantageous circumstances.
A year ago to-day “June” arrived, in fair condition, save that her coat looked a little rough, and with a good bag of milk; her daily yield that month was about twelve quarts. In a day or two I noticed that when in the yard, she rubbed her neck vigorously against the corner of the stable and sometimes backed up to a building or fence for the purpose. An examination proved that she had vermin upon her; so I made a pail full of strong suds, with soft soap, and put into it an ounce of sulphuric acid, and with this I sponged the parts infested, twice daily, for a few days. This seemed efficient and there has been no such trouble since.
For long forage “June” had only dry food, good fine hay, until late in May, and then I began to give her a green bite whenever I could, clippings from the yard, trimmings of early vegetables and whatever there was to spare from the garden. Besides this, everything she ate had to be bought, except a few roots used since February. A little bran was fed for the first few days, and gradually increased, so that during the summer she received four pounds daily, fed in two parts, morning and night. Later in the season corn-meal was added to the ration, and at times oats were substituted for the bran. In the winter, eight pounds of meal and bran, half and half, mixed, was the daily allowance. Buying hay in small quantities I managed to keep both rowen and clover hay on hand, some of it very fresh, and could thus vary the dry food. Also, for variety, I frequently gave one cut feed a day, moistened. Besides this, I obtained and worked in, during the summer, a lot of half-ripe oats, in the straw, which had lodged and were cured like hay. The food, although thus often changed, was changed carefully.
In my garden I made a large parsnip bed, and followed my earliest peas with carrots, so that in the fall there were several bushels of these roots. The carrots were buried in the garden, a mellow loam, and the parsnips left in the ground. The former were opened during a thaw in February, and a few fed to “June” each day, lasting until the end of March; by that time I could get the parsnips and they have just given out. When I began the roots the grain was gradually withheld and she has had none since February. These roots have had a most apparent effect, giving her coat a bright, thrifty look, and she is in fine condition for calving, which is expected in ten days. But the roots made it hard to dry off the cow. She was shrinking in milk fast when we began on the carrots, then started up again and was giving about three quarts a day in March, when the milk (and especially the cream) began to have a sharp, unpleasant, bitter taste, and we soon had to give up using it. It then took a fortnight to dry her off, which was done by lessening the roots, milking not quite dry, then only once a day, and once in two days. Water has been offered three times a day, through the year, all she would drink, salt has always been within her reach. All summer, and every mild, dry day in winter, “June” has passed some hours in the stable yard. A large amount of bedding has been necessary, and for this I have used the waste hay, the rakings of the yard last autumn, the scrapings of the garden walks, garden litter, and the leaves from a row of maple trees in front of the house, carefully saved for the purpose. So much in the stall, “June” has required more personal care, and it has been made a rule to rub and brush her body enough to keep it clean and free from dead skin. But I never use a harsh card; nothing is better for rubbing than a piece of old seine or very coarse bagging. Everything about the cow, too, is kept clean and sweet.
The result of this continuous stabling has been a rapid accumulation of manure, and this having been mixed with all the suitable refuse of the place, and forked over several times, I this spring have on hand a huge pile of rich compost. It is more than can be used on the garden, and the newer part has been corded up under a temporary shed for sale or future use. This alone well pays for all my extra work in keeping the cow, as I have yearly been obliged to buy for the garden.
Our plan during the year has been to sell a little milk to neighbors, set aside two quarts daily for family use, cream and all. The cream from the remainder has been made into butter, and an accurate account kept of the butter produced.
The following is the result of this first year keeping one cow:
| EXPENSES: | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Interest 7 per cent on cost of cow | $ 4.55 | ||
| 4 tons of Hay, av. $20 | 80.00 | ||
| 500 lbs Oats in straw | 4.25 | ||
| 960 lbs. Wheat Bran, @ $1.20 | 11.52 | ||
| 350 lbs. Corn-Meal @ $1.10 | 3.85 | ||
| 4 bus. Oats @ 55c. | 2.20 | ||
| Expended | $106.37 | ||
| Less 400 lbs. Hay on hand | 3.00 | ||
| Year’s expense | 103.37 | ||
| RETURNS: | |||
| 155 qts. Milk sold @ 7c. | $ 10.85 | ||
| 311 qts. Skim-milk, @ 3c. | 9.33 | ||
| Sales | $ 20.18 | ||
| 620 qts. Milk for family, @ 7c. | 43.40 | ||
| 123 lbs. Butter made, @ 35c. | 43.05 | ||
| Year’s return | $106.63 | ||
| Memorandum—Cost | $103.37 | ||
| Less sales | 20.18 | ||
| 83.19 | |||
| Plus purchases— | |||
| 88 qts. Milk | 6.16 | ||
| 52 lbs. Butter | 16.64 | ||
| Cow products cost family | $105.99 | ||
Here is a net balance of three dollars and twenty-six cents in favor of the cow, without allowing anything for the abundant supply of skim-milk and butter-milk which has been profitably used in the poultry yard as well as at the house—or for the big compost heap, which could readily be sold.
The figures also show that the family has had a better supply of cow products than last year, at seven dollars and sixty-five cents less expense. No labor is charged, for I am not so much keeping an exact account of the maintenance of the cow, as of the profit of my keeping one, taking care of her myself. And no credit is given for manure, as I mean to apply that to reducing the cost of keeping in the future. The cow might have been fed at less cost, but I intended to have her improve on my hands, and she has done so. “June” now weighs seven hundred and sixty-two pounds, is about to have her third calf, and is certainly worth more than was paid for her.
Altogether, in spite of unfavorable conditions there is no occasion to complain of the result of the year.
May 1st, 1877.—Last spring, my neighbor, north, was willing to let me have his acre and a half of meadow for pasturage, but wanted thirty-five dollars for the season. I would not pay that, and, instead, hired a place for “June” in a large pasture half a mile or more distant, paying twenty dollars for the season, May fifteenth, to October fifteenth, and four dollars to a boy for driving. On the ninth of May, the cow dropped a bull calf without difficulty, and I gave it away the next day. No special care was needed or given, except a little caution as to feeding, and on the fifteenth the cow went to pasture. She did remarkably well until early in July, being in pasture during the day, and at the stable at night. Then the weather grew very hot, the pasture dry, and “June” began to fail rapidly in her milk; so I commenced feeding a little bran, and offered hay when she came up at night. Later, a friend recommended cotton-seed meal, and a hundred weight of that was obtained and fed with good results, two or three pounds a day. August was a month of intense dry heat, and the pasture became of little use except for the exercise, shade, and water. In spite of meal and hay fed at night, “June’s” yield of milk shrank to three quarts a day, and we feared she would go dry. August fifth, I made the change of sending her to pasture just before six o’clock in the evening, as the boy went after the other cows, and bringing her up to the stable in the morning, where I kept her during the day. This was an improvement, and also gave better opportunity of feeding sweet corn stalks, vegetable trimmings and the like, fresh from the garden. The grain was continued through August, and she ate more or less hay. At the end of the month she was giving over a gallon of milk a day. Rains came early in September, the pasturage soon became good again, and the daily mess of milk steadily increased until November. By that time she was in the stable for the winter, and the treatment since has been practically a repetition of last year. My root patch in the garden was enlarged, as the result of last year’s experience, and accordingly I put eight or ten bushels of carrots into my cellar in October, covering them with sand, and left a fine lot of parsnips in the ground. I began feeding the carrots in January, two or three a day, just for a relish; gradually increased them, until in February the cow received half a peck or more, and thus they lasted into March. Then I dried her off, getting the last milk to use March twenty-eighth. Grain feeding was stopped the first of March, and she has had none since. After the cow was fully dry, I began on the parsnips, and she is now getting half a peck daily, with all the hay she will eat. “June” will be fresh again on the twentieth of this month.
The season has not satisfied me. Not only has the weather been unfavorable, (we must expect severe summers occasionally,) but I don’t like sending the cow to a distant pasture which I can know very little about, and where nobody knows how the other animals treat her. I shall never do this again if any other arrangement can be made.
The account for the year is as follows:
| Expenses. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Interest at 7 per cent. on cost of cow | $4.55 | |
| Hay from last year | 3.00 | |
| 2½ tons Timothy Hay @ $18 | 45.00 | |
| Pasturage and driving | 24.00 | |
| 750 lbs. Wheat Bran @ $1.10 | 8.25 | |
| 450 lbs. Corn-Meal @ $1 | 4.50 | |
| 100 lbs. Cotton-seed Meal | 2.00 | |
| Expended | $91.30 | |
| Less hay on hand | 2.00 | |
| Year’s expense | $89.30 | |
| Returns. | ||
| 42 qts Milk sold at 6½c. | $2.73 | |
| 286 qts. Skim-milk sold at 3c. | 8.58 | |
| Sales | $11.31 | |
| 640 qts. Milk for family, at 6½c. | 41.60 | |
| 109 lbs. Butter made @ 32c. | 34.88 | |
| Year’s returns | $87.79 | |
| Memorandum—Cost | $89.30 | |
| Less sales | 11.31 | |
| 77.99 | ||
| Plus purchases— | ||
| 86 qts. Milk @ 6½c. | $ 5.59 | |
| 70 lbs. Butter @ 30c. | 21.00 | |
| Cow products cost family | $104.58 | |
Comparing this with last year’s statement, it will be seen that although there is a small balance against the cow, she is still, all things considered, a profitable part of the domestic establishment.
May 1st, 1878.—Dissatisfied with the last year’s management, and seeing that there would last spring be a large surplus of fine compost on hand, more profitable to use than to sell, I planned a new arrangement in the autumn of 1876 for keeping my one cow. First, I secured the meadow west of my lot, renting it from the owner from October first, 1876, until April first, this year, for thirty dollars. The acre and a half yielded about two tons of hay in 1876, but no rowen; the aftermath was good, however, when I came in possession. The south end of it, although in good heart, was weedy and uneven. I drove some strong stakes, and ran a wire fence across, in continuation of my southern boundary, thus cutting off just about a quarter of an acre in rear of my neighbor, south. This piece I dressed with compost made the summer just preceding, and had it plowed and cross-plowed before the ground froze, in preparation for a root crop. The soil is a deep, mellow, sandy loam, but rich. Last spring the new root patch was plowed once, well dressed from the compost pile of 1875-6, and that harrowed in. (There was enough of the same compost for my garden, and to spare, so last June there was still on hand the manure of about a year’s collection put up in good shape.) The rest of the work I was able to do myself. My root-garden, laid out in rows running north and south, was divided as follows: eight square rods of parsnips next to neighbor, south, on the slope, where they caught the wash from his garden; twelve square rods of carrots and ten rods of mangolds; in the point west to the stream I put sweet corn at first, and followed it with strap-leafed turnips, ten square rods. Without going into the details of root-culture, which any one who has made a good garden knows all about, I put into my house cellar last fall fifty-two bushels of Long Orange Carrots, and over forty bushels of Long Yellow Mangel Wurzels (these monstrous, twisted, forked roots are awkward things to measure, but there must have been a ton or more in weight), left in the ground from twenty to twenty-five bushels of Hollow-crowned Parsnips, and harvested thirty-six bushels of English Turnips. This was more than I had bargained for. I see now that roots enough might have been raised in my old garden, and the parsnips would have done much better there, but I sold twenty bushels each of carrots and turnips for more than enough to cover all expenditures for seed and hired labor.
A year ago to-day, I turned “June” into her new pasture of an acre and a quarter; the grass was then starting well, and I preferred to have the change gradual. She ate more or less hay until the end of the month. Doors and gates were so fixed that she could be in stall, yard, or pasture at pleasure, and could drink at the stream bordering the meadow.