Another evening, as Joseph came home from work, Mary asked, “What in the world are you going to do with these,” as she drew from the bundle a card and brush. “Which of the family are you going to use these on?”—“Oh, I thought they would be good things to have in the house,” said Joseph, laughing. “You know I started out early this morning to go around by Mason’s, to see about repairing his house this next summer. He is one of the best of farmers, all his stock look thrifty—everything is up in order, and he makes farming pay. I found him in the stable carding and brushing his cows. That was a new idea to me, and I asked him if he thought it really paid him to spend so much time and labor on his cows. Well, said he, I’ve had the care of cattle nigh on to thirty years, and I think my carding and brushing pay as well as anything I can do, and there is nothing an animal enjoys more than having its coat combed.”
“What did Mr. Mason say about the work.”—“He is going to have his house thoroughly repaired, and I am glad to say your husband has the job, and he is going to keep his eyes and ears open and learn what he can about farming.”
Joseph had bought a load of fine hay a farmer was taking into town to market, and “Comfort” was now fed hay three times a day, with two quarts of bran night and morning. At noon there was something from the house also, like potato and apple peelings, small potatoes, wilted turnips or beets, cut up cabbage leaves, etc. The children thought it nice fun to feed her at noon. Some loose bars had been put up to her stall which was quite roomy, and she did not have to be driven into it by some of the men and all of the boys in the neighborhood, but when the gate of the yard was opened she walked briskly to her stall, knowing she would find a good supper waiting for her. Humane care, the plenty of food and drink, given regularly, have wrought in a month’s time a great change in the appearance of “Comfort.” From being a poorly fed “whipped” cow in a dairy, suffering all the discomfort of stanchions for eighteen out of twenty-four hours, with no bed but a bare floor—she has come to be a thrifty, happy animal, giving good promise of rewarding her owners well for their care. One morning the first week in April, Joseph came in from the barn looking pleased, but a little anxious. “Children,” he said, “what do you think I found at the barn this morning?”—“Oh, a bossy,” they said, delighted with the idea.—“Yes, ‘Comfort’ has a little ‘comfort,’ and she is very proud of it; but now comes the rub, who is to milk, and what is to be done with the calf?”—“Oh,” said Mary, “I guess I have not quite forgotten how to milk yet, and you can soon learn—‘never too old to learn,’ you know. I will go out after breakfast and milk out what the calf does not take, and you can go around by Mr. Mason’s and ask him what we had better do with the calf.” Joseph felt these were good suggestions, and after standing by Mary, in more than one sense, while she performed her part of the programme—which was successfully accomplished—he started for work by way of farmer Mason’s. Arriving there he made known his errand. “Well,” said Mr. M., “you can ‘deacon’ it or veal it. Don’t many but dairymen follow the first way, and I should advise you to let it have all the milk it wants for four or five weeks, and the butcher will take it and pay you five or six dollars. Put the calf by itself, and night and morning let it go to the cow and get its own milk.” When Joseph arrived home that evening, he partitioned off a corner of the barn with some barrels and boxes, put in some bedding, and put the calf in his new quarters. Then he tried his hand at milking, Mary standing by him this time, telling him what to do, and laughing a little at his awkward efforts, yet encouraging him by saying he did splendidly for the first trial. “Comfort” rewarded him for his kindness to her, by being very patient with his awkwardness, and he daily improved in the art of milking, so that while vealy was getting his fill, he would get about two or three quarts as his share.
The latter part of April Joseph commenced work for Mr. Mason, and as his work-bench was at one end of the barn floor, he had a good opportunity for observation. He noticed Mr. M. fed his cows corn meal, and asked him what feed he considered best for cows giving milk at this time of the year. Mr. M. said, in his experience he had found there were three things to be considered in the care of cows. Health of the cow, quantity and quality of the milk. Plenty of wholesome food and pure water (also a little salt each day), given regularly, out of door exercise in pleasant weather, and general good care will give the first. “Clover hay, corn fodder, wheat bran or ground oats, with some roots, will keep up the flow of milk,” said he, “but if you want thick cream, and plenty of golden butter, feed your cow corn meal. When my cows are in milk and kept on dry feed, I give each cow daily, morning and evening, four quarts of mixed feed, one part, by weight, of wheat bran and two parts of corn meal, with about one tablespoonful of salt. We make more and better butter on this feed than when the cows have grass only.”
Joseph, having no experience of his own, was glad to use that of others in regard to his cow, so from this time he began feeding “Comfort” corn meal, beginning with a pint and increasing gradually to one quart; the result being plainly seen in the improved quality of the milk and condition of the calf. When this was five weeks old the butcher took it away giving five dollars for it, and seemed much pleased with his bargain.
That evening Joseph figured a little. He found his bran and corn meal had cost three dollars and fifty-five cents, so there was a balance of one dollar and forty-five cents from the calf to pay on the hay. They had had from three to four quarts of milk per day, of better quality than that they could have bought for six cents a quart. Thirty days, three and one-half quarts a day, at six cents a quart, is six dollars and thirty cents. By stabling and bedding the cow, quite a quantity of good manure had accumulated, and Joseph felt very well satisfied, so far, with his experiment, and most of all for the luxury of having good sweet milk for the family use. It was now the middle of May, grass was well started, and as there were farms near them, it was thought best to hire pasture for the summer. By inquiry they found she could be pastured one-fourth mile from home. This seemed too far to carry the milk, and would take too much time to drive back and forth twice a day. “Why not keep her at home nights, and feed her something as we do now,” said Mary; “she will be glad to come home then. Father always feeds his cows bran in the summer; he says it pays in their ‘coming up’ if in nothing else. He goes to the gate and calls ‘come boss,’ and they all start as quickly as if he had said, ‘come to supper,’ and it is that to them.” So it was decided to keep “Comfort” home nights. In a few days “Comfort” was introduced to her summer range, and quickly learned the way to and from the pasture, and the children thought it a great pleasure to drive her to and fro.
“Joseph,” said Mary, about this time, “what shall we do with the sour milk? The neighbors will take some of it at two cents a quart, but the demand is irregular, and it don’t seem right to throw it away. Don’t you think we better get a pig?”—“Perhaps so; as we are in for experiments this year we might try that also. Mason has some nice pigs—two kinds. One kind make large growthy animals, the other kind are smaller but finer, and would be best for us, I think.” Soon a pig was added to their farm stock. Joseph declared he would not try to live without a cow again if it cost twice as much to take care of her. “Why we didn’t know what good living was until ‘Comfort’ came to live with us, did we, children?”—“No, indeed, only when we went to grand-pa’s.”—“Look at this baby,” said Mary, “she never was so well before, and she is getting as rosy and round as a Maidenblush apple. You can’t think what a help the milk is to me in cooking. I can always have something fresh and nice now, and it will lessen our meat bill too.”
Some of the neighbors wanted to buy milk; “Comfort” was giving sixteen quarts a day. So four neighboring families were supplied each with one quart of milk a day, and after a week’s trial Mary reported she had made five pounds of butter that was worth twenty cents per pound, grocery price. They had sold twenty-eight quarts of milk at six cents a quart, butter and milk amounting to two dollars and sixty-eight cents, and they had used all the sweet milk, cream, sour milk and butter-milk they needed, and the pig had been kept on the surplus of the last two. Joseph was now feeding “Comfort” as Mr. Mason advised, with corn meal and bran, two-thirds of the former and one-third of the latter by weight, giving three quarts of the mixture night and morning. Corn meal cost one cent per pound, bran cost two-thirds of a cent a pound, the cost of the feed per day being a fraction over seven cents. He also gave her a little hay—to the value of say ten cents a week—pasture cost twenty-five cents a week, so the expense of her keeping was eighty-five cents a week, the work offsetting the milk used, left a profit of one dollar and eighty-three cents. There was another item not to be overlooked. The manure that was accumulating, the value of which was largely increased by the ground feed given the cow, and the oat shuck bedding. Of the acre of land about one-quarter was occupied with buildings, walks, shrubbery, a small lawn in front, and flower garden at the side of the house, but every foot of intervening space was well seeded to grass, so it really made quite a little mowing. Another quarter had been set out to fruit trees five years, and was now well stocked with red clover, the remaining one-half acre had been used as a garden and potato patch. With the exception of a few loads of manure, obtained at different places, no fertilizer had been used on this acre of land. But now having gone into the stock business, Joseph began to read and think about such things. He frequently brought home an agricultural paper from Mr. Mason’s to read in the evening, and began also to feel he must have one of his own. He found considerable in the papers about commercial fertilizers, so he asked Mr. Mason if he had ever used any of them. He said he had experimented with them considerably, and thought them excellent helps. “I have never,” said he, “paid out money for anything that came back as quickly with as good profit, as superphosphates. These and other fertilizers must be used with judgment to get the best returns, but on gravelly soil, with a clay subsoil like ours here, it pays well.” Joseph also asked Mr. M. what he could raise on his lot to the best advantage for his cow. “I should say sowed corn and mangel wurzels. You see this little lot at the back of the barn, it is ten square rods, and very rich ground.