INTRODUCTION.
Every farmer is ordinarily supposed to keep several cows, and there is no reason why most families in villages and very many in cities should not possess at least one. Good milk affords the best of nourishment for young children, and goes a long way in saving butchers’ bills, and in the preparation of palatable nourishing food of many varieties. Two to five families, according to age and number, can readily unite in having one cow kept, dividing the milk and expenses, and thus always have good, pure, rich milk at very moderate cost. The suitable refuse from the kitchens of three or four families would very much reduce the cost of purchased food. In rural villages, summer pasturage can be obtained near at hand, which, with a daily feed of good meal will furnish a large supply of rich milk at a low cost. A boy can be secured at a small price to drive the cow to the pasture in the morning, and return her at night to the stable. A stable or stall can always be obtained at a trifling rent, and be kept clean. There are plenty of gardeners or farmers who will gladly take the manure away so frequently as to prevent it being a nuisance, or disagreeable.
We have no doubt that all residents of villages, manufacturing towns, etc., can, by arrangements like the above, secure an abundant supply of pure, rich, fresh, healthful milk at less than three cents per quart, and at the same time add greatly to their home comforts, and preserve the health if not the lives of their little ones.
In February, 1880, the publishers of this volume offered prizes for three essays on keeping one cow, indicating at the same time their scope. Some extracts from the explanatory remarks accompanying this offer may fitly outline an introduction to the work.
The number of persons who possess but one cow is far larger than those who have ten or more. No doubt many others, living outside of closely built cities, would gladly lessen the cost of supporting their families, and at the same time add to their comforts, and even luxuries, by keeping a cow, did they know how to keep one. There is a general notion that keeping a cow requires a pasture. If a pasture is not necessary, they do not know how to get along without one. Dairymen and farmers learn how to treat herds as a part of general farm management, or in books on the subject. There are books on cows, but none on one cow. It is not a question of dairy farming, but of dairy gardening. The offer was made to elicit information to enable one to keep a single cow with the best possible results. The main points to be considered are: the stabling or housing of the cow; the yard room she requires, and the storage or disposal of her manure; the least area of land that can be safely set apart for the support of the cow, and how can that land be best managed. It is to be assumed that the land will be made to produce all that it will profitably yield, which will bring up the question of manure and fertilizers, of course considering that produced by the cow herself. What proportion of the produce of the land is to be cured for winter? How much food must be bought, and what? How is the cow to be fed, and in every respect how treated so as to give the best returns to her owner? What should be done at calving time and afterwards? milking, etc. In short, the problem is—given a good cow, how to get the best possible returns from the least possible portion of the land through the agency of the cow.
This, we think, is satisfactorily answered, if not by any one writer, certainly by several combined.
We place as a frontispiece the portrait of a most famous and excellent cow—not so much for her beauty or on account of her breed, but as a model of a dairy cow, and one which may be carried in the mind when purchasing.
