If the season is favorable, we manage to keep our one cow nicely on half an acre, or rather on the fodder grown on half an acre. But sometimes, on account of drouth or late frost, we are obliged to buy a little hay in the spring.
It is impossible for us to say how much feed must be bought. We generally have a bag of corn (two bushels), and a bag of oats (two and a half bushels), ground together, feeding from two to four quarts a day, according to the amount of roots used, and the season of the year, feeding meal very sparingly in summer. We frequently reserve two or three rods in the spring for early turnips, to be fed when large enough for profit, but always feed turnips immediately after milking to prevent flavoring the milk. We generally have a few cabbage plants started to set where the corn misses, or the beets or turnips fail to come up, or in any corner or by-place where there is room for a cabbage to grow. Sometimes we reserve a few rods for cabbages late in the season, as we find them excellent for a change of feed either winter or summer. We advise, in all cases, the use of the earliest varieties of grass, grain, or vegetables, as we cannot afford the time and ground occupied by some of the larger and taller growing varieties, being convinced, from actual experience, that two and three crops of early varieties, although small, are more profitable than one crop of the larger late varieties.
THE STABLE AND THE MANURE CELLAR
The stable for our cow is a shed nine by sixteen, built on the south side of our carriage and wagon house. One-half of the shed is partitioned off and enclosed for winter use or stormy weather; the other half of the shed is open on the south side, and our yard is about sixteen by thirty, including the shed. We think it would be better to have it larger, but we get along with it nicely. We find the best way to dispose of her manure is to have a small cellar underneath the stable, with cemented bottom and sides, so as to be water tight, the stable to have a tight floor with a gutter behind the cow to receive the droppings and urine, with a scuttle or trap door in the gutter to let it all go into the cellar. For bedding, we use forest leaves, and use them liberally. Where forest leaves cannot be obtained, any refuse hay or straw will answer, but the cow as well as the horse should have plenty of good dry bedding. To mix with the urine and droppings of the cow, we put into the cellar, sea-weed, muck, turf, slops from the house, and soap suds, or anything we think will make good compost. We gather up the droppings from the yard and throw them into the cellar. We keep our yard well laid with forest leaves. If those are not available, we use the next best thing we can get. In the fall, when we cart the manure out of the cellar, we gather up what has accumulated in the yard and put it into the cellar. In this way we save all of the manure, and in excellent condition. Now, to make it better and save the labor of pitching it over, we keep a pig where he can have access to the cellar, and if not disposed to work, we keep him on short feed and scatter corn in the cellar, so that in order to get it, he will have to root the whole mass over in good shape.
We cart our manure out in the fall, distributing it over our land as evenly as possible, and plow it under as deep as we can. We do not sow anything for next year’s use, as we think we get a better return from our land to sow early in the spring and continue it through the summer. It is a mistaken idea, or rather a grave blunder, to undertake to grow good crops of anything without the liberal use of manures. As soon as our land will do to work in the spring, we sow our oats, peas, and rye, giving a top dressing of guano, superphosphates, or bone meal, which we repeat with each successive sowing, also giving each hill of corn and rows of beets and turnips a small quantity. We alternate the top dressings, that is, if we use superphosphate the first sowing, we use ground bone or guano the second, and vice versa, as we find the continuous use of any one kind of manure or fertilizer is as injurious as continuous planting of corn or potatoes, without rotating with something else.
BARRELS FOR KEEPING ROOTS.
We have a way of our own for keeping our roots in the absence of a vegetable cellar, or when we do not want them in the house cellar. We take any old barrels and set them in the ground, the chiner just coming to the top of the ground (we do not want a head in either end of the barrels). Into these headless barrels we put our beets, turnips, cabbage, etc. As the weather grows cold we cover the barrels with some loose boards. Whenever it is cold enough to freeze hard, we throw over them enough hay or straw to keep out the wet. By this method we can, with very little trouble at any time, get out a barrel or part of a barrel of roots. In this way the roots keep in fine condition. Late in the spring, turnips and beets will be as brittle and good as when pulled in the fall. Our subject is “keeping one cow,” but any one that feels disposed to try it, will find the above a very fine way to keep turnips, beets, cabbage, or celery, for family use.
We prefer to have our cow calve about the first of April, as we then have time to make veal of the calf before we begin to make grass butter. There is generally, in any place, a better demand for milk through the winter, and better prices, hence if one wishes to sell milk and buy butter, it would perhaps be better to have her calve in the fall.
We hardly feel competent to advise, if help is needed in calving. As her time of calving draws nigh, we give our cow extra care and attention. If the bowels are kept in a healthy condition, we apprehend there is rarely trouble, from the fact that our cows have always calved without the need of help.