Fig. 22.—SHORTHORN COW “COLD CREAM.”
BEST KINDS OF GRASSES.
It is important to know what kinds of grasses are best adapted to the production of milk and butter, for both summer and winter feeding; and upon this depends, in a great measure, the profits to be realized. The practice of seeding with a single kind of grass, or even with a mixture of clover and timothy, is not a good one. Four of the most nutritious and productive kinds of grass, including timothy, white clover, and such other varieties as are well adapted to the particular nature and condition of the soil, are none too many to be sown together, for pasture or meadow. Five quarts of timothy, three of white clover, six of orchard grass, and three of red-top (if the ground is quite moist), or other grass suited to the soil, are about the proper quantities and proportions for general use, on an acre of land. Such a mixture, upon a rich soil, will produce fully twice as much feed as any one kind upon the same soil. White clover produces a greater quantity and better quality of milk and butter than any of the other varieties of grass, and the quantity of feed produced by such a mixture, will astonish any person not acquainted with the facts. Besides producing much more abundantly, they furnish something of a variety of feed, which is greatly beneficial in the manufacture of both milk and flesh. Weeds injure the flavor of milk and butter, and should never be in the food for cows. An acre of rich soil, well seeded with a good selection and variety of perennial grasses, will produce six tons of well-cured hay in one season; by mowing twice, and, by early cutting, this can be done without difficulty. In my own experience, the first mowing has given at the rate of full four tons per acre, and the second, somewhat injured by drouth, two tons. Some writers recommend the sowing of one or more of the rank growing annuals, as being more productive; but a careful consideration of the subject, accompanied by experiments, discloses the fact that the extra expense of preparing the ground and seeding annually, overbalances any increased quantity of feed produced, especially when the coarser and less nutritious nature of the feed is taken into the account. There is nothing suited to this climate and latitude, that will answer a better purpose as food for stock, than such perennials as timothy, red-top, orchard-grass, blue-grass, the clovers, etc., when sown upon a rich soil, thick enough to completely cover the ground and to insure fine, soft hay, when cut at the proper time and well cured. I have omitted red clover in the mixture of grasses, because soils adapted to that variety will produce white clover equally as well, and in about the same quantity, while the white gives a much better flavor to milk and butter, and an increased quantity. Blue-grass, either green or cured, is excellent feed for cattle, but is unprofitable on account of the small product, and that coming only in the fore part of the season, falling, as it does, just at the time when fresh feed is most needed. Red and white clover may be advantageously mixed with the true grasses, in many localities where the soil is suitable, though the clovers are likely to “run out” in a couple of years, and leave their places to be filled with inferior fodder plants.
MILKING THREE TIMES A DAY.
During the heat of summer, the cow should be milked three times a day, at regular intervals—about five o’clock in the morning, one in the afternoon, and at nine in the evening. The quantity of milk and butter is considerably increased, and the quality improved, by this practice. The milk is injured by remaining in the udder through the heat of the day, and the cow is made uncomfortable, which, of necessity, diminishes her usefulness. When cows are milked but twice a day in hot weather, the udder becomes too much heated and feverish, and the milk is in a similar condition—the cream seems to be melted, the milk soon becomes sour, the cream does not rise well, and the butter is soft and oily. These difficulties, almost universally attending butter-making at this time of the year, are mostly overcome by the practice of milking three times a day, and the cow being near at hand, it is a small matter.
The length of time a cow should be milked, will depend on her capabilities for giving milk a longer or shorter time. Some will give milk the year round, while others will “go dry” three or four months, or longer, in spite of all efforts to keep them in milk a longer period. But, as a rule, it is better for a cow to go dry some eight weeks, giving time for fleshing up a little, and gaining strength for another season. The cow will be more vigorous, and the flow of milk more abundant afterward.