Instead of writing on how a cow might be kept, I propose simply to tell
just how we manage our cow, what we feed her, how we procure that food;
in fact everything relating to her care, so that any one can go and do
likewise.
“Spot,” we call her, for she has a beautiful white spot in her forehead,
is not a Jersey, for we can not afford to buy one at the prices at which
they are held with us; nor is she a thorough-bred of any kind; yet she
is a good cow, of medium size, fills a twelve-quart pail each night and
morning, when her milk is in good flow, that raises a thick coat of rich
cream, which, after been churned, furnishes all the butter needed for a
family of six, and some to spare. Our place is small, only two acres,
and a portion of this is covered by the dwelling, barn, poultry-house,
etc. The fruit garden occupies about one-fourth of an acre, and from
this portion nothing is grown to furnish food for “Spot.” Adjoining the
barn there is half an acre of the land in good grass, or mostly clover,
and every spring a quart of clover seed is sown, so as fast as the old
plants die out, young ones take their places. A bushel of land plaster
is sown on this when the grass begins to start in the spring. This plot
produces a very heavy growth of grass and clover, enabling us to cut it
three times each season; about the first of June, August, and of October.
A coat of fine manure is always spread over the ground immediately after
each mowing. The grass is mostly cured, and makes fine hay for winter
feeding. Occasionally a small portion of the crop is used green for
soiling. Besides the land occupied by buildings, fruit garden, and clover
plot, there remains about one acre, which we call the garden. Here are
grown all the vegetables for the family’s use, besides some to sell.
About one-fourth of it is planted to Early Rose potatoes, and as soon as
these are sufficiently ripe for use or market, they are dug, and sweet
corn, in drills, for fodder, is sown upon the land. Another fourth of an
acre is planted to sugar beets; the ground being very rich, the yield is
always large; this last season (1879), though very dry, I harvested one
hundred and seventy-eight bushels. Our cow is very fond of the beets,
and I think there is nothing better to keep up a flow of milk, and they
give it no bad flavor, as do turnips. An additional fourth of an acre is
planted to sweet, or evergreen, corn; as fast as the corn is picked for
use or market, the green stalks are cut up, run through the cutting-box,
and every particle of them consumed. As soon as the corn is all
harvested, the ground it occupied is thoroughly fitted and manured, and
then sown to winter rye, to be used for soiling the next spring, after
which the ground is again prepared for corn. The remaining fourth acre is
devoted to early peas, beans, cabbages and other garden vegetables. As
soon as one crop is off, the ground is prepared, and something else is
almost always planted or sown; consequently, on the most of this acre,
two crops are produced each season, except where sugar-beets are grown,
or late cabbages, which require the whole season to mature. With the
clover on the half acre, and the forage crop and roots on the acre, we
have not only had sufficient food for the cow the entire season, but have
also kept our family horse, with the exception of one load of oat-straw
purchased for three dollars, to mix in with the fodder corn; this is hard
to cure sufficiently to keep bright and sweet through the winter, but by
mixing a layer of corn-fodder, and a layer of straw, it all comes out
nice and bright. Besides keeping both horse and cow, we have marketed
from this little farm, in berries, vegetables, butter, eggs, poultry, and
one fat hog, weighing, dressed, over three hundred pounds, four hundred
and sixty-eight dollars’ worth of the above produce, keeping enough for
our own use, and salting down one barrel of pork.