But let us return to the cow. On the morning of June twenty-ninth, we
began giving her a fair feed of green corn, adding to it wheat bran, and
cotton-seed meal. July second we fed her all the corn stalks she would
eat, continuing to add bran and cotton meal, giving four quarts of the
former and two of the latter; and this was her daily food, including
the German Millet, treated in the same way, until September. The green
food was given three times a day, but the bran and cotton meal added
only morning and night. Occasionally a day’s supply was cut early in the
morning, and allowed to wilt before feeding, but in this, as well as in
many other matters, my man-of-all-work did as circumstances permitted.
His various duties about the place gave him but little time to reduce to
an exact system the care and feed of a cow. She had a good stable, and
plenty to eat, received daily a good brushing, and was treated kindly.
Yet, she was our servant (and a most faithful one she was), and we were
not her’s, or slaves to any arbitrary clock-work regularity. She was
fed and milked at regular intervals, but beyond this it was not always
convenient to have regular hours at her stable. We did not keep her as
an exhibition of a model cow in a model stable, and to exemplify a model
system of care and keep. Like thousands all over the land, we kept her
simply for the profit she yielded, in the way of milk and butter. It has
often struck me, in reading the many suggestions and hints about how to
keep a cow, to be found in some agricultural and live-stock journals,
that were they all carried into practical operation, it would take the
entire time of two able-bodied men to attend one animal—one to be always
on hand during the day, the other to serve at night. Now common sense
is a good thing, even when applied to the management of cows, and my
experience convinces me that the average man wishes only to know the
cheapest and easiest way to have an abundant supply of rich, wholesome,
and clean milk, and with pride enough in the possession of a good cow to
furnish a good shelter and comfortable quarters. Beyond these, breeders
of fancy and high-priced stock may go to any extreme, and find a paying
business in doing so, but the village or city owner of one or two cows,
kept solely for his own use, can not afford to indulge in any of this
“upper-tendom” style of cow life; it won’t pay him. As a row of corn was
cut and fed, the land was plowed, manured, and more corn (common field)
drilled in thick, so that the ground for the whole summer presented the
appearance of an experimental corn field, with corn at every stage of its
growth.
This was kept up through the months of July, August, September, and
October. Indeed, the half of this yield was more than sufficient for
keeping the cow in superb condition, so that much the greater portion was
cut in the tasselling stage and cured for winter feed. After September
begins, it will not do to sow corn; the worms destroy it, but in our
southern Bean, or “cow pea,” we have one of the very best of soiling
crops. Sown either broadcast, or in drills, it does equally well, makes a
rapid growth, and affords a tempting and nutritious food for cattle. It
grows until checked by frost, and I know of no plant, save Indian corn,
that produces more weight to a given quantity of land. In this instance
we fed it daily during October and late into November, before a frost put
an end to its use in its green state. Anticipating a frost, it was cut
and cured for winter feed. Properly cured, no hay equals it for cattle.
November twenty-fourth our cow went into winter quarters, and for her
winter feed there were over four thousand eight hundred pounds of well
cured corn-fodder, and one thousand five hundred pounds of good pea-vine
hay—far more than she could consume.
Early in December, after spreading over the land all the manure on hand,
it was plowed again with a two-horse turning plow, and sowed thickly to
oats, harrowing them in. A seasonable rain gave them a good start, so
they were well prepared for the vicissitudes of winter—a good stand and
vigorous growth. The cow now received a daily ration of corn fodder and
pea hay, run through the cutter, and after mixing thoroughly three quarts
of wheat bran and one quart of cotton-seed meal, were wet with water
(warm in cold weather). This was given her in the morning, and the same
quantity at evening. The corn fodder and pea-hay for a day’s feed were
fifteen pounds of each, more or less. On this food she was kept through
the winter, giving milk of excellent quality, and in good quantity.
In February, she was tethered every fair day in the oats, and in March,
we fed her a good mess of fresh cut oats, still, however, keeping up the
winter feed of corn fodder, pea-hay, wheat bran, and cotton meal. About
April first, the feed of green oats was increased to all she would eat,
feeding three times daily, and the excellence of this diet was shown by a
marked increase in the quantity of her milk. Though due to calve again in
July, she continued to supply a family of ten persons with an abundance
of milk. Late in April, when the oats were in the milk state, they were
cut and cured for hay, making a little over a ton of good food.
Upon summing up the result, the following dollar and cents view of the
experiment of sustaining a cow on a half acre is submitted. The labor
expended in cultivation is not put down as an item of expense, as the
carriage horse was used in plowing, and the hired man did the rest.
_Dr._
To 1,500 pounds Wheat Bran, at 90c. $13.50
” 200 pounds Corn Meal, at 70c. 1.40
” 800 pounds Cotton-seed Meal, at $1 8.00
” 300 pounds Hay, at 75c. 2.25
------
Total $25.15
_Cr._
By sale of 2,200 pounds of Corn-fodder, at 60c. $13.20
” 2,100 pounds of Oats, at 75c. 15.75
------
$28.95
Profit $ 3.80
But the profit above shown does not express the real profit. A year’s
continuous supply of rich milk in abundance, for a large household, cream
for special occasions, and that best of luxuries, delicious home-made
butter, and one hundred dollars for the little heifer when six months
old, aggregate the chief results of the experiment.
For the best results in soiling, no crop compares, as far as my
experience goes, with our Southern variety of Indian corn; on rich land
it produces marvellously. I have raised it at the rate of one hundred
thousand pounds (or fifty tons) per acre. There is no difficulty in
producing three crops in one season on the same land. But cattle need
a variety of food in soiling, as in other forms of feeding. Oats are
excellent, and come in early. Cat-tail Millet (“Pearl Millet”) is a rapid
grower, but cattle are not specially fond of it; they like German Millet
better. Garden (or English) Peas make an excellent food, coming into use
in March, and lasting to June. I remember one year I produced five crops
for soiling, on the same land, in one year, namely: oats, three of corn,
and one of cow-peas. The last named is a superb food late in the year,
after corn has gone. I have never experimented with roots, nor am I aware
of any being cultivated in the South as a soiling crop. Cabbages set out
in September and October will be ready for feeding in December, and will,
next to corn, produce the largest weight of green food. One year I fed
them to a considerable extent, and found my cows were very partial to
them. By beginning with cabbages in December, to be succeeded by oats in
March, then peas, corn, and millet, to wind up in November with cow-pea,
a cow in our climate can be soiled every day in the year.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.—THE JERSEY COW “ROSALEE.”]