42 qts Milk sold at 6½c. $2.73
286 qts. Skim-milk sold at 3c. 8.58
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Sales $11.31
640 qts. Milk for family, at 6½c. 41.60
109 lbs. Butter made @ 32c. 34.88
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Year’s returns $87.79
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Memorandum—Cost $89.30
Less sales 11.31
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77.99
Plus purchases—
86 qts. Milk @ 6½c. $ 5.59
70 lbs. Butter @ 30c. 21.00
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Cow products cost family $104.58
Comparing this with last year’s statement, it will be seen that although
there is a small balance against the cow, she is still, all things
considered, a profitable part of the domestic establishment.
MAY 1ST, 1878.—Dissatisfied with the last year’s management, and seeing
that there would last spring be a large surplus of fine compost on hand,
more profitable to use than to sell, I planned a new arrangement in the
autumn of 1876 for keeping my one cow. First, I secured the meadow west
of my lot, renting it from the owner from October first, 1876, until
April first, this year, for thirty dollars. The acre and a half yielded
about two tons of hay in 1876, but no rowen; the aftermath was good,
however, when I came in possession. The south end of it, although in
good heart, was weedy and uneven. I drove some strong stakes, and ran a
wire fence across, in continuation of my southern boundary, thus cutting
off just about a quarter of an acre in rear of my neighbor, south. This
piece I dressed with compost made the summer just preceding, and had it
plowed and cross-plowed before the ground froze, in preparation for a
root crop. The soil is a deep, mellow, sandy loam, but rich. Last spring
the new root patch was plowed once, well dressed from the compost pile of
1875-6, and that harrowed in. (There was enough of the same compost for
my garden, and to spare, so last June there was still on hand the manure
of about a year’s collection put up in good shape.) The rest of the work
I was able to do myself. My root-garden, laid out in rows running north
and south, was divided as follows: eight square rods of parsnips next
to neighbor, south, on the slope, where they caught the wash from his
garden; twelve square rods of carrots and ten rods of mangolds; in the
point west to the stream I put sweet corn at first, and followed it with
strap-leafed turnips, ten square rods. Without going into the details of
root-culture, which any one who has made a good garden knows all about,
I put into my house cellar last fall fifty-two bushels of Long Orange
Carrots, and over forty bushels of Long Yellow Mangel Wurzels (these
monstrous, twisted, forked roots are awkward things to measure, but
there must have been a ton or more in weight), left in the ground from
twenty to twenty-five bushels of Hollow-crowned Parsnips, and harvested
thirty-six bushels of English Turnips. This was more than I had bargained
for. I see now that roots enough might have been raised in my old garden,
and the parsnips would have done much better there, but I sold twenty
bushels each of carrots and turnips for more than enough to cover all
expenditures for seed and hired labor.
A year ago to-day, I turned “June” into her new pasture of an acre and a
quarter; the grass was then starting well, and I preferred to have the
change gradual. She ate more or less hay until the end of the month.
Doors and gates were so fixed that she could be in stall, yard, or
pasture at pleasure, and could drink at the stream bordering the meadow.