and other work at the stable during the winter has been this: Between
six and seven o’clock A. M. stall cleaned, cow brushed off, bedding and
absorbents fixed, the milking done, and then a feed of six or seven
pounds of chaffed hay, slightly moistened, and the bran and meal mixed
with it. After this, a bucket of water left in the stall, except in the
coldest weather. The bucket is fixed near the feed-box, so it can not
be tipped over, and it has generally been found empty at noon. At that
hour, the regular watering, two or three pailfuls, and then a small bunch
of hay thrown in the box; the stall cleaned also. Between six and seven
at night, the milking done and bedding fixed, the roots fed, chopped up
pretty fine with a spade, and the cotton-seed meal sprinkled over them.
Hay then given, and the cow left for the night.
It was my intention to feed the roots in two parts, morning and night,
and I should have preferred this, but my time in the morning was limited.
Preparing the roots over night, they sometimes froze, but I could cut the
hay at evening, ready for the morning chop-feed. As one kind of root was
about to give out, some of the next to be fed were mixed in, and thus
sudden changes avoided. The extra hay and stalks calculated for February
and March were not used exactly in those months, but consumed during
severely cold and windy spells, being added to the usual noon and night
portions. At all times, the cow had, under this plan, full as much as
she was ready to eat up clean. The hay left on hand a year ago was all
used last summer, and before November a full load each of the best rowen
and clover hay were put into the barn, one thousand six hundred and one
thousand four hundred pounds respectively, and there is a little left.
It ought also to be mentioned that while the cow was mainly fed on sweet
corn, last July and August, I was obliged to add about two pounds of
cotton-seed meal a day, to give quality to the milk; it was fed dry, at
noon. As soon as the feeding of carrot tops began, this meal was omitted,
but it was again needed when turnips were substituted for carrot and beet
tops. The ration of mangolds was increased to about two bushels in three
days, because there were plenty of them, and my house cellar being rather
warm, they commenced to rot. I was very careful to give the cow only
sound roots. This extra food in February and March resulted in a better
milk record by “June” than in the two months next preceding. I shall feed
more roots the coming year. There were more parsnips than could be well
used; they were not needed until April, and I sold five dollars’ worth,
as an offset to what the cow got from last year’s kitchen garden. The cow
goes on to pasture to-day.
Therefore, in review, the cow has been carried through the year with the
one and one-half acres rented for thirty dollars, and forty-five dollars
expended for hay and grain. Against the manure taken for my garden
may be placed the cleanings of the poultry house, the contents of the
earth-closet, and the garden refuse and bedding, all of which go into
the compost heap. The item of labor alone remains, and as all that has
been hired (including the plowing of the garden) was paid from sales of
surplus roots, no further account is taken of that; my own time was well
spent, as the balance sheet shows. Last August, we fully determined that
it would be better for the family cow to be fresh in September than in
the spring. The heat of summer is the time when it is most difficult to
keep a cow properly fed for a good flow of rich milk on a little place
like this. It is the time when milk is plenty and cheap, if one wants to
buy, and most difficult to manage or dispose of if one has much on hand.
It is almost impossible to make good butter in dog-days, living as we
do, with no special appliances, and it is not worth while for us to get
a patent creamer and a supply of ice. In the spring, we don’t want a dry
cow, but are willing to have one in August. July, with its increasing
heat and decreasing pasturage, is a favorable time to dry off a cow. The
keeper of one cow can not afford to have her dry more than six weeks in
the year, and may manage to have this period four weeks, or even less.
Accordingly, I have arranged for “June” to come in next September, and
shall in future practice “winter-dairying.” Indeed, we have done so the
past season, for with liberal feeding of a succulent character, the cow
has held out well in her milk. She is now giving between five and six
quarts a day, while not yet on grass, and her total yield for eleven
months, since June first (or rather for the year), is found to be two
thousand seven hundred and forty-six quarts. Here is my third year’s
annual account with “June:”