A professional friend of mine is the owner of three horses and two
imported cows, all of which are kept in very high condition. He informs
me that for several years, with the exception of one year, two and one
half acres of land have furnished all the hay consumed by the five
animals, together with pasturage for one cow; the other cow being dry
during the summer, is pastured in the country. His land is naturally
good grass land, being moist, well drained, and perfectly smooth. The
apparatus for tethering his cow, when at pasture, consists of a pole or
joist, the short end of which is weighted, swiveled on an iron upright,
standing, when in position, about four feet above the ground, giving the
apparatus the appearance of a model of an old-fashioned well sweep. The
halter being attached to the upper end, is always above her back while
feeding. This arrangement allows the cow the range of a circuit thirty
feet in diameter. The upright is removed to the arc of the circle at
morning and noon. In this manner she traverses the length of the lot,
four hundred feet, in fourteen days, when she is brought back to the
starting point, to repeat the journey again. In this manner, twelve
thousand feet of land is made to furnish pasturage for one cow during
the entire summer, and besides this, she has no feed whatever. The cow
is always in good condition, and the ground never appears very closely
cropped, and I have no doubt that were she restricted to one quarter of
an acre, or ten thousand eight hundred and ninety feet, she would still
be better fed than most cows that are at pasture. The droppings of the
cow are daily removed from this range, so that she always has a clean
feeding ground. All the manure made by the five animals is annually
returned to this lot, and, in addition, the owner informs me, once in
three years he gives it a dressing of a ton of ground bone.