WHAT WE MADE BY OUR COWS.
Every week we kept an account of the milk and butter we consumed, and
entered it in our housekeeping-book at the price we should have paid
for it, supposing we had purchased the articles. We did not put down
London prices, but country ones: thus, we charged ourselves with milk
at 6 cents the quart, and butter 27 cents the pound; at the end of six
months we made up our accounts, and found we should have paid for milk
from the 14th to the 24th of January, $44, and $66 for butter. The
food for the cows during this period cost us but $4 50, which we paid
for oil-cake, of which, when the weather became cold, they had two
pounds each daily. We do not reckon the value of the hay they consumed
during winter, because we included the land in our rent. We mowed
three acres, which produced rather more than six loads of hay.* [We
always had good crops, as the land had been always well kept. It was
not "upland" hay, but our man said it had good "heart" in it for the
cows.] Getting in the crop and thatching it cost, as nearly as
possible, $15, and this quantity was quite sufficient to supply the
two cows--with the calf of the Strawberry, which we reared--and the
pony.
An acre of grass is usually considered sufficient to support a cow
during the year. If that had to be rented apart from the house, the
average price would be about $25. Supposing we place that value on our
land, the accounts for six months would stand thus:
EXPENSES.
Land at $25 the acre, for half a year, . . . . . . . . . $25 00
Oil-cake, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 50
Half the expense of getting the hay, . . . . . . . . . . 7 50
$37 00
PRODUCE.
Value of milk and butter, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $116 50
Leaving a balance in our favor, at the end of six months of $79 50.
At the commencement of the winter, a cow-keeper in the neighborhood
told our man that we should give our cows a little mangel-wurzel. We
inquired, Why? and were told that we should "keep our cows better
together;" so we paid a guinea for a ton of that vegetable. The first
time we made butter after they had been fed with it, we found it had a
very strong, bitter taste. Still, we did not condemn the
mangel-wurzel, but tried it another week. The butter was again bad, so
we abandoned the roots, and resolved to give the animals nothing but
hay.
When they were quite deprived of green food the milk began to
decrease; and as we had heard that oil-cake was given to cattle, we
thought we would try some. We did so, and with complete success; we
had plenty of milk, and the butter was as good as in the middle of
summer, and nearly as fine a color. We did not make so much as when
the cows had plenty of grass,--besides, it was now several months
since the black cow had calved,--but we had sufficient for the
consumption of the family. The children, it is true, did not have so
many tarts as when the fruit and butter were more plentiful.
We hope that we have made all our statements clearly, and that the
reader will have no difficulty in following us through this narrative
of "buttermaking."
Of one thing we are quite sure, that it is false economy to feed cows
during the winter on anything but what we have mentioned. Grains from
the brewer and distiller are extensively used by cow-keepers in large
towns, but they cannot be procured in the country; and we have been
told that cows fed with grains, though they may yield plenty of milk,
will not make much butter.
One winter, when hay was scarce, we found that they did very well with
carrots occasionally, and that they did not impart any unpleasant
taste to the butter. They are likewise found of potatoes unboiled; but
these things are only required when you keep more stock than your land
can support,--a fault very common to inexperienced farmers on a small
scale.