Read Ebook: Cattle and Their Diseases Embracing Their History and Breeds Crossing and Breeding and Feeding and Management; with the Diseases to Which They Are Subject and the Remedies Best Adapted to Their Cure by Jennings Robert

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ts of summer, and as an article for soiling cows kept in the stall. No dairy farmer will neglect to sow an extent in proportion to the number of cows which he keeps. The most common practice is, to sow in drills from two and a half to three feet apart, on land well tilled and thoroughly manured, making the drills from six to ten inches wide with the plough, manuring in the furrow, dropping the kernels about two inches apart, and covering with the hoe. In this mode of culture, the cultivator may be used between the rows when the corn is from six to twelve inches high, and, unless the ground is very weedy, no other after culture is needed. The first sowing usually takes place about the middle of May, and this is succeeded by other sowings, at intervals of a week or ten days, till July, in order to have a succession of green fodder; but, if it is designed to cut it up to cure for winter use, an early sowing is generally preferred, in order to be able to cure it in warm weather, in August or early in September. Sown in this way, about three or four bushels of corn are required for an acre; since, if sown thickly, the fodder is better, the stalks smaller, and the waste less.

The chief difficulty in curing corn cultivated for this purpose, and after the methods just spoken of, arises from the fact that it comes at a season when the weather is often colder, the days shorter, and the dews heavier, than when the curing of hay takes place. Nor is the curing of corn cut up green so easy and simple as that of the drying of stalks of Indian corn cut above the ear, as in the common practice of topping. The plant is then riper, less juicy, and cures more readily.

The method sometimes adopted is to cut and tie into small bundles, after it is somewhat wilted, and then to stook upon the ground, where it is allowed to stand, subject to all the changes of weather, with only the protection of the stook itself. The stooks consist of bunches of stalks first bound into small bundles, and are made sufficiently large to prevent the wind from blowing them over. The arms are thrown around the tops to bring them as closely together as possible, when the tops are broken over or twisted together, or otherwise fastened, in order to make the stook "shed the rain" as well as possible. In this condition they remain out until they are sufficiently dried to be put in the barn. Corn fodder is very excellent for young dairy stock.

COMMON MILLET is another very valuable crop for fodder in soiling, or to cure for winter use, but especially to feed out during the usual season of drought. Many varieties of millet are cultivated in this country, the ground being prepared and treated as for oats. If designed to cut for green fodder, half a bushel of seed to the acre should be used; if to ripen seed, twelve quarts, sown broadcast, about the last of May or early in June. A moist loam or muck is the best soil adapted to millet; but very great crops have been grown on dry upland. It is very palatable and nutritious for milch cows, both green and when properly cured. The curing should be very much like that of clover, care being taken not to over-dry it. For fodder, either green or cured, it is cut before ripening. In this state all cattle eat it as readily as green corn, and a less extent will feed them. Millet is worthy of a widely-extended cultivation, particularly on dairy farms. Indian millet is another cultivated variety.

RYE, as a fodder plant, is chiefly valuable for its early growth in spring. It is usually sown in September or October--from the middle to the end of September being, perhaps, the most desirable time--on land previously cultivated and in good condition. If designed to ripen only, a bushel of seed is required to the acre, evenly sown; but, if intended for early fodder in spring, two or two and a half bushels of seed per acre should be used. On warm land the rye can be cut green the last of April or the first of May. Care should be taken to cut early; since, if it is allowed to advance too far towards maturity, the stalk becomes hard and unpalatable to cows.

OATS are also sometimes used for soiling, or for feeding green, to eke out a scanty supply of pasture feed; and for this purpose they are valuable. They should be sown on well-tilled and well-manured land, about four bushels to the acre, towards the last of April or the first of May. If the whole crop is to be used as green fodder, five bushels of seed will not be too much for good, strong soil. They will be sufficiently grown to cut by the first of July, or in some sections earlier, depending upon the location.

The CHINESE SUGAR-CANE also may deserve attention as a fodder plant. Experiments thus far made would seem to show that when properly cultivated, and cut at the right time, it is a palatable and nutritious plant, while many of the failures have been the result of too early cutting. For a fodder crop the drill culture is preferable, both on account of the larger yield obtained and because it is thus prevented from becoming too hard and stalky.

Of the root crops the POTATO is the first to be mentioned. This produces a large quantity of milk, though the quality is inferior. The market value of this root is, at times, too great to allow of feeding extensively with it, even in milk dairies, where it is most valuable as a food for cows; still, there are locations where it may be judicious to cultivate this root for dairy feed, and in all circumstances there is a certain portion of the crop of unmarketable size, which will be of value fed to milch cows or swine. It should be planted in April or May, but in many sections in June, on good mellow soil, first thoroughly plowed and harrowed, then furrowed three feet apart, and manured in the furrows with a mixture of ashes, plaster of Paris, and salt. The seed may be dropped in the furrows, one foot apart, after the drill system--or in hills, two and a half or three feet apart--to be covered with the plough by simply turning the furrows back, after which the whole should be rolled with the field-roller, when it can be done.

If the land is not already in good heart from continued cultivation, a few loads of barnyard manure may be spread, and plowed under, by the first plowing. Used in this way it is far less liable to cause the rot, than when it is put in the hill. If a sufficient quantity of wood-ashes is not at hand, sifted coal-ashes will answer the purpose, and these are said to be valuable as a preventive of rot. In this way, one man, two boys, and a horse can plant from three to four acres a day on mellow land.

The cost of cultivation in this mode, it must be evident, is but trifling, compared with the slower method of hand-planting. It requires a skillful ploughman, a quick, active lad, and a good yoke of oxen, and the extent of the work will depend somewhat upon the state of the turf. The nutritive equivalent for potatoes in a hundred pounds of good hay is 319 pounds; that is, it will take 3.19 pounds of potatoes to afford the same amount of nourishment as one pound of hay. The great value of roots is as a change or condiment calculated to keep the animal in a healthy condition.

The CARROT is somewhat extensively fed, and is a valuable root for milch cows. This, like the potato, has been cultivated and improved from a wild plant. Carrots require a deep, warm, mellow soil, thoroughly cultivated, but clean, and free from weed-seed. The difference between a very good profit and a loss on the crop depends much upon the use of land and manures perfectly free from foul seeds of any kind. Ashes, guano, seaweed, ground bones, and other similar substances, or thoroughly-rotted and fermented compost, will answer the purpose.

After plowing deep, and harrowing carefully, the seed should be planted with a seed-sower, in drills about eighteen inches apart, at the rate of four pounds to the acre, about the middle of May. The difference between sowing on the fifteenth of May and on the tenth of June in New England is said to be nearly one-third in the crop on an average of years. In weeding, a little wheel hoe is invaluable, as with it a large part of the labor of cultivation is saved. A skillful hand can run this hoe within a half an inch of the young plants without injury, and go over a large space in the course of a day, if the land was properly prepared in the first place.

Carrots will continue to grow and increase in size late into the fall. When ready to dig, plow around as near to the outside rows as possible, turning away the furrow from the row. Then take out the carrots, pulling off the tops, and throw the carrots and tops into separate heaps on the plowed furrows. In this way a man and two boys can harvest and put into the cellar upwards of a hundred bushels a day.

The TURNIP, and the Swedish turnip, or ruta baga, are also largely cultivated as a field crop to feed to stock; and for this purpose almost numberless varieties are used, furnishing a great amount of succulent and nutritious food, late into winter, and, if well-kept, late into spring. The chief objection to the turnip is, that it taints the milk. This may be remedied--to a considerable extent, if not wholly--by the use of salt, or salt hay, and by feeding at the time of milking, or immediately after, or by steaming before feeding, or putting a small quantity of the solution of nitre into the pail, and milking upon it.

Turnips may be sown any time in June, in rich land, well mellowed by cultivation. Very large crops are obtained, sown as late as the middle of July, or the first of August, on an inverted sod. The Michigan, or double-mould-board plow leaves the land light, and in admirable condition to harrow, and drill in turnips. In one instance, a successful root-grower cut two tons of hay to the acre, on the twenty-third of June, and after it was removed from the land spread eight cords of rotten kelp to the acre, and plowed in; after which about three cords of fine old compost manure were used to the acre, which was sown with ruta baga seed, in drills, three feet apart, plants thinned to eight or ten inches in the drill. No after cultivation was required. On the fifteenth of November he harvested three hundred and seventy bushels of splendid roots to the acre, carefully measured off.

The nutritive equivalent of Swedish turnips as compared with good meadow hay is 676, taking hay as a standard at 100; that is, it would require 6.76 pounds of turnips to furnish the same nutriment as one pound of good hay; but fed in connection with other food--as hay, for example--perhaps five pounds of turnips would be about equal to one pound of hay.

The English or round turnip is usually sown broadcast after some other crop, and large and valuable returns are often obtained. The Swede is sown in drills. Both of these varieties are used for the production of milk.

The chief objection to the turnip crop is that it leaves many kinds of soil unfit for a succession of some other crops, like Indian corn, for instance. In some sections, no amount of manuring appears to make corn do well after turnips or ruta bagas.

The MANGOLD WURTZEL, a variety of the common beet, is often cultivated in this country with great success, and fed to cows with advantage, furnishing a succulent and nutritive food in winter and spring. The crop is somewhat uncertain. When it does well, an enormous yield is often obtained; but, not rarely, it proves a failure, and is not, on the whole, quite as reliable as the ruta baga, though a more valuable crop when the yield is good. It is cultivated like the common beet in moist, rich soils; three pounds of seed to the acre The leaves may be stripped off, towards fall, and fed out, without injury to the growth of the root. Both mangolds and turnips should be cut with a root-cutter, before being fed out.

The PARSNIP is a very sweet and nutritious article of fodder, and adds richness and flavor to the milk. It is worthy of extended culture in all parts of the country where dairy husbandry is pursued. It is a biennial, easily raised on deep, rich, well-cultivated and well-manured soils, often yielding enormous crops, and possessing the decided advantage of withstanding the severest winters. As an article of spring feeding, therefore, it is exceedingly valuable. Sown in April or May, it attains a large growth before winter. Then, if desirable, a part of the crop may be harvested for winter use, and the remainder left in the ground till the frost is out, in March or April, when they can be dug as wanted, and are exceedingly relished by milch cows and stock of all kinds. They make an admirable feed at the time of milking, and produce the richest cream, and the yellowest and finest-flavored butter, of any roots used among us. The best dairy farmers on the Island of Jersey often feed to their cows from thirty to thirty-five pounds of parsnips a day, in addition to hay or grass.

Both practical experiment and scientific analysis prove this root to be eminently adapted to dairy stock, where the richness of milk or fine-flavored butter is any object. For mere milk-dairies, it is not quite so valuable, probably, as the Swedish turnip. The culture is similar to that of carrots, a rich, mellow, and deep loam being best; while it has a great advantage over the carrot in being more hardy, and rather less liable to injury from insects, and more nutritive. For feeding and fattening stock it is eminently adapted.

To be sure of a crop, fresh seed must be had, as it cannot be depended on for more than one year. For this reason the largest and straightest roots should be allowed to stand for seed, which, as soon as nearly ripe, should be taken out and spread out to dry, and carefully kept for use. For field culture, the hollow-crowned parsnip is the best and most profitable; but on thin, shallow soils the turnip-rooted variety should be used. Parsnips may be harvested like carrots, by plowing along the rows. Let butter or cheese dairymen give this crop a fair and full trial, and watch its effect in the quality of the milk and butter.

The KOHL RABI is also cultivated to a considerable extent in this country for the purpose of feeding stock. It is supposed to be a hybrid between the cabbage and the turnip and is often called the cabbage-turnip, having the root of the former, with a turnip-like or bulbous stem. The special reason for its more extensive cultivation among us is its wonderful indifference to droughts, in which it seems to flourish best, and to bring forth the most luxuriant crops. It also withstands the frosts remarkably, being a hardy plant. It yields a somewhat richer quality of milk than the ordinary turnip, and the crop is generally admitted to be as abundant and profitable. Very large crops of it have been produced by the ordinary turnip or cabbage cultivation. As in cabbage-culture, it is best to sow the seed in March or April, in a warm and well-enriched seed-bed; from which it is transplanted in May, and set out after the manner of cabbages in garden culture. It bears transplanting better than most other roots. Insects injure it less than the turnip, dry weather favors it, and it keeps well through winter. For these reasons, it must be regarded as a valuable addition to our list of forage plants adapted to dairy farming. It grows well on stronger soils than the turnip requires.

LINSEED MEAL is the ground cake of flaxseed after the oil is pressed out. It is very rich in fat-forming principles, and given to milch cows increases the quality of butter, and keeps them in condition. Four or five pounds a day are sufficient for cows in milk, and this amount will effect a great saving in the cost of other food, and at the same time make a very rich milk. It is extensively manufactured in this country, and largely exported, but it is worthy of more general use here. It must not be fed in too large quantities to milch cows, for it would be liable to give too great a tendency to fat, and thus affect the quantity of the milk.

COTTON-SEED MEAL is an article of comparatively recent introduction. It is obtained by pressing the seed of the cotton-plant, which extracts the oil, when the cake is crushed or ground into meal, which has been found to be a very valuable article for feeding stock. From analysis it is shown to be equal or superior to linseed meal. Practical experiments only are needed to establish it. It can be procured in market at a reasonable price.

The MANURES used in this country for the culture of the above named plants are mostly such as are made on the farm, consisting chiefly of barnyard composts of various kinds, with often a large admixture of peat-mud. There are few farms that do not contain substances, which, if properly husbanded, would add very greatly to the amount of manure ordinarily made. The best of the concentrated manures, which it is sometimes necessary to use, for want of time and labor to prepare enough upon the farm, is, unquestionably, Peruvian guano. The results of this, when properly applied, are well known and reliable, which can hardly be said of any other artificial manure offered for the farmer's notice. The chief objection to depending upon manures made off the farm is, in the first place, their great expense; and in the second--which is equally important--the fact, that, though they may be made valuable, and produce at one time the best results, a want of care in the manufacture, or designed fraud, may make them almost worthless, with the impossibility of detecting the imposition, without a chemical analysis, till it becomes too late, and the crop is lost.

It is, therefore, safest to rely mainly upon the home manufacture of manure. The extra expense of soiling cattle, saving and applying the liquid manure, and thus bringing the land to a higher state of cultivation, when it will be capable of keeping more stock and furnishing more manure, would offer a surer road to success than a constant outlay for concentrated fertilizers.

THE BARN.

The farm barn, next to the farm house, is the most important structure of the farm itself, in the Northern and Middle States; and even at the South and Southwest, where barns are less used, they are of more importance in the economy of farm management than is generally understood. Indeed, to the eyes of a person of taste, a farm or plantation appears incomplete, without good barn accommodations, as much as without good household appointments--and without them, no agricultural establishment can be complete in all its proper economy.

In the structure of the barn, and in its interior accommodation, much will depend upon the branches of agriculture to which the farm is devoted. A farm cultivated in grain chiefly requires but little room for stabling purposes. Storage for grain in the sheaf, and granaries, will require its room; while a stock farm requires a barn with extensive hay storage, and stables for its cattle, horses, and sheep, in all climates which do not admit of such stocks living through the winter in the field, as is the case in the great grazing districts west of the Alleghanies. Again, there are wide districts of country where a mixed husbandry of grain and stock is pursued, which require barns and outbuildings accommodating both.

It may be well here to remark that many designers of barns, sheds, and other outbuildings for the accommodation of farm stock, have indulged in fanciful arrangements for the comfort and convenience of animals, which are so complicated that when constructed, as they sometimes are, the practical, common-sense farmer will not use them; and by reason of the learning which is required for their use, they are altogether unsuitable for the treatment and use which they generally receive from those who have the daily care of the stock for which they are intended, and for the rough usage which they experience from the animals themselves. A very pretty and plausible arrangement of stabling, feeding, and all the other requirements of a barn establishment may be thus got up by an ingenious theorist at the fireside, which will work charmingly as he dilates upon its good qualities, untried; but, which, when subjected to experiment, will be utterly worthless for practical use. There can be no doubt that the simplest plan of construction, consistent with an economical expenditure of the material of food for the consumption of stock, is by far the most preferable.

Another item to be considered in this connection, is the comparative value of the stock, the forage fed to them, and the labor expended in feeding and taking care of them. To illustrate: Suppose a farm to lie in the vicinity of a large town or city. Its value is, perhaps, a hundred dollars an acre. The hay cut upon it is worth fifteen dollars a ton, at the barn, and straw and coarse grains in proportion, and hired labor ten or twelve dollars a month. Consequently, the manager of this farm should use all the economy in his power, by the aid of cutting-boxes and other machinery, to make the least amount of forage supply the wants of his stock; and the internal economy of his barn should be arranged accordingly, since labor is his cheapest item, and food his dearest. Therefore, any contrivance by which to work up his forage the closest--by way of machinery, or manual labor--so that it shall serve the purposes of keeping his stock, is true economy; and the making and saving of manures are items of the first importance. His buildings and their arrangements throughout should, for these reasons, be constructed in accordance with his practice.

If, on the other hand, lands are cheap and productive, and labor comparatively dear, a different practice will prevail. The farmer will feed his hay from the mow without cutting. The straw will be stacked out, and the cattle turned to it, to pick what they like of it, and make their beds of the remainder; or, if it is housed, he will throw it into racks, and the stock may eat what they choose. To do this requires but one-third, or one-half of the labor which is required by the other mode, and the saving in this makes up, and perhaps more than makes up, for the increased quantity of forage consumed.

Again, climate may equally affect the mode of winter-feeding the stock. The winters may be mild. The hay may be stacked in the fields when gathered, or put into small barns built for hay storage alone; and the manure, scattered over the fields by the cattle, as they are fed from either of them, may be knocked to pieces with the dung-beetle, in the spring, or harrowed and bushed over the ground; and with the very small quantity of labor required in all this, such practice will be more economical than any other which can be adopted.

In latitudes, however, in which it becomes necessary to stall-feed during several months of the year, barns are indispensable. These should be warm, and at the same time well ventilated. The barn should be arranged in a manner suitable to keeping hay and other fodder dry and sweet, and with reference to the comfort and health of the animals, and the economy of labor and manure. The size and finish will, of course, depend on the wants and means of the farmer or dairyman; but many little conveniences, it should not be forgotten, can be added at comparatively trifling cost.

The accompanying cut of a barn is given merely as an illustration of a convenient arrangement for a medium-sized dairy, and not as being adapted to all circumstances or situations. This barn is supposed to stand upon a side-hill or an inclined surface, where it is easy to have a cellar, if desired; and the cattle-room, as shown in the cut, is in the second story, or directly over the cellar, the bottom of which should be somewhat dished, or lower in the middle than around the outer sides, and carefully paved, or laid in cement.

This cow-room may be furnished with a thermometer, clock, etc., and should always be well ventilated by sliding windows, which at the same time admit the light.

Proper ventilation of the cellar and the cow-room avoids the objection that the hay is liable to injury from noxious gases.

The excellent manure-cellar beneath this barn extends only under the cow-room. It has a drive-way through doors on each side. No barn-cellar should be kept shut up tight, even in cold weather. The gases are constantly escaping from the manure, unless held by absorbents, which are liable not only to affect the health of the stock, but also to injure the quality of the hay. To prevent this, while securing the important advantages of a manure-cellar, the barn may be furnished with good-sized ventilators on the top, for every twenty-five feet of its length, and with wooden tubes leading from the cellar to the top.

There should also be windows on different sides of the cellar to admit the free circulation of air. With these precautions, together with the use of absorbents in the shape of loam and muck, there will be no danger of rotting the timbers of the barn, or of risking the health of the cattle or the quality of the hay.

The temperature at which the cow-room should be kept is somewhere from fifty to sixty degrees, Fahrenheit. The practice and the opinions of successful dairymen differ somewhat on this point. Too great heat would affect the health and appetite of the herd; while too low a temperature is equally objectionable, for various reasons.

The most economical plan for room in tying cattle in their stalls, is to fasten the rope or chain, whichever is used--the wooden stanchion, or stanchel, as it is called, to open and shut, enclosing the animal by the neck, being objectionable--into a ring, which is secured by a strong staple into a post. This prevents the cattle from interfering with each other, while a partition effectually prevents any contact from the animals on each side of it, in the separate stalls.

There is no greater benefit for cattle, after coming into winter-quarters, than a systematic regularity in every thing pertaining to them. Every animal should have its own particular stall in the stable, where it should always be kept. The cattle should be fed and watered at certain fixed hours of the day, as near as may be. If let out of the stables for water, unless the weather is very pleasant--when they may be permitted to lie out for a short time--they should be immediately put back, and not allowed to range about with the outside cattle. They are more quiet and contented in their stables than elsewhere, and waste less food than if permitted to run out; besides being in every way more comfortable, if properly bedded and attended to, as every one will find upon trial. The habit which many farmers have, of turning their cattle out of the stables in the morning, in all weathers--letting them range about in a cold yard, hooking and annoying each other--is of no possible benefit, unless it be to rid them of the trouble of cleaning the stables, which pays more than twice its cost in the saving of manure. The outside cattle, which occupy the yard--if there are any--are all the better that the stabled ones do not interfere with them. They become habituated to their own quarters, as do the others, and all are better for being, respectively, in their proper places.

MILKING.

The manner of milking exerts a more powerful and lasting influence on the productiveness of the cow than most farmers are aware. That a slow and careless milker soon dries up the best of cows, every practical farmer and dairyman knows; but a careful examination of the beautiful structure of the udder will serve further to explain the proper mode of milking, in order to obtain and keep up the largest yield.

This must not be understood, however, as asserting that all the milk drawn from the udder at one milking is contained in the receptacle. The milk, as it is secreted, is conveyed to the receptacle, and when that is full, the larger tubes begin to be filled, and next the smaller ones, until the whole become gorged. When this takes place, the secretion of the milk ceases, and absorption of the thinner or more watery part commences. Now, as this absorption takes place more readily in the smaller or more distant tubes, it is invariably found that the milk from these, which comes last into the receptacle, is much thicker and richer than what was first drawn off. This milk has been significantly styled afterings, or strippings; and should this gorged state of the tubes be permitted to continue beyond a certain time, serious mischief will sometimes occur; the milk becomes too thick to flow through the tubes, and soon produces, first irritation, then inflammation, and lastly suppuration, and the function of the gland is materially impaired or altogether destroyed. Hence the great importance of emptying these smaller tubes regularly and thoroughly, not merely to prevent the occurrence of disease, but actually to increase the quantity of milk; for, so long as the smaller tubes are kept free, milk is constantly forming; but whenever, as has already been mentioned, they become gorged, the secretion of milk ceases until they are emptied. The cow herself has no power over the sphincter at the end of her teat, so as to open it, and relieve the overcharged udder; neither has she any power of retaining the milk collected in the reservoirs when the spasm of the sphincter is overcome.

Thus is seen the necessity of drawing away the last drop of milk at every milking; and the better milker the cow, the more necessary this is. What has been said demonstrates, also, the impropriety of holding the milk in cows until the udder is distended much beyond its ordinary size, for the sake of showing its capacity for holding milk--a device to which many dealers in cows resort.

Thus much of the internal structure of the udder. Its external form requires attention, because it indicates different properties. Its form should be spheroidal, large, giving an idea of capaciousness; the bag should have a soft, fine skin, and the hind part upward toward the tail be loose and elastic. There should be fine, long hairs scattered plentifully over the surface, to keep it warm. The teats should not seem to be contracted, or funnel-shaped, at the inset with the bag. In the former state, teats are very apt to become corded, or spindled; and in the latter, too much milk will constantly be pressing on the lower tubes, or receptacle. They should drop naturally from the lower parts of the bag, being neither too short, small, or dumpy, or long, flabby, and thick, but, perhaps, about three inches in length, and so thick as just to fill the hand. They should hang as if all the quarters of the udder were equal in size, the front quarters projecting a little forward, and the hind ones a little more dependent. Each quarter should contain about equal quantities of milk; though, in the belief of some, the hind quarters contain rather the most.

Largely developed milk-veins--as the subcutaneous veins along the under part of the abdomen are commonly called--are regarded as a source of milk. This is a popular error, for the milk-vein has no connection with the udder; yet, although the office of these is to convey the blood from the fore part of the chest and sides to the inguinal vein, yet a large milk-vein certainly indicates a strongly developed vascular system--one favorable to secretions generally, and to that of the milk among the rest.

Of these two modes, handling is the preferable, since it is the more natural method--imitating, as it does, the suckling of the calf. When a calf takes a teat into its mouth, it makes the tongue and palate by which it seizes it, play upon the teat by alternate pressures or pulsations, while retaining the teat in the same position. It is thus obvious that handling is somewhat like sucking, whereas stripping is not at all like it. It is said that stripping is good for agitating the udder, the agitation of which is conducive to the withdrawal of a large quantity of milk; but there is nothing to prevent the agitation of the udder as much as the dairymaid pleases, while holding in the other mode. Indeed, a more constant vibration could be kept up in that way by the vibrations of the arms than by stripping. Stripping, by using an unconstrained pressure on two sides of the teat, is much more apt to press it unequally, than by grasping the whole teat in the palm of the hand; while the friction occasioned by passing the finger and thumb firmly over the outside of the teat, is more likely to cause heat and irritation in it than a steady and full grasp of the entire hand. To show that this friction causes an unpleasant feeling even to the dairymaid, she is obliged to lubricate the teat frequently with milk, and to wet it at first with water; whereas the other mode requires no such expedients. And as a further proof that stripping is a mode of milking which may give pain to the cow, it cannot be employed, when the teats are chapped, with so much ease to the cow as handling.

The milking-pail is of various forms and of various materials. The Dutch use brass ones, which are brilliantly scoured every time they are in use. Tin pitchers are used in some places, while pails of wood in cooper-work are employed in others. A pail of oak, having thin staves bound together by bright iron hoops, with a handle formed by a stave projecting upward, is convenient for the purpose, and may be kept clean and sweet. One nine inches in diameter at the bottom, eleven inches at the top, and ten inches deep, with an upright handle or leg of five inches, has a capacious enough mouth to receive the milk as it descends; and a sufficient height, when standing on the edge of its bottom on the ground, to allow the dairymaid to grasp it firmly with her knees while sitting on a small three-legged stool. Of course, such a pail cannot be milked full; but it should be large enough to contain all the milk which a single cow can give at a milking; because it is undesirable to rise from a cow before the milking is finished, or to exchange one dish for another while the milking is in progress.

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