The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1895-03-01
An Eighty Acre Dairy Farm.


Sou ask my opinion as to How
many cows can be profitably kept on
an so-acre farm adapted to dairy
purposes?" In this great dairy country
it runs from fifteen to twenty-five.
Many keeping twenty or more get
larger yields and more profit from
cow than those keeping less. The late
Hon. Hiram Smith of this county said
he should never be satisfied until he
kept one good COW for every acre OF
tillable land. l think he got up to
nearly one hundred cows on his 200
acres, but some dry years he bought
considerable feed. l have kept ninety
two head, including horses and young
cattle, and sold some feed, on my ZIG
acres. l understand that horses are to
be kept to work the eighty acres, and
disabled cows. will tell you how
twenty cows were kept on an 80
acre farm, that gave four tons of milk
each that Melted 81 hundred pounds.
These cows We're dry two months in
midwinter. The farm furnished all
the feed for the stock except some
three tons of oil meal, and old
cows, calves, potatoes, hogs, pigs, etc,
were sold that brought over six hun
dred dollars. He planted fifteen acres
corn, fifteen of oats, had twenty acres
of pasture and woodland, fifteen Of
meadow, twenty-five in roots, five in
potatoes. He sowed five acres Of stout
growing oats thick on ground specially
prepared, to feed green. He sowed
two acres of turnips broadcast weeds
having been nearly annihilated) the
last of May, to feed with tops in Au-
gust and September He planted five
acres of sweet corn and ten of field
corn in check rows, and the last OF
July sowed in turnip seed. He had
one half acre of carrots, one and one
half acres sugar beets, one acre swedes,
two acres mangolds, three acres more
of turnips. He cut his oats quite
green and took care of it as he would
his hay. Straw and stalks were all
sweet and under cover. He cut and
wet linking in sliced roots, oat meal,
corn and cob meal, and little oil
meal and SALT most of his feed in win
ter. He prepared his box of feed
some twelve hours before feeding it.
The first four weeks his cows
were dry they were fed the
mixed feed minus the oat and corn
meal, but as calving time was APP
preaching grain enough was added to
give them full udder. None were
MIXED before they calved. AL had
some of the first mess and ate of the
blacenta if they wished. The calf was
generally left with the cow until she
had cleaned-from four to eight hours.
Salt was never forgotten-and he
never forgot that cows dry or nearly
dry were not very tender creatures,
and that the air of no stable was ever
SO pure but it was purer outside. He
allowed his dry cows to go eighty rods
to spring in the hollow rather than
to give them their water in the barn
yard. The weather had to be severe
for them to stop at the water in the
yard If all herds were like this one,
one COW doctor in Wisconsin would be
plenty. No garget-no nothing to dis
tress or annoy-in this herd. 1t is
needless to add that he was as much
Christian among his cows and calves
as at church or Sunday school. "Do
unto others as you would be done by"
he believed, and he included even his
pigs. But the maAimum number OF
cows that can be proftabIy kept on an
SO-acre farm adapted to dairy pur-
poses is more than twenty or twenty
five, when we become exact and high
class farmers. My neighbor, the late
Hon. Hiram Smith, declared the time
would come when one good COW would
be well fed from every acre of laRd--on
our best farms. An official statement
from the British parliament tells of a
man who had four acres who raised in
one year forty-two bushels of wheat,
$50 of potatoes and ten of barley, and
kept two cows and four pigs. The
COWS were kept good and nothing
bought during the year. They report
ed that five persons and two cows were
sustained on three acres of land. He
had one half acre of pasture, one
half acre and eight rods in wheat,
one quarter acre in oats. The rest
was green feed for the cows-cabbages,
clover, mangolds, turnips, etc. During
the winter he fed roots and straw and
they did very we'll The committee
further stated that thirty cows, five
horses, bull and four calves were fed
all summer from o. 15-acre pasture
of clover. The field was irrigated
with liquid manure diluted with water,
and each COW gave an income of sos.
OF course the clover was cut and fed.
So we see 1t Is difficult to say how many
cows can be kept well on an So
acre farm. II could be kept along
as was Adam or Methuselah, in good
shape for business, l would see If ]
could not yet keep s16 cows on my
216 acres.
Fowls AT THE BARN.-We can learn a
lesson by observing the fowls in the
barn and stable. Why do they love
the barn9 First, barn is usually
warm and comfortable, and next, the