The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1905-11-22

vet. no one has tried it, The following
was written for the Journal of Agri
culture but applies equally well to
Florida.
Several years ago | hired pasture
across the road of Il neighbOr. One
day in July the cattle broke into his
cornfeld and he notified ME | must
take my two cows home. AS 1 had no
pasture | tied them in the, stable and
with such material as | had on hand
fed them and for two years they were
not out of the barn. BY arranging a
floor with manure ditch | had little
difficulty in keeping them clean and
/ never had cows do better and when
they were sold to the butcher (still
being milked) he told me they were
the latest COWS he ever killed. |
am now milking six cows and have
three small pastures. about an acre
each. so | can change them from one
to another and am feeding them
Regularly and find so little difficulty
in providing food for them that l am
cutie in the notion of Increasing the
size of my. dairy and dependink on
feeding nearly all the time. The shape
of my farm and its soil makes it in
convenient for me to pasture as my
,asture land is over half Il mile from
the house and would require much eX-
Iense to build lane and drive the
cattle every day and would be more
trouble than to feed them. 80.
One spring was early, March being
an unusually mild month and we be-
gan feeding clover the first of June
and have found that the cows do well
on it either fed green directly from
the field or cured and fed in the
stable. Our six. cows gave in June
from 125 to 40 pounds of milk per
day. Three of them were what is
called "stIippers.'" as it was over
ten months since they dropped calves.
but they averaged up well with the
three fresh cows. two of which We're
heifers with their first calves. Our
oats were ready to begin feeding early
in July. Then WE had successive
paintings of sweet corn. the first ready
for Use about July 4. and. sorghum
came i'm later. With this system and
with good supply of alfalfa we are
sa tiSfied there will be no difficulty
in furnishing food from first of May up
10 W1DteTs oHlN one tnlIS Is ldChlHS
to make this experiment complete and
that is silO, so the cows could have
green succulent food the entire year
SO far | have found very little diff
Guilty in the SLIDING business. We have
IL light running moving machine that
we keep in the field and we cut
twice week enough. to furnish the
cows food. | am not sure with oats
and clover. we might as well cut a full
weeks ration for them at one cutting
as they eat it with apparently as much
relish when PARTLY cured as when
green and it is lighter to handle.
One advantage of this system is
that small farm run as Il dairy farm
Will give Il larger income Than most
other farm practices. and the manure
from the cows rightly used will main
tain fertility. | should not be at all
afraid to start with a COW for each
acre if the dairy was to furnish my
only income. but with twenty-five
acre farm. and twelve cows l would
probably be able to grow large crops
of such things as potatoes, nutmeg
melons. sweet potatoes. etc.. which
wOulf bring good prices. on the re-
mainder of the farm. and / believe
that Il larger net income could be had
from twenty-five acres managed in
this way than from twice or three
times as much land managed as most
farmers do, making wheat, corn and