The number of persons who possess but one cow is far larger than those who have ten or more. No doubt many others, living outside of closely built cities, would gladly lessen the cost of supporting their families, and at the same time add to their comforts, and even luxuries, by keeping a cow, did they know how to keep one. There is a general notion that keeping a cow requires a pasture. If a pasture is not necessary, they do not know how to get along without one. Dairymen and farmers learn how to treat herds as a part of general farm management, or in books on the subject. There are books on cows, but none on one cow. It is not a question of dairy farming, but of dairy gardening. The offer was made to elicit information to enable one to keep a single cow with the best possible results. The main points to be considered are: the stabling or housing of the cow; the yard room she requires, and the storage or disposal of her manure; the least area of land that can be safely set apart for the support of the cow, and how can that land be best managed. It is to be assumed that the land will be made to produce all that it will profitably yield, which will bring up the question of manure and fertilizers, of course considering that produced by the cow herself. What proportion of the produce of the land is to be cured for winter? How much food must be bought, and what? How is the cow to be fed, and in every respect how treated so as to give the best returns to her owner? What should be done at calving time and afterwards? milking, etc. In short, the problem is—given a good cow, how to get the best possible returns from the least possible portion of the land through the agency of the cow. This, we think, is satisfactorily answered, if not by any one writer, certainly by several combined. We place as a frontispiece the portrait of a most famous and excellent cow—not so much for her beauty or on account of her breed, but as a model of a dairy cow, and one which may be carried in the mind when purchasing. [Illustration] KEEPING ONE COW. THE FAMILY COW AT THE NORTH. BY MRS. G. BOURINOT, OTTAWA, CANADA. She’s broad in her hips and long in her rump, A straight and flat back without ever a hump, She’s wide in her lips and calm in her eyes, She’s fine in her shoulders and thin in her thighs, She’s sleight in her neck and small in her tail, She’s wide in her breast and good at the pail; She’s fine in her bone and silky of skin, She’s a grazier without and a butcher within. —MILBURN.