There is at all times plenty of fresh water in the yard, to which she can help herself whenever she so desires; otherwise she would need to have it supplied to her at least twice a day, but not immediately before or after a feed of grain. At half-past five in the afternoon she receives the same amount of food, and prepared in the same manner as in the morning. This method is continued until the crop of rye is large enough for use. All changes from dry to green feed must be made gradually, if we would avoid loss. By this time our supply of roots will be exhausted, but the green food, in a measure, takes the place of them. I continue to give the same amount of grain throughout the summer as I did through the month of April, and also to mix it with chaffed hay slightly moistened, as this insures the complete mastication and thorough intermingling with the saliva, which is so essential to perfect digestion and assimilation. As the supply of green food increases, I diminish the quantity of chaffed hay until but one-half the former amount is used, which quantity is continued through the soiling season. The one-eighth acre of rye will last until about June fifteenth, at which time the red clover will be large enough to feed. We should not change abruptly from one kind of green food to another, but increase the one and diminish the other gradually until the change is complete. To ascertain the exact amount needed for a feed of this kind, as well as of the other green crops, requires some judgment on the part of the feeder; but a very safe rule is to feed just such an amount as the cow will eat clean, and no more. We cannot specify exactly what would be a proper amount in every case, neither can we spend time to weigh each ration, but, by observing carefully, we are enabled to determine very closely. I find that my cow will eat, besides her other feed, a good armful of green fodder three times a day. I always cut a day’s supply on the afternoon preceding, and allow it to remain in the swath, where it will wilt, and a portion of the water evaporate, thereby rendering it more wholesome than when fed immediately after cutting, and I think my cow relishes it better. By the fifteenth or twentieth of July the clover will have become so ripe as to necessitate the cutting and curing of any that may be left at that time. It may still be fed, however, for a few days, or until the sowed corn becomes large enough to take its place, which is generally about the first of August. This crop, and the second cutting of the clover, will complete the course, and will furnish feed until well along into October, or the first of November, after which I depend on purchased food. [Illustration: Fig. 21.—THE DUTCH (HOLSTEIN) COW “CROWN PRINCESS.”] WINTER FEED AND TREATMENT.