As the time of calving approaches, the cow should be removed from the rest of the herd, to a pen with a level floor, by herself. Nothing is needed, usually, but to supply her regularly with food and drink, and leave her quietly to herself. In most cases the parturition will be natural and easy, and the less the cow is disturbed or meddled with, the better. She will do better without help than with; but she should be watched, in order to see that no difficulty occurs which may require aid and attention. In cases of difficult parturition the aid of a skilful veterinary surgeon may be required. For those who may desire to make themselves familiar with the details of such cases so far as to be able to act for themselves, Skellett’s “Practical Treatise on the Parturition of the Cow, or the Extraction of the Calf,” an elaborate work, published in London in 1844, will be an important guide. In spring the best feeding for dairy cows will be much the same as that for winter; the roots in store over winter, such as carrots, mangold wurzel, turnips, and parsnips, furnishing very valuable aid in increasing the quantity and improving the quality of milk. Towards the close of this season, and before the grass of the pastures is sufficiently grown to make it judicious to turn out the cows, the best dairymen provide a supply of green fodder in the shape of winter rye, which, if cut while it is tender and succulent, and before it is half grown, will be greatly relished. Unless cut young, however, its stalk soon becomes hard and unpalatable. Having stated briefly the general principles of feeding cows for the dairy, it is proper to give the statements of successful practical dairymen, both as corroborating what has already been said, and as showing the difference in practice in feeding and managing with reference to the specific objects of dairy farming. And first, a farmer of Massachusetts, supplying milk for the Boston market, and feeding for that object, says: “For thirty cows, cut with a machine thirty bushels for one feed; one third common English hay, one third salt hay, and one third rye or barley straw; add thirty quarts of wheat bran or shorts, and ten quarts of oat and corn meal moistened with water. One bushel of this mixture is given to each cow in the morning, and the same quantity at noon and in the evening. In addition to this, a peck of mangold wurzel is given to each cow per day. This mode of feeding has been found to produce nearly as much milk as the best grass feed in summer. When no wheat-bran or any kind of meal is given, the hay is fed without cutting.”