Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/184

 much food for thought by my visit that morning. The way he stroked and petted the cows was marvellous. One had a sore udder, which he bathed with some of her own milk and dressed most tenderly, talking about it all the time, and I am sure feeling every flinch of that cow as much as she did herself. It was the same in the horse yard and stable. Carl would go in and handle animals the other men could not get near. His patience had a lot to do with it I believe, for he would spend hours coaxing and trying to make friends with a wild bad tempered colt. So my young farmer must bear this in mind, and endeavour to make pets of his cows, so that at the sound of his voice they will come to him, instead of running away.

In choosing heifers it is advisable, if possible, to get them a couple of months before calving, as then they will get attached to the paddock if their calf is in it.

If my young farmer has the means and can afford to ignore the sale yards, his best plan will be to select his heifers from some station herd he has heard spoken of, then of course he can start with well bred animals, but very, very few are able to do this at first, though by degrees they can work into the better class. The custom of the country is to save all the calves, and no doubt with a man in the position I am supposing, he would be foolish to do away with any live stock likely to be profitable bye and bye. The question he must decide is which will pay him best in the present. On the whole I think he had better keep his calves, the females will become milkers bye and bye, and the males will sell to the butchers in three years for a few pounds.

Having bought his cows he must put up a good strong bail, and that is something I cannot teach any old farm hand to do, he knows all about it. I would merely impress upon him the advisability of making it as comfortable as possible. Elsewhere I have given details for a cow bail, but most farmers have their own ideas and fancies in this matter.

Once everything is ready for working he must bespeak a few customers for his milk, he will not want many, only just a few so that he will have no excuse for lying in bed and neglecting to milk on a Sunday morning, regularity is the great thing in all matters, and cows especially, they mast be milked regularly to improve and also to give them the habit of coming to the yards for the purpose. There is one thing I have forgotten, and that is a good rope for breaking in the young cows. Most of them will require roping at first,and the rope should be used for nothing else, and always kept handy.

A man coming here fresh from the "Home farm" is always greatly surprised at the slip shod manner of working in this