During the month of March the teams hauled more gravel.  They also distributed the manure that had been purchased in the fall for mulching the trees.  While the ground was still frozen this mulch was placed near the trees, to be used as soon as the sun had warmed the earth.  The mound of dirt at the base of each tree was of course levelled down before this dressing was applied.  I never afterward purchased stable or stock-yard manure, though I could often have used it to advantage; for I did not think it safe to purchase this kind of fertilizer for a farm where large numbers of animals are kept.  The danger from infection is too great.  Large quantities of barnyard manure were furnished yearly out of my own pits, and I supplemented it with a good deal of the commercial variety.  I try to turn back to the land each year more than I take from it, but I do not dare to go to a stock-yard for any part of my supply.  It was not until I had mentally established a quarantine for my hogs that I realized the danger from those six carloads of manure; and I promised myself then that no such breach of quarantine should again occur.

The cows arrived on St. Patrick’s Day.  Our herd was then composed of the twenty Holstein heifers (coming three years old), and six of the best of the common cows purchased with the farm.  Within forty days the herd was increased by the addition of twenty-three calves.  Twenty-five were born, but two were dead.  Of this number, eighteen were Holsteins eligible for registration, ten heifers, and eight bulls.  Each calf was taken from its mother on the third day and fed warm skim-milk from a patent feeder three times a day, all it would drink.  When three weeks old, seven of the Holstein calves and the five from the common cows were sent to market.  They brought $5.25 each above the expense of selling, or $63 for the bunch.  The ten Holstein heifer calves were of course held; and one bull calf, which had a double cross of Pieterje 2d and Pauline Paul, and which seemed an unusually fair specimen, was kept for further development.

The cow barn was finished about April 1st, and shortly after that the herd was established in permanent quarters.  As the dairy-house was unfinished, and there was no convenient way of disposing of the milk which now flowed in abundance, I bought a separator (for $200) and sent the cream to a factory, using the fresh skim-milk for the calves and young pigs and chickens.

From March 22, when I began to sell, until May 10, when my dairy-house was in working order, I received $203 for cream.  Thompson had sold milk from the old cows, from August to December, 1895, to the amount of $132.  This item should have been entered on the credit side for the last year, but as it was not, we will make a note of it here.  These are the only sales of milk and cream made from Four Oaks since I bought the land.