William Landon (pseud.), born late 1800s, Southern Ontario (interviewed in 1982)

…well, you'd make a- whatever deal you could make with ‘em, so much a month.
And often- when I was running- I was running the mail out here one winter.
And when I was coming back, there was a fella out there at Tallyhoe Road with a cow.
He was getting- he had two cows, and the feed was getting scarce.
And he come out there. He owed me a billing and-
and turned it in on the- on the billing, you see.
Well, I just tied her to the horses’ collar and brought her home and put her in the stable.
That’s that one we kept- we kept- ‘cause she was only three year old.
We kept her there for ten or fifteen years, you know.

[ST: Is that right?]

Oh yeah. Keep the calf in the barn, you see.
In the summertime, and she just walked where she liked.
And most of the time it was down the railroad track.

[ST: Is that right? So like it was a milk cow, you could you get milk from her?]

Eh?

[ST: Could you get milk from the cow?]

Yeah, she was milking.

[ST: Oh.]

And ah, you know, you took a chance of her getting killed on the railroad track.

[ST: Oh, because it was railway line then.]

Oh, yeah.

[ST: Oh, yeah.]

But ah, she didn't- she never walked on the track.
(laughs) Old Jim Burns says, "You know, she seemed to have ah- ah- …”
Just down along the side of the track.
And the trains running past here all the time and everything and…
But you needed milk, 'cause the only way you could have fresh milk was to have a cow.

[ST: Is that right?]

And if she got killed, well, it was just too bad.
You’d have to get another one.
But she never got touched.
Run up and down there all her life.