Pastures and Cow Paths

Ovid Vickers
The Newton Record

NEWTON April 02, 2008 04:49 pm

— There was a time when counties in the South passed what were called “fence” and “no fence” laws. If fence laws were in effect, those who owned a cow or a herd of cows were required by law to keep the animals in a fenced pasture. If no-fence was in effect, cattle could be turned out each morning to graze along the roads and wooded areas of a community.
If cows were kept in a pasture or were out on free-range, they had to be hunted and driven to the barn for milking. Cows are inclined to walk in a line once they understand that they are headed for a barn to be fed. They will also follow an older cow that is commonly known as a “bell cow” because she wears a bell around her neck. Anyone who has been to hunt cows in the late afternoon or early evening knows that it is much easier to locate cows if one of them is wearing a bell.
In moving from across a pasture to a lane leading to the bar, cows will follow a path. These cow paths, which are never more than two feet wide, would have been made by the cows over a long period of time. The cow paths are like dirt roads, sometimes sandy, sometimes cut into the red clay by the pressure of hoofs.
On my father-in-law’s farm in northern Neshoba County, a wide ditch stretches for about half a mile across the place. This ditch is so large that grown trees grow from its bottom, and at places it is over 25 yards wide. In fact, a bridge had to be built across it. I once asked how this ditch came to be, and my father-in-law told me that his father told him it began when a herd of cows made a path as they moved from a hillside pasture down to a watering hole in the creek.
One would think cow paths would disappear if a pasture was not used for a number of years. This is not the case. Usually the soil is packed so by the repeated huff prints that grass has difficulty growing. Even if the path does grass over, the indention in the soil remains for many years. I have even known the tightly packed soil of a cow path to throw a disk out of the ground when an attempt was made to disk a former pasture for planting.
When I was growing up, our neighbor’s pasture included a small but pretty stream called Sugar Creek. Our neighbor’s husband had passed away, but she continued to operate their farm and kept a number of cows for milk and butter for the family.
I was a friend of her son, and about once a week she would take the two of us with her when she went to bring the cows from the pasture to the barn. I have fond memories of going to “get” these cows. My friend’s mother would pack a small box with snacks: peanut butter and crackers, a biscuit filled with blackberry jelly, a quartered apple and three sticks of Wrigley’s spearmint gum.
When we reached the creek, by following the cow path, we would find a shady spot near the stream. As we watched the schools of minnows dart about in the water, we would enjoy our snacks. We saved the chewing gum to chew after we located the cows and headed them along the cow path toward the barn.
Did the mosquitoes and flies bother us on these jaunts? Yes, they did! After all, these were summer afternoons, so we simply broke a branch from a gallberry bush and swatted the insects while we ate. People once called cows by hollering “Here Sook,” or “Soo Cow.” When the cows heard this call, they would line up on a cow path and come to the caller.
Cow paths are not peculiar to the southern United Sates. They can be seen the world over. Three summers ago, we spent some time in a small town in the Swiss Alps. Each day, we would take a little cog train down to the city of Lucerne. From the window of the cog train, we had a perfect view of the hillside meadows where farmers kept their cows. Cow paths were evident across the hillsides where the cows would move from one art of the pasture to another.
These were picture postcard scenes with the neat wooden farmhouse, the small well-tended garden, the sturdy barn and the pastoral scenes of the cows grazing on the hillsides. We have all seen an advertisement which says, “Milk from Contented Cows.” Well, I never saw more contented cows.
Cow paths always lead to a definite place. Follow a cow path, and you will wind up at a stream, a pond, or a watering trough. Follow a cow path, and it will lead you to a barn, a clump of shade trees where cows congregate to lie down and chew their cuds, or to an open space where the grass is greener.
Cow paths were a part of my growing up. As children we following them to the swimming hole in the creek, to the huckleberry patch on the far side of the pasture, and to an old house place where daffodils bloomed each spring.

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