THE QUANTITY AND QUALITY OF BUTTER AND CHEESE. 49 



in quality, but they also communicate to the butter and cheese 

 a fine colour, equal to that produced by the most luxuriant 

 grasses, and the flavour is superior. The fact that carrots are 

 the best root for cows when the cream is to be churned, ought 

 to induce dairy farmers to bestow more attention on their 

 cultivation. 



Potatoes, on which cows will thrive well, when given with a 

 plentiful supply of good oat-straw or hay, will yield as large a 

 quantity of good rich milk as the richest pastures; and the 

 butter is generally of a rich colour, especially when they are 

 given in a raw state. This root is rarely given to milk cows, as 

 it has little influence in increasing the yield of milk ; also, it has 

 a tendency to make the butter difficult to extract. 



Mangolds, in some localities are preferred to turnips for milk 

 cows, the quantity and quality of milk is the same, although 

 turnips are usually preferred on account of mangolds requiring 

 good rich soil to grow them to perfection. The only good quality 

 they seem to have is, when w^ell stored they will keep fresh and 

 good, when turnips have lost a portion of their nutritive qualities. 

 At that time they will cause an increase both in the quantity 

 as well as enrich the quality of milk, as they will then have 

 lost many of their watery particles ; also, the butter and cheese 

 will not have the bad flavour which turnips frequently give. 



Cabbages have always been esteemed as a valuable food for 

 milk cows, yet they are seldom cultivated in Scotland for this 

 purpose alone. They require to be given with a considerable 

 portion of good hay ; ]jut like turnips, they are apt to impart an 

 unpleasant flavour to butter and cheese, unless great care is 

 taken to remove all the decayed leaves, but they assist the 

 colour of the butter, and are a highly nutritious food. 



The greater proportion of the winter food of cows in this 

 country is made up of turnips, especially swedes. These, un- 

 fortunately, give a remarkable and by no means agreeable tasto 

 to milk, as well as butter and cheese. When farmers become 

 more aware of the value of carrots and mangolds as feeding for 

 their cows, by which the use of turnips would be greatly sup- 

 planted, and their exclusive use rendered unnecessary, this bad 

 liavuur so often prevalent in winter would be less frequent. It 

 has been recommended as a preventive to give cows their 

 turnips immediately after, instead of before being milked, which 

 is the usual custom. If this plan was attended to, I have no 

 doubt it would be the best and simplest means of preventing 

 tlui turnips tainting the butter and cheese. But this turni}) 

 flavour may also be prevented by adding a little sour milk to 

 the new milk, whicli would hasten the souring of the latter, and 

 thus prevent the formation of this Ikvour, which is partly 

 caused by allowing the milk to sour slowly. Another useful 



D 



