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Tlic Conniry Gaiilcmaiis Magazine 



distant stations on the south-western and north-western 

 railways, you find that the farmer feeds his cows for 

 London, just as he has hitherto done for cheese or 

 butter dairying. Bring them to the pail at all months 

 of the year, so as to have a regular produce to meet 

 his contract with the London dealer, he milks his 

 cows out at pasture during the summer, and feeds 

 them on hay and mangolds in the winter. Receiving 

 6;^d. to Sd. per imperial gallon for the milk delivered 

 at the nearest station, and getting 500 to 550 gallons 

 from his cow per annum, he receives 15s. to i8s. per 

 annum for her produce, which is more than he can 

 generally make of it in the form of cheese or butter, 

 at the same time that he avoids all the cost of labour 

 in the dairy. lie mns, however, especially during 

 hot weather, tlie risk of the milk souring on its jour- 

 ney, in which case it is thrown a\\-ay on its arrival at 

 his expense. 



Nearer London the management is almost exactl}' 

 that of the London cowhouses. Mr Sumpton tells me 

 that he feeds his cows at his farm in Hendon parish 

 exactly as he does his cows in Little Warner Street, 

 only beginning an hour earlier, so as to give time to 

 bring the milk in. No attempt is made to cool it for 

 transmission this short journey, but it arrives warm an 

 hour after milking, sometimes, however, the worse in 

 summer-time for even so short an interval. 



Mr Panter, who manages Lord Granville's large 

 dairy-farm at Golder's Green, upon the Finchley Road, 

 thus described the management of his cows, in evi- 

 dence before the Royal Commissioners on the cattle 

 plague : — 



" We give about a bushel and a quarter, or from 

 that to a bushel and half of brewers' gi-ains to each 

 cow, and about 15 lb. of hay, and about 30 lb. of 

 mangold wurtzel, with 4 lb. of meal (pea-meal princi- 

 pally), in addition to that feed in the winter. \\\ the 

 summer, grass is given instead of hay and mangold 

 wurtzel. This mode of feeding, though it damages the 

 constitution of a cow, is adopted in order to force the 

 greatest quantity of milk which the dairymen can get. 

 The gain more than covers all the loss ; at least it is 

 supposed to do so. In our suburban district we give 

 them more air, and feed them more on grass in the 

 fields. We do not feed them so heavily upon grains 

 and ai-tificial food as they do in London. We give 

 them much more natural food. Some turn them out 

 from about July to October ; and some do not. The 

 cows always lose condition by being turned out ; that 

 is invariably the case. They lose milk, too, to the 

 extent of a quart a day, unless the pasture is very good 

 indeed." 



It is plain that the London cow management for 

 milk production is certain to be followed wherever it 

 can, if cows lose both flesh and milk when turned out 

 to grass. Mr Balls, who manages the dairy farm at 

 Oakington, near Sudbury, in the occupation of 

 Colonel the Hon. W. P. Talbot, has kept from 80 to 

 100 cows constantly in stalls. They are milked at 

 3 and 4 a.m., and again at 1 and 2 i>.m., and are fed 



exactly on the London plan, first on grains, a bushel 

 between two, next with a little hay, then viith a bushel 

 of either cabbages or mangolds, and then again a little 

 hay ; in the afternoon grains and hay and water (they 

 are only watered once a day), and again hay before 

 night. The alteration in summer is a substitution of 

 grass for hay and mangolds. A small quantity (3 or 4 

 lb. a day) of meal is given along with grains in the 

 case of cows nearly dry ; or rather this used to be 

 given, for Mr Balls now declares that there is no profit 

 in the attempt to put on extra flesh with extra feeding, 

 so long as meal is so dear and meat so cheap. He 

 contrives, however, by careful purchasing, to get cows 

 which will put on flesh without extra feeding as they 

 get dry. 



At Lodge Farm, Barking, where several cowhouses 

 holding 60 cows a piece have been built at intervals of 

 200 or 300 yards from one another, in the midst of 

 50 acres of land, which is being irrigated with North 

 London sewage, and has been thus producing enormous 

 crops of Italian ryegrass, the rule of London manage- 

 ment has been till lately carefully followed. A bushel 

 of grains between two cows has been given inmiediately 

 after milking, and followed by a little hay (a truss 

 amongst lo or 12 cows). They were then watered 

 freely, and aftenvards 30 or 40 lb. of pulped mangolds 

 mixed with hay chaff were given, and the cows were 

 left. The treatment in the evening was exactly the 

 same, except that a little hay was given when they 

 were bedded up for the night. In this case distillers' 

 grains were used ; and whenever the supply failed us 

 the milk ran short at once. The yield dropped one- 

 fifth, sometimes one-fourth, at the very next milking 

 after the missing meal of grains, and brewers' grains 

 were a very inefficient substitute for them. The 

 quantity of milk would, however, gradually increase 

 again under other feeding, as soon as the cows had 

 taken cordially to the new ration, whatever it was, 

 but in no case did it ever amount to the quantity 

 which was quoted when they received their fill of dis- 

 tillers' grains. Latterly, partly owing to the cost and 

 difficulty of obtaining these grains, and partly because 

 it was desirable to test the value as cow food of sewage- 

 grown Italian ryegrass given by itself, the mode of 

 feeding has been altered. Several cowhouses were 

 supplied with grass alone during the past summer, 

 receiving nothing else whatever, and about l^ cwt. 

 a day was the average consumption per cow ; and 

 though the substitution of a bushel of grains for % 

 cwt. of grass was at once followed by an increased 

 yield of milk, yet the latter was so much the dearer 

 food that the balance of profit was against it as long as 

 grass was not valued at more than 1 8s. a ton upon the 

 land. In winter we are giving mangolds, hay, and 

 meal, without grains. In one shed at present twenty- 

 five cows nearly dry are receiving 16 cwt. of mangolds, 

 7 trusses of hay, 100 lb. of barleymeal, and 80 lb. 

 of cake ;' which is 70 lb. of mangolds, 8 lb. of hay 

 (these are given as chaff and pulp), 4 lb. of barley- 

 meal, and about 3 lb. cake per fatting cow". 



