THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



471 



produce of rich milk, is answered by Mr. Ilorsfall, 

 when he remarks : — 



" For some years back I have regularly weighed 

 my feeding stock, a jjractice from which I am 

 enabled to ascertain their doings with greater accu- 

 racy than I could previously. In January, 1854, I 

 commenced weighing my milch cows : it has been 

 shown by what I have premised that no accurate 

 estimate can be formed of the efiect of food on the 

 production of milk, without ascertaining its effect 

 on the condition of the cows. I have continued 

 the practice once a month almost without omission 

 up to this date. The weighings take place early in 

 the morning, and before the cows are supplied with 

 food. The weights are registered ; and the length 

 of time (15 months) during which I have observed 

 this practice enables me to speak with confidence 

 of the results. 



"The cows in full milk yielding 12 to IG quarts 

 each per day vary but little — some losing, others 

 gaining slightly; the balance in the month's weigh- 

 ing of this class being rather to gain. It is common 

 for a cow to continue a yield from six to eight 

 months before she gives below 12 quarts per day, 

 at which time she has usually, if not invariably, 

 gained weight. 



"The cows giving less than 12 quarts, and down 

 to 5 quarts per day, are found, when free from ail- 

 ment, to gain without exception. This gain, with 

 an average yield of nearly 8 quarts per day, is at 

 the rate of 71bs. to Slbs. per week each." 



There is subject for valuable and extended en- 

 quiry in the remark of the editor of the Quarterly 

 Journal, that " the state in which the food is given 

 has a great eff'ect in the production of both milk 

 and butter. We have more than once observed," 

 he adds, " that the yield of butter and milk is never 

 so great when we give cows boiled turnips, with 

 beans boiled quite soft amongst them, as when they 

 get the boiled turnij)S and the same weight of beans 

 made into meal, and mixed raw with them. (This 

 is the plan adopted at Burley.) And again, that 

 there is more milk, and no taste of the turnip in it, 

 when the turnips are pulped and mixed with cut 

 straw and chaff', and fermented, than if the same 

 weight of turnips are given whole and raw." In 

 this case boiling probably influences the condition 

 of the albuminous portion of the bean. Dr. Lyon 

 Playfair found, in his experiments upon the in- 

 fluence of difl'erent kinds of food upon the com- 

 position of milk {Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc, vol. iv., 

 p. 253), that beans increased the quantity of cheese 



in the milk,- whilst steamed potatoes caused an 

 abundant increase of butter. 



It is evident, indeed, that the quality and admix- 

 ture of the food bestowed upon a cow is a most 

 material, and often hardly well-understood element 

 in dairy farming. The breed of the cow is com- 

 monly far more regarded than her dieting. The 

 Alderney, the Ayrshire, the Holderness, the Kerry, 

 and the Suffolk, are those which supply us with 

 the greatest number of good milking cows — the 

 Ayrshire being perhaps, as Mr. II. S. Thompson 

 remarks, the true type of a milch cow for the pro- 

 duction of quantity, and the Alderney for the 

 quality of the milk. But then, as Professor Simonds 

 adds in his valuable paper on the mammary gland 

 of the cow {Jour. Roy, Arj. Soc, vol. xix., p. 90), "It 

 does not follow, as a matter of necessity, that a 

 cow which yields a large quantity of milk shall be 

 the best butter-making animal ; for it frequently 

 occurs that such milk has an increased proportion 

 of water and casein, and is therefore relatively 

 deficient in oleaginous matters : hence the practical 

 remark, that ' quantity for cheese-making, and 

 quality for butter,' is what we need." 



There is much in the paper of this eminent 

 veterinarian which will well repay the study of the 

 dairy-owner ; and the same remark aj)plies to the 

 account given by Mr. Read in his prize essay of the 

 celebrated butter-producing dairies of Aylesbury. 

 It seems that there are in that district about 120,000 

 acres devoted to dairying, and about 30,000 cows 

 dairied; so that supposing each cow to yield 200 

 lbs. of butter in 40 weeks, the annual amount of 

 butter produced by the county would be about 

 2,680 tons. {Ibid, vol. 16, p. 269.) 



On an early occasion I hope to add to these 

 examinations other and still more valuable reports. 

 I ever indeed regard with peculiar interest all 

 eff'orts to increase the production of the dairy : it 

 is a profitable branch of English agriculture, per- 

 haps the least of any subject to be disturbed by 

 foreign competition. It is true that foreign butter 

 and beef are largely imported— say, on an average, 

 yearly about 20,000 to 25,000 tons of butter, and 

 about 7,000 or 8,000 tons of beef ; but, then, the 

 far greater bulk of these are salted. But a small 

 proportion of really good fresh butter or beef comes 

 into competition with the butter or beef of our 

 islands. Our skilful dairy-owners, therefore, hav- 

 ing a fair market for their produce, can far more 

 securely rely upon being remunerated for their 

 industry and excellent management, than from the 

 produce of their most fertile corn-fields. 



