THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



583 



It may be objected that the plough is an implement 

 wliich, from its screw-wedge action, wastes mucli 

 force iu overcoming tlie mere friction and cohesion 

 between tlie mouldboard and fuiTOW-slice; and that a 

 great deal of power will bo saved by using a better 

 form of tool. But dynamnmetric experiments show 

 that the removal of the mouldboard from a plough, 

 when the total draught is 34 stone8,lessens the draught 



only 3 stones; and accordingly, if we suppose the four 

 mouldboards taken off the Fowler plough, there will 

 be only 12 stones less draught, out of 108. And the 

 plough share is not so badly shaped for cutting and 

 riving up the soil, that any vast gain of power is likely 

 to be obtained by any form of ciltivator tine which 

 may be equally effective in severing and shattering the 

 ground. 



THE DAIRY AND ITS MANAGEMENT. 



The high price which animal produce of all kinds 

 has for a long time maintained, and the certainty that 

 no existing circumstances are likely to reduce it in 

 future, but tliat, on the contrary, there is reason to 

 think that, with an increasing population and a flou- 

 rishing state of the manufactures, prices will rather 

 advHnce than recede, it becomes a question of some 

 importance to the farmer wliethev it may not be 

 more to his advantage to lay down more land in 

 grass, than to keep it under the plough for growing 

 white crops. 



It i3 not, however, our intention in this paper to go 

 hito the general question, but to confine the remarks 

 which follow to one department only of rural economy, 

 namely, the dairy. This has of late occupied, to a 

 large extent, the attention of agriculturists at their 

 public meetings ; and some excellent papers have been 

 read on the subject. The prices indeed that are now 

 obtained for butter and cheese are quite sufficient to 

 tempt the farmer to make a change in the routine of his 

 system ; for owing to the facility afforded by the rail- 

 ways, these, as well as other articles of produce, 

 are now as high in price in the country as in the me- 

 tropolis and other large towns — in some cases, indeed, 

 higher, so completely are those districts cleared to 

 supply the London market. 



To satisfy ourselves of the true cause, and its extent, 

 for this long-continued and steady advance in the 

 price of butter and cheese, but the former especially, 

 we have looked into the returns of the Board of Trade 

 for the purpose of comparing the increase of the im- 

 portations with that of the consumpticn, and the fol- 

 lowing is the result . . .• 



Imports of butter in 1842 .... 175,497 cwts. 

 „ „ 1856.... 514,764 „ 



Increase 



Imports of cheese in 1842 

 1856 . 



339,567 „ 

 179 748 cwts. 

 407,076 „ 



Increase 227,328 „ 



The increase appears large, but in reality it is far from 

 being adequate to the increased consumption, which 

 arises from the two permanent causes named — the in- 

 crease of population, and the flourishing state of the 

 manufactures. The first alone indeed would require a 

 much larger increase of supply, being at the rate of at 

 least 300,000 a year-, which in fifteen years gives an 

 aggregate increase of 4,500,000. If we reckon the 



consumption at half-a-pound of butter each, per week, 

 it makes 117,000,000 lbs., or 1,044,642 cwts., which, 

 upon the score of population alone, ought to have been 

 the increase of the importation of butter, instead of 

 339,507 cwt., or not quite one-tliird. If, then, we add 

 to this the enormous increase of consumption arising 

 from the improved condition of the operative classes 

 tliroughout the kingdom, there will be no room for 

 surprise that butter has risen 50 per cent, the last 15 

 years, or for any fear that it will recede in price. 



The same reasoning will apply to cheese, eggs, and 

 every kind of animal food. The increase of import or 

 supply cannot keep pace with that of consumption; 

 and as the home production of these two articles has 

 not proportionately increased, we consequently lind the 

 price continually advancing, without the smallest 

 chance of being reduced in future. 



Taking this view of the case, the question of the supe- 

 rior advantage of grazing over corn-growing does not 

 admit of a doubt. Our attention has been now directed 

 to the subject by the perusal of several essays on " The 

 Dairy," and especially by two works recently published 

 in Edinburgh : one by Mrs. Agnes B. Scott, of Wink- 

 stone, Peebles ; the other by Mr. John Gamgee, Profes- 

 sor of the Veterinary College, Edinburgh. The question 

 has also been lately taken up by two local agricultural 

 societies ; at the Berkeley and Thornbury, where Mr. 

 Bailey lectured on Dairy Farming, making the point 

 of his paper a protest against over-feeding ; and again 

 at the Winfrith Farmers' Club, when Mr. White dis- 

 coursed on the dairy and young stock, opinion being 

 here much divided as to the best breed or cross for 

 milking purposes. Mrs. Scott's little tract is the result 

 of nineteen years'experience of dairy- work, during which 

 the produce of her forty cows always brought her the 

 highest price at the Edinburgh market. Upon her 

 retirement from business, some of her friends requested 

 her to tell them the secret of her success. She com- 

 plied, by publishing her tract, which in twenty pages 

 gives as complete a course of dairy management as is 

 needful to direct any one in all its essentials. 



Professor Gamgee's work is of a more general de- 

 scription, and embraces the choice of cattle on scien- 

 tific principles, in the formation of a dairy. He agrees 

 in this respect with most of the best informed and prac- 

 tical men, that the Yorkshire short-horns are in every 

 respect the best adapted to the duivy ; and although 



