346 On Dainj-Fanniiit/. 



Harrison, of Frocester Court, oi his seven years' experience from 

 a dairy of fifty to eighty tows, and 1 do not consider this a high 

 return. 



KvLE OF Milk. 



If the farm is so situated that the milk can be disposed of 

 without extra expense at '6(1. per gallon, th(>re can be no (piestion 

 that this is the most profitable way of dealing with it: this 

 would give a return of nearly lb/, per cow, the labour and 

 expense attendant upon cheese and butter making being avoided ; 

 although, on the other hand, to keep up a continuous supply of 

 milk, more costly food would have to be provided in winter, and 

 cows occasionally exchanged at a loss. 



ClIEESE-MAKINO. 



If the milk be made into whole-milk cheese, the .535 gallons 

 of milk would jirobably produce 4i cwts. o{ cheese, Ix'ing at the 

 rate of rather more than a gallon of milk to a pound of cheese. 

 4-i cwts. of cheese, at 05.v. per cwt., would produce 14/. l.s-., to 

 which may be added for whey-butter and bacon, 2/. more, giving 

 a total return of 1(1/, Is., or rather more than 7|-r/. p(>r gallon. 

 In the low average taken, allowance is made for that jiortion of 

 th{> milk which is usuallv devoted to the feeding and rearing of 

 calves at the early part of the season. The price of Qbs. per 

 cwt., about Id. per lb., is no more than a fair average price, such 

 as good cheese at three months' old has for some years readily 

 commanded. 



Mr. llarriscm realised between 6^(7. and Id. per gallon, or 15/. 

 per milking-cow, without including the value of the calf. This 

 return can certainly be exceeded on the best-managed farms in 

 good dairy districts. 



In the Statistics of dairv practice, recorded by Mr. Egcrton 

 Harding, of Old Springs, Alarket Drayton,* the average weight 

 of cheese produced from a dairy of cows, during eleven vears, is 

 given at rather less than 4 cwts. each ; but a considerable 

 quantity of milk and milk-butter were sold each year. 



The average value of the produce of each milking-cow is given 

 at 15/. nearh', but the price of whole-milk cheese is quoted 

 excessively lf)w, the average price during the whole period being 

 only 5id. per lb., whilst during the last two years of the experi- 

 ment, 1861 and 1862, the prices obtained were only 4f/. and 4^r/. 

 per lb. Fine dairies of cheese, in those two years, fetched more 

 than 2d. per lb. in excess of that price. 



I have suggested the making of whole-milk cheese because it 



* See Vol. XXIV., Part II., First Series. 



