>.; 



MODERN FAIimER. 383 



V 



burning coals should never be used, as it is apt to 

 communicate a bad taste to the milk. Many other 

 simple and cheap forms of dairy-houses are found to 

 answer well. Mr. Marshall tells us, that in Wilt- 

 shire the rooms of the dairies have commonly outer 

 doors, which open under a penthouse or lean-to shed. 

 This he considers as a great advantage, for it com- 

 municates, by affording shade, a beneficial degree of 

 coolness to the whole building. 



51. Daif.y Utensils. 



The utensils required in a dairy are principally 

 the following: milk-pails, milk-strainers or sieves, 

 milk-bowls, coolers or pans, milk-skeels or creaming 

 dishes, lading dishes, skimming dishes, cheese lad- 

 ders, cheese vats, cheese presses, and churns. The 

 expence of all which must evidently vary in differ- 

 ent situations ; but it is believed that a sufHcient 

 assortment of them for a dairy of twenty cows may, 

 in most cases, be provided for 25/. or 30/. Wood 

 has, in general, been employed in their construction, 

 and is probably, upon the whole, the most eligible 

 material. Lead, brass, and copper, are altogether 

 inadmissable ; for the acid contained in milk (v/hich 

 is now known to be the acetic) combines with these 

 metals, and forms with them poisonous compounds. 

 The same may be said of earthen vessels glazed 

 with lead ; and it is obvious that true porcelain, or 

 glass, can never come into general use for dairy pur- 

 poses. Cast iron itself is far from being unobjec- 

 tionable, because, though the acid of milk does not 

 form with iron a compound that is poisonous, it 

 forms with it one winch may, in a considerable de- 

 gree, alter the taste and quality of dairy products. 

 The least objectionable of all the metallic milk 

 dishes, are probably t'iose which have been lately 

 invented by JMr. Eaird of the Shotts iron works, in 

 I.inlithgowshire. Sir John Sinclair pronounces 



