IHODERN FARRIERo 385 



53. Dairy Farming. 



The greatest dairy farms in Biitain are found in 

 Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, 

 Cambridgeshire, Dorset, and Suffolk, some of the 

 midland counties, and in Ayrshire. Essex, Cam- 

 bridgeshire, Suffolk, and Dorset, are chiefly famed 

 for butter, the rest for cheese. 



Mr. Ralston of Wigtonshire, according to Sir. 

 John Sinclair, has at present the largest dairy con- 

 cern in Scotland. He keeps about 200 milch cows. 

 They are divided into lots of ten or twelve to each 

 byre or cow-house, and a dairy-maid is appointed to 

 every fifteen cows. She is allowed an assistant at 

 milking, procured from a neighbouring village, at 

 1*. per week. To stimulate exertion, Mr. Ralston 

 gives a premium of tv/o guineas to the dairy-maid 

 who has most distinguished herself for management ; 

 and, to enable him to make a fair estimate of their 

 comparative merits, they are appointed daily, in re- 

 gular succession, to different lots of cows. 



The cows are never fed out of doors till the grass 

 has risen, to afford them a full bite. In dry and 

 hot weather, they are housed, and fed on cut grass 

 from six in the morning till six at night ; when 

 they are turned out to pasture for the other twelve 

 hours. During bad Vv^eather, they are housed both 

 night and day, and fed plentifully with turnips, po- 

 tatoes, or other gi-een food. Chaff, oats, and pota- 

 toes, are boiled for them after calving ; and they are 

 generally fed on rye-grass hay during the latter part 

 of the spring. 



jVIr. Ralston says, that, about three years ago, 

 every cow on his farm yielded annually her own 

 weiglit of Dunlop cheese, Vvhich then sold at 14?. or 

 15*. per stone ; and that he would not keep a cow 

 that did not, in the course of the year, produce her 

 own weight of cheese, and that would sell for the 

 17 .3c 



