WALTEE OF HENLEY 27 



HOW MUCH MILK YOUR COWS SHOULD YIELD. 



If your cows were sorted out, so that the bad were taken 

 away, and your cows fed in pasture of salt marsh, then 

 ought two cows to yield a wey of cheese and half a gallon 

 of butter a week. And if they were fed in pasture of wood, 

 or in meadows after mowing, or in stubble, then three cows 

 ought to yield a wey of cheese and half a gallon of butter 

 a week between Easter and Michaelmas without rewayn. 

 And twenty ewes which are fed in pasture of salt marsh 

 ought to and can yield cheese and butter as the two cows 

 before named. And if your sheep were fed with fresh 

 pasture or fallow, then ought thirty ewes to yield butter 

 and cheese as the three cows before named. Now there 

 are many servants and provosts and dairymaids who will 

 contradict this thing, and that is because they give away 

 and waste and consume the milk ; and know for certainty 

 the milk is not wasted otherwise but in the same thing, for 

 so much they ought to and can yield, for I have proved it. 

 And you will see it with regard to the three cows that 

 ought to make a wey. One of these cows would be poor, 

 from which one could not have in two days a cheese worth 

 a halfpenny ; that would be in six days three cheeses, price 

 three halfpence. And the seventh day shall help the 

 tithe and the waste there may be. Now that will be 

 three halfpence in twenty-four weeks which are between 

 Easter and Michaelmas — that is, three shillings. Now put 

 as much for the second cow, and as much for the third, 

 and then you will have nine shillings, and thereby you 

 have a wey of cheese by ordinary sale. Now one of these 

 three cows would be poor, from which one could not have the 

 third of a pottle of butter a week, and if the gallon of butter 

 is worth sixpence then is the third of a pottle worth a 

 penny. 



