MILKING. PASTURES. B ONES. \ 73 



The farms in the country over which we walked in Che 

 shire were generally small, less, I should think, than one hun 

 dred acres. Frequently the farmer s family supplied all the 

 labour upon them, himself and his sons in the field, and his 

 wife and daughters in the dairy, except that in the harvest 

 month one or two Irish reapers would be employed. The 

 cows, in the summer, are kept during the. day in distant pas 

 tures, and always at night in a home lot. During the cheese- 

 making season, which on these small farms is from the first 

 of May till November, they are driven home and fastened in 

 shippens, or sheds, between five and six o clock, morning and 

 night, and then milked by the girls, sometimes assisted by 

 the men. On a farm of one hundred acres, fifteen to twenty 

 cows are kept, and three persons are about an hour in milk 

 ing them. From twenty to thirty gallons of milk (say six 

 quarts from each cow) is expected to be obtained on an av 

 erage, and about one pound of dried cheese from a gallon of 

 milk. From two to five cwt. (of 1 12 Ibs.) of cheese may be 

 made from the milk of each cow during the year. Three 

 cwt. is thought a fair return on the best farms. In a mode- 

 rately dry and temperate summer, more cheese is made than 

 in one which is very wet. 



The pastures are generally looked upon as permanent , 

 the night pastures are sometimes absolutely so, as it is sup 

 posed that they have not generally been broken up for many 

 hundred years. During the last ten years the pasture lands 

 have been very greatly, and, as they tell me, almost incredi 

 bly improved by the use of bone dust. It is applied in the 

 quantity of from twenty to forty cwt. on an acre as top- 

 dressing, and I was told that pastures on which it had been 

 , applied at the rate of a ton to an acre, eight or nine years 

 ago, had continued as good (or able on an average of the 

 years to bear as many cows) as similar land top-dressed with 



15* 



