Book VII. THE DAIRY. 977 



Sect. II. Of the Bufalo. Bos buhuhis,!.. livffle, Fr.; Buffalo, Span.; Biiffilochs, 

 Ger. ; and Bvjle, Ital. 



6279. The buffalo is found wild in India, America, and various parts of the globe, 

 and is in some degree domesticated in many countries. He is gregarious, docile, alert, 

 and of surprising strength; his carcase affords excellent beef; and the horns, which are 

 jet black, and of a solid consistence, take a polish of wonderful beauty : they can be con- 

 verted into fabrics of use and ornament, such as mugs, tumblers, knife-handles, &c. In 

 this way they sometimes apply them ; and when ornaments of silver or mother-of-pearl 

 are employed, the contrast with the polished black of the horn is agreeably striking. The 

 boss on the shoulders is, as well as the tongue, extremely rich an^ delicious, and superior to 

 the best English beef. It is usual to cure the tongues for sale. The buffalo far surpasses 

 the ox in strength. Judging from the extraordinary size of his bones, and the depth 

 and formation of his chest, some consider him twice as strong as the ox, and, as an animal 

 of labor, he is generally preferred in Italy. In this country the ingenious physiologist. 

 Hunter, has caused buffaloes to be trained to work in a cart ; at first they were restive, 

 and would even lie down ; but afterwards they became steady, and so tractable, that they 

 were driven through the strt:t^ of London in tlie loaded cart as quietly and steadily as 

 in Italy or India. 



6280. Jlie buffalo is kept in several gentlemen^ parks as an object of luxury, and has 

 been trained and worked by Lords Sheffield, Egremont, and some other amateur agri- 

 culturists. Many prefer his flesh, and some his milk, to that of the bull family. 



6281. The breeding, rearing, and general treatment of the buffalo may be the same as 

 those of the bull family. 



^ Chap. V. 



Of the Dairy and its Management. 



6282. The manufacture of butter and cheese is of necessity carried on where the milk 

 or raw material is at hand. The subject therefore forms a part of farm management, 

 more or less on every farm ; and the principal one in dairy farms. In most of those 

 counties where the profit of the cow arises chiefly from the subsequent manufacture of the 

 milk, the whole care and management of the article rests with the housewife, so that the 

 farmer has little else to do but to superintend the depasturing of his cattle ; the milking, 

 churning, and in short, the whole internal regulation of the dairy, together with the care 

 of marketing the butter, where the same is made up wholly for home-consumption, fall- 

 ing alone upon the wife. In this department of rural economy, so large a portion of 

 skill, of frugality, cleanliness, industry, and good management, is required in the wife, 

 that without them the farmer may be materially injured. This observation will indeed 

 hold good in many other parts of business which pass through the hands of the mistress 

 in a farmhouse ; but there is none wherein he may be so greatly assisted, or so mate- 

 rially injured, by the good conduct or want of cgre in his wife, as in the dairy. 



6283. The operations of the dairy in all its branches, are still conducted, perhaps more 

 empirically than those of any other department of husbandry, though it would appear that 

 science, chemistry in particular, might be applied to discover the principles, and regulate 

 the practice of the art, with facility and precision. We have heard it admitted, an emi- 

 nent author observes, even by experienced dairymen, that the quality of their cheeses dif- 

 fers materially in the same season, and without being able to assign a reason. Every 

 one knows how different the cheese of Gloucester is from that of Cheshire, though both 

 are made from fresh milk, the produce of cows of the same breed, or rather, in both 

 counties, of almost every breed, and fed on pastures that do not exhibit any remarkable 

 difference in soil, climate, or herbage. Even in the same district, some of what must 

 appear the most important points are far from being settled in practice. Marshal, in his 

 Rural Economy of Gloucestershire, has registered a number of observations on the heat 

 of the dairy-room, and of the milk when the rennet was applied in cheese-makin"- ; on 

 the time required for coagulation ; and the heat of the whey after ; which are curious, only 

 because they prove that no uniform rule is observed in any of these particulars. The 

 same discrepancy is observable in all the subsequent operations till the cheese is removed 

 from the press, and even afterwards in the drying room. One would think the process 

 of salting the cheeses the most simple of all ; and yet it is sometimes, as in the west of 

 Scotland, mixed with the curd; in other instances poured into the milk, in a liquid 

 state, before being coagulated ; and still more commonly, never applied at all till the 

 cheeses are formed in the press, and then only externally. In treating of the dairy we shall 

 first offer a few remarks on the nature of milk, and the properties of that of different ani- 

 mals ; and next consider the dairy house and its furniture, milking, churning, cheese- 

 making, and the different kinds of cheese, butters, creams, and other products of the dairy. 



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