THE FARMER8' CABINET, 



Devoted to Agriculture, Horticulture, anilRural audDomesticEconomy. 



Vol. IV.— No. 6.] 



January 15, 1840. 



[Whole No. GO. 



From Youatt's Treatise on Cattle. 

 The Iioiidon Dairies. 



The dairies of the metropolis are objects 

 of much interest to the stranger and to the 

 agriculturist . In pursuit of the object of this 

 work, we travelled over tlie greater part of 

 the United Kingdom ; and although we often 

 had no other recommendation than the simple 

 statement of the purport of our journey, we 

 met with very few cases of incivility or of 

 unwillingness to give us the fullest informa- 

 tion ; but when we returned to our usual resi- 

 dence, and where' we expected most facility 

 in the attainment of our object, we will not 

 say that the refusal to admit us was accom- 

 panied by rudeness, but the gate of the dairy 

 remained closed. This was the case with 

 our overgrown milk establishments. It was 

 a species of illiberality on which we had not 

 calculated ; but it mattered little, for we had 

 seen many of the smaller ones, and we could 

 guess with tolerable accuracy at the differ- 

 ence of treatment in some points— indeed 

 they had been already whispered to us, and 

 we had besides a muiute and accurate ac- 

 count of them in the Magazine of our friend 

 Mr. Berry. 



The number of cows kept for the purpose 

 of supplying the inhabitants of the metropolis 

 and its environs with milk is about 12,000. 

 They are, with very few exceptions, of the 

 short-horn breed— the Holderness or York- 

 shire cow, and almost invariably with a cross 

 of the improved Durham blood. The univer- 

 sal preference given to this breed by such a 

 body of men, differing materially on many 

 branches of the treatment of cattle, is per- 

 fectly satisfactory as to their value, and that 

 on three distinct points. 



First, as to the quantity of milk. This we 

 need not press, for the enemies of the short- 



Cab.— Vol. IV.— No. 6. 169 



horns have never contested this point. There 

 is no cow which pays so well for what she 

 consumes in the quantity of milk that she 

 returns. 



This, however, is not all, though it may b3 

 the principal thing which enters into the cal- 

 culation of the metropolitan dairyman. 



The name of new milk has something 

 very pleasant about it, but it is an article 

 which rarely makes its appearance at the 

 breakfast or tea table of the citizen. That 

 which is got from the cow at night is put by 

 until the morning, and the cream skimmed 

 off, and then a little water being added, it is 

 sold to the public as the morning's milk. — 

 The real morning's milk is also put by and 

 skimmed, and, being warmed a little, is sold 

 as the evening's milk. This is the practice 

 of most or all of the little dairymen who keep 

 their half a dozen cows; and if this were all, 

 and with these people it is nearly all, the 

 public must not complain : the milk may be 

 lowered by the warm water, but the lower- 

 ing system is not carried to any great extent, 

 for there is a pride among them that their 

 milk shall be better than that of the mer- 

 chants on a yet smaller scale, who purchase 

 the article from the great dairies ; and so it 

 generally is. The milk goes from the yard 

 of the great dairy into the possessioii of the 

 itinerant dealers perfectly pure ; what is done 

 with it afterwards, and to what degree it is 

 lowered and adulterated, is known only to 

 these retail merchants. 



The proprietor of the large dairy is also a 

 dealer in cream to a considerable extent 

 among these people ; he is also a great manu- 

 facturer of buttej?, for he must have milk 

 enough to answer every demand, and that 

 demand is exceedingly fluctuating ; then it is 

 necessary that the quality of the milk should 



