170 



The London Dairies. 



Vol. IV. 



be good, ill order that he may turn the over- 

 plus to profitable account, in the form of 

 cream or butter. The employment of the 

 short-horn cow, in all the dairies, is a con- 

 vincing proof that her milk is not so poor as 

 some have described it to be. 



It is the practice in mo^t of the dairies to 

 fatten the cow as soon as her milk becomes 

 less than four quarts a da\^ They are rarely 

 suffered to breed while in the dairymiin's 

 possession. The fact of their being so often 

 changed is a proof that while the cow gives 

 a remunerating quantity of milk for a certain 

 time, she is rapidly and cheaply fattened ibr 

 the butcher as soon as her milk is dry. Were 

 much time or money employed in preparing 

 her for tlie market, this system would not 

 answer, and would not be so universally 

 adopted. Fattening and milking properties 

 can, therefore, combine in the same animal, 

 and they do so here. 



Mr. Laycock, however, does not adopt this 

 as a general rule. The cows that are more 

 than usually good milkers are suffered to take 

 the bull when in season. He always keeps 

 some good short-horn bulls for this purpoi-e. 

 It sometimes happens that the cow will con- 

 tinue to give milk until within a few weeks 

 of calving; and he judges, and perhaps right- 

 ly, that this is a more profitable course than 

 to fatten and get rid of her, with the proba- 

 bility that he might replace her by a cow 

 that would give a less quantity of milk. 



The present market price of a good dairy 

 cow is about 20Z.,but the owners of the small 

 dairies have no little trouble to get a good 

 cow. The jobbers know that they will have 

 a ready market for a considerable portion of 

 their lot in the yards of the great cow-pro- 

 prietors, and will probably get a larger price 

 than the poorer man would give ; and there- 

 fore Messrs. Rhodes, or Laycock, or one or 

 two others, have always the first selection. 

 Mr. Laycock has peculiar advantages for ob- 

 taining good cattle. In addition to his dairy, 

 lie has sheds that will contain five or six 

 thousand beasts. A great proportion of them 

 halt on his premises for a day or two before 

 they are brought into the market. In addi- 

 tion to the shilling a night which he charges 

 for their standing, he claims the milk of the 

 cows as his perquisite. The cows are milked 

 by his people ; he therefore knows betbreiiand 

 the quantity of milk which each will yield, 

 and he is thus enabled to cull the very best 

 of the herd. The dairymen do not like a 

 cow until she has had iier third or fourtii calf, 

 and is five or six years old ; she then yields 

 the greatest quantity of milk, and of the best 

 quality. Two gallons of milk per day is the 

 quantity which cacii cow is expected to yield 

 in order to be retained in the dairy. Taking 



one cow with another, the average quantity 

 obtained is rather more than nine quarts. 



When she begins to fail in her milk, she 

 is fattened on oil-cake, grains, and cut clover 

 hay, and disposed of. The dairyman calcu- 

 lates on getting something more tor her than 

 when he first bought her, but sometimes he 

 meets with an animal tliat seems to verify 

 the old prejudice against cows in good con- 

 dition. He bought l]er for known milking- 

 propertie.'^, but she continues so poor thfet he 

 in a manner hides her in some corner of his 

 dairy. She, however, docs her duty; she 

 yields him plenty of milk, but that at length 

 dries up ; and he is unable, try what he will, 

 to get much flesh upon her bones, and he sells 

 her for less than half of her first price. 



The quantity of milk yielded by all these 

 cows, at nine quarts per day, amounts to 

 39,420,000 quarts, or twenty-seven quarts of 

 genuine milk for each individual. The re- 

 Fail dealers usually sell the milk for 4fZ. per 

 quart, after the cream is separated from it, 

 and then obtain '6s. per quart for the cream ; 

 beside this, a great deal of water is mixed 

 with this skimmed milk : so that we far un- 

 derrate the price when we calculate that the 

 genuine milk sells at M. per .quart, which 

 makes the money expended in milk in the 

 British metropolis amount to 985,.^00/. or 

 nearly a million pounds per annum. 



If we again divide the 985,.500.'. by 12,000, 

 (the number of cows,) we shall have the 

 strange and almost incredible sum of more 

 than eighty-two pounds as the money pro- 

 duced by the milk of each cow. This is 

 divided among a variety of persons, and after 

 all affords but a scanty subsistence to many 

 of them; but it unequivocally proves the ras- 

 cality that pervades some of the departments 

 of the concern. 



We acquit the wholesale dealers of any 

 share in the roguery, nor do we believe that 

 their profits are exorbitant. They sell the 

 milk to the retail dealers at a price that, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Widdlcton, would enable lliem 

 to clear sixty-four per cent., without adul- 

 terating the article — (we believe that fifty 

 per cent, would be nearer the truth.) When 

 we consider the nature of tiie business; the 

 distance the milk-girls have to travel; and 

 the time wasted in selling their little quanti- 

 ties from door to door, this profit is not too 

 great ; but when they abstract the cream, 

 and add the water, and, unless they arc much 

 belied, .some extraneous and abominable arti- 

 cles, the actual profits will far exceed cent, 

 per cent. In the spring of tlic year when 

 London is full, tiie consumption and the dete- 

 rioration are greatest. In the latter part of 

 the year the cream is converted into butter, 

 and the butter-milk given to the hogs. 



