No. 6. 



The London Dairies. 



171 



Rhode's diary has been established more 

 tlian thirty years, but some of the same fam- 

 ily or name have lived in that neiglibour- 

 hood nearly a century. ' Mr. Rhodes, farmer, 

 near Islington,' is referred to by Dr. Broc- 

 klesby, in his treatise on tlie murrain whicli 

 prevailed among cattle about the middle 

 of the last century. The writer of ' London 

 Dairie--,' in the ' British Farmer's Magazine' 

 for February, 1S31, gives a description of it, 

 of which the following is the substance : — 

 The surface on which the buildings are placed 

 is a gentle slope of two or three acres, facing 

 the east. The sheds run in the direction of 

 the slope, as well for the drainage of tJie gut- 

 ters as for the supply of water for drinking, 

 which will thus run from trough to trough the 

 whole length of the shed. The sheds are 

 twenty-four feet wide; the side-walls being 

 about eight feet high, with rising shutters for 

 ventilation, and panes of glass let into iron 

 frames for light. The floor is nearly flat, 

 with a gutter along the centre, and a row of 

 stalls, each seven feet and a half wide, along 

 the sides, and adapted for two cows, which 

 are attached by chains to a ring that runs 

 upon an upright rod in the corner of the stalls. 

 A trough or manger, of the ordinary size of 

 those used for horses, is placed at the top of 

 the stall. Four of these sheds are placed 

 parallel and close to each other, and in the 

 party-walls are openings a foot wide, and four 

 feet high, opposite to each cow. The bottom 

 of these openings is about nine inches higher 

 than the upper surface of the troughs, and 

 contains a one-foot square cast iron cistern, 

 which contains the water for drinking; each 

 cistern serves for two cows that are placed 

 opposite to each other, but in different sheds; 

 ail these cisterns are supplied from one large 

 tank. These cisterns have a wooden cover, 

 which is put on while the cows are eating 

 their grains, to prevent their drinking at that 

 time, and tainting the water by dropping any 

 of the grains into it. At the upper end and 

 at one comer of this quadruple range of sheds 

 is the dairy, consisting of three rooms, each 

 about twelve feet square ; the outer, or mea- 

 suring-room — the middle, or scalding-room, 

 with a fire-place and a boiler — and the inner, 

 or milk and butter room. 



At the lower end of the range is a square 

 yard surrounded by sheds, some for fattening 

 the cows when they have ceased to give 

 milk, and the others for store and breeding 

 pigs. The pigs are kept to con.sume the 

 casual stock of skim milk which remains on 

 hand, owing to the fluctuations of the de- 

 mand. The milk is kept in a well, walled 

 with brick laid in cement, about six feet in 

 diameter, and twelve feet deep. The milk 

 Goon becomes sour there, but is then most 

 nourishing to the hogs. Breeding swine is 



thought to bo the most profitable, and the 

 suckling pigs are sold tor roasting. 



Beyond this yard is a deep pit or pond, into 

 which the dung is emptied. There is a 

 stackyard, sheds, and pits for roots, straw, and 

 hay ; a place for cutting chafl^ cart-sheds, 

 stables, and every building which such an 

 establishment can require. The number of 

 cows varies from four to five hundred. 



The treatment of the cows is singular in 

 some respects. The cows are never untied 

 while they are retained as milkers. Some 

 of them have stood in the stall more than two 

 years. Mr. Laycock, on the contrary, turns 

 his cows out once every day to drink from 

 troughs in the yard, and they remain out from 

 half an hour to three hours, depending on the 

 weather and the season of the year. From 

 the end of June until Michaelmas, they are 

 turned into the fields from six o'clock in the 

 morning until twelve or one, and from two 

 o'clock in the afternoon till about three o'clock 

 on the following morning. Mr. Rhodes' 

 cows have always water standing in the cis- 

 terns before them. 



We can readily conceive that, from the 

 want of exercise, and consequent cutaneous 

 perspiration, Rhodes' cows may give a some- 

 what greater quantity of milk than Lay cock's ; 

 but on the other hand, when we think of an 

 animal tied in the corner of a stall for twelve, 

 or eighteen, or twenty -four months together, 

 we cannot help associating the idea of dis- 

 ease, or tendency to disease at least, with 

 such an unnatural state of things ; the feet 

 and the digestive system would particularly 

 sufl^er, and we should suspect a little vitiation 

 of all the secretions, and some deterioration 

 in the quality of the milk. We should like 

 to know the comparative state of health of 

 the animals in the two establishments. The 

 inclination of our opinion would be strongly 

 in favour of Mr. Laycock's plan. 



The principal food of the cows in both of 

 these, and in all the dairies of the metropolis, 

 is grains; and as the brewing seasons are 

 chiefly in autumn and spring, a stock of 

 grains is generally laid in at those seasons 

 tor the rest of the year. The grains are laid 

 up in pits, lined with brick-work set in ce- 

 ment, from ten to twenty feet deep, and of 

 any convenient size. They are firmly trod- 

 den down, and covered with a layer of moist 

 earth, eight or nine inches thick, to keep out 

 the rain and frost in winter, and the heat in 

 summer. A cow consumes about a bushel of 

 these grains daily, the cost of which is from 

 fourpence to fivepence, exclusive of carriage 

 and preservation. The grains are, if possible, 

 thrown into the pit while warm and in a state 

 of fermentation, and they soon turn sour, but 

 they are not liked the worse by cattle on that 

 account ; and the air being perfectly excluded, 



