MILCH COWS. 203 



secreted in the mammary glands. A few cows well kept, are 

 more profitable than many that are obliged to ramble over old, 

 exhausted, stinted pasture-lands. 



First, secure a good milker ; then house and litter her well 

 in winter, and supply her abundantly with succulent food and 

 pure, fresh water, feed, card and milk her regularly, and her 

 udders will be streaming fountains of richness and wealth to 

 her owner. 



Good milk is a most important article — it is a benison to 

 childhood; while bad milk is fatal as the sword of Herod. Its 

 ingredients are water, butter, sugar, caseous matter, and 

 various salts. The butyraceous matter gives it richness ; the 

 caseine, strength ; the sugar, sweetness ; and the water makes 

 it an agreeable drink. Altogether, it is both a delicious food 

 and drink, when distilled from the lacteal glands of a high- 

 blooded, well-kept cow. 



Milk drawn from the cow in the morning is thought to be 

 of better quality than that of the evening; and a remarkable 

 difference is perceived in the proportion of cream in the first 

 and last portion of milking, the latter containing twice as 

 much cream as the same quantity of the former. Dr. Hassall 

 thinks that the average of pure milk does not exceed nine and 

 one-half per cent, cream ; that delivered in Boston will rarely 

 yield over eight per cent. When milk is carried far by rail, or 

 in a wagon without springs, a portion of the cream is apt to be 

 converted into butter, and sink to the bottom of the can, from 

 which it is not taken, in the ordinary manner of supplying 

 customers in large cities. 



In a climate like ours, subjected to months of rigorous winter 

 weatlrer, the stall, or shelter for the milch cow, is an important 

 point in dairy management. It should be warm, and at the 

 same time well ventilated. No animals are healthier than neat 

 cattle, when well kept. The very breath of the cow is salutif- 

 erous. Cows are as sensitive to the winter's cold as their 

 owner, and should be housed as comfortably. 



It is said that where one or two Jersey cows are kept with 

 twenty or thirty cows of other breeds, and their milk mixed, it 

 makes a great difference in the milk and butter. 



The qualities of the various foreign breeds are now so well 

 known that they need no specification ; in fact, they liave all 



