DAIRY. 133 



debility of stomach, or other internal disorganiza- 

 tion, difficult to fatten. These facts sufficiently in- 

 dicate what, on this head, ought to be our practice ; 

 to fatten cattle as soon after they have attained their 

 growth as possible. Oxen generally attain their 

 growth at five or six years, and sheep and hogs at 

 two. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



OP THE DAIRY. 



THE business of the dairy, besides its connexion 

 with the subject qfc the last chapter, is too impor- 

 tant in itself to be omitted in any professed trea- 

 tise on Agriculture. We shall therefore consign 

 what we have to say upon it to the present chapter. 

 A few preliminary observations may be proper. 



Milk is the well-known basis of all the operations 

 of the dairy. Few things have more engaged the 

 attention of chymists. Boyle, Boerhave, Hoffman, 

 and Macquer, all (tie old school and many of the 

 new,* have employed themselves in detecting its 

 constituent parts, and in establishing their several 

 proportions. In the first branch of the inquiry they 

 have sufficiently succeeded, and we accordingly 

 know that this very important fluid is principally 

 composed of an oily matter, of curd, of an essen- 

 tial salt called sugar of milk, and of serum. But, 

 in the other branch of the inquiry, so various have 

 been the results of experiments made on the milk 

 of different animals, and of the same animal at dif- 

 ferent times, that it continues to be the reproach 

 of chymistry; and we have now before us the ac- 



* Haller, Brisson, Deyeux, Parmentier, Fourcroy, &c., &c. 

 M 



