THK IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 375 



monly imagined. Still, however, we are disposed to 

 believe that certain pastures are more favourable to 

 the production of good butter than others. Certain 

 plants, such as turnip, wild garlic, hemlock, rough- 

 leaved dandelion, charlock and May-weed, are known 

 to effect the milk with a disagreeable flavour; and 

 there may be others which to a certain degree impair 

 its goodness, though their effects are by no means so 

 evident. 



Far more, however, depends on good management, 

 than on this circumstance, or even on the species 

 of the cow we feed ; for that something likewise, is 

 owing to this, is equally well ascertained. Cows have 

 been found whose milk could not be brought to yield 

 any butter at all. It has long been remarked, that 

 the butter in the highlands of Scotland, when properly 

 made, possesses a peculiarly rich and delicate flavour ; 

 and this has been almost universally attributed to the 

 old grass on which the cows feed in these remote glens. 

 But what more common error than to mistake a con- 

 comitant circumstance for a cause. Dr. Anderson, by 

 his experiments on milk, has shown that the excellence 

 of the highland butter may be very reasonably ascribed 

 to a quite different cause. He has proved that the 

 cream of a given measure of milk constantly increases 

 in quantity, and still more in quality, from the first 

 drawn teacupful, to the last drop that can be squeezed 

 from the udder at the time. From twelve to twenty 

 hours in summer, and about twice as long in winter, 

 should be permitted to elapse before the milk is 

 skimmed after it has been put into the milk-pans. If 

 on applying the tip of the finger to the surface no- 

 thing adheres to it, the cream should be properly taken 

 off; and during the hot summer months this should 

 be done always in the morning, before the dairy be- 



