1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



70c» 



is divided among a variety of persons,, and after' 

 all affords but a scanty subsistence to many of 

 tliem ; but. it unequivocally proves the rascality 

 that pervades sonie of the departments of the 

 concern. "; 



We acqtait the wholesale dealers of rtny share 

 in tli'e roguery, nor do we believe that their profits 

 are exorbitant. They sell the milk to the retail 

 dealers at a price that, accordmg to Dr. Middleton, 

 would enable them to clear 64 per cent., without 

 adulterating the article — (we believe that, 50 per 

 cent, would be nearer the truth.) When we con- 

 sider the nature of tlie business ; the distance the 

 milk-girls have to travel ; and the time wasted in 

 selling their little quantiiies Irpm door to door, this 

 profit is not loo great ; but when they abstract the 

 cream, and add the water, and, unless they are 

 much belied, some extraneous and abominable ar- 

 ticles, the actual profits will far exceed cent, per 

 cent. In the spring of the year, when London is 

 full, the consumption and the deterioration are 

 greatest. In the latter part of the year ihe cream 

 is converted into butter, and the buiter-milk given 

 to the hoes. 



Rhode's dairy has been established more than 

 thirty years, but some of the same family or name 

 have lived in that neighborhood nearly a century. 

 ' Mr. Rhodes, farmer, near Islington,' is referred 

 to by Dr. Brocklesby, in his treatise on the mur- 

 rain which prevailed among cattle about the mid- 

 dle of the last ceniury. The writer of 'London 

 Dairies,' in the 'British Farmer's Magazine' ibr 

 February, 1831, gives a description of it, of which 

 the ibilowing is the substance: — The surflice on 

 which the buildings are placed is a gentle slope of j 

 two or three acres, facing the east. The sheds 

 run in the direction of the slope, as well for the 

 drainage of the gutters as for the supply of water 

 lor drinking, which will thus run I'roin 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 Ibr ven- 

 tilation, and panes of glass let info iron frames for 

 hght. 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, whiclt are attached by chains to a ring 

 that runs upon an upiight rod in the corner of the 

 stalls. A trough or manger, of the ordinary' size 

 of those used lor 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 

 10 each cow. The bottom of these openings is 

 about nine inches higher than the u[)per surftice of 

 the troughs, and contains a one-foot square cast- 

 iron cistern„which contains the water for drinking; 

 each cistern seryes for two cows that are placed 

 opposite to each other, but in different sheds; all 

 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 pre- 

 vent their drinking at that time, and tainting the 

 water by dropping any of the grains into it. At 

 the upper end and at one corner of \h\^ quadruple 

 range of sheds is the dairy, consisting of three 

 rooms, each about twelve feet square • the outer, 

 or measuring-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 



snrroUnctefl by shedfe, som'e'fbrfhllening the cows 

 when they have ct^t-lsed to give milk, and the others 

 for store and breeding pigs. The pigs are kept to 

 consume the casual stock of skim-milk which re- 

 mains on hand, owing to the fluctuations of the 

 demand. The milk is kept in a well, walled with 

 brick laid in cement, about six fi^et in diameter, 

 and twelve ieet deep. The milk soon becomes 

 sotn^ there, but is then most nourishing to the hogs. 

 Breeding swine is thought to be the most profita- 

 ble, and the suckling pigs are sold for roasting. 



Beyond this yard is a deep pit or pond, into 

 which the dung is emptied. There is a stack- 

 yard, sheds, and pits for roots, straw, and hay ; a 

 place for cutting chaff, cart-slieds, stables, and 

 every buililing which such an establishment can 

 req-jire. 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. Lay- 

 cock, 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, de- 

 pentling 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 aliernoon till about three o'clock on 

 the following morning. Mr. Rh.odes's cows have 

 always water standing in the cisterns belore them. 



We can readily conceive that, from the want of 

 exercise, and consequent cutaneous perspiration, 

 Rhodes's coivs may give a somev.hat greater 

 quantity of milk than Laycock'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 disease, or tendency to disease at least, 

 wiih such an unnatural state of things; the feet 

 and the digestive system would particularly suffer, 

 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 compara- 

 tive state of health of the animals in the two es- 

 tablishments. The inclination of our opinion would 

 be strongly in fiivor 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 sprintr, a stock of grains is generally laid in at 

 those seasons for the rest of the year. The grains 

 arc 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 trodden 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 fburpence to fivepence, exclusive of 

 carriage and preservation. The grains are, if pos- 

 sible, 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 ac- 

 count; and the air being perfectly excluded, the 

 fermentation cannot run on to putrefaction. The 

 dairymen say that the slow and slight degree of 

 fermentation which goes on, tends to the greater 

 developement of the saccharine and nutritive prin- 

 ciple, and they will have as large a slock upon 



