78 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



tNo. 2. 



Suckling is generally considered the least pro- 

 fitable, as well as the most precarious, both from 

 the accidents to which calves are liable, and the 

 more variable price of veal than of butter and 

 cheese: but it is also the least troublesome; and 

 probably that and the making of butter combined, 

 are the most advantageous; as thus: supposing a 

 steady weekly demand for butter throughout the 

 year, then the most advisable plan might be, to 

 keep such a number of cows as would supply that 

 demand during the winter; and in summer, when 

 butter is cheap and veal in demand, to apply the 

 extra milk, beyond the quantity required for the 

 usual consumption of butter, to suckling calves, 

 either lor the market, or for stock, as may best 

 suit the ulterior views of the farmer. This must, 

 however, depend on the situation of the farm; for 

 that may not always afford an opportunity for the 

 acquisition of a succession of calves for suckling, 

 or a market for them when fat; or it may not be 

 adapted for the rearing of stock; and in such 

 cases, the best application of the skim-milk is 

 either to feed pigs, or to make skim-milk cheese. 

 The usual time required for fatting calves for the 

 butcher has been already stated to be ten to twelve 

 weeks;* perhaps less in summer, when the milk 

 is abundant and rich; and more when it decreases 

 in quantity and quality. But as the calf does not 

 require the entire milk of the cow which has 

 calved it, for some weeks after its birth, the cow 

 will, lor a short period, support two; and two 

 cows, calving at different periods, may be calcu- 

 lated to fat seven calves between them in the year. 

 Compared with grazing, every branch of dairy- 

 husbandry will probably be found the most pro- 

 fitable; but the trouble and difficulty of manage- 

 ment so far exceeds the mere feeding of cattle for 

 the shambles, that it can only be carried on, in 

 most instances, to a much more limited extent. It 

 has also the superiority in other points of consider- 

 able importance on farms where the mixed sys- 

 tem of tillage and grazing is adopted; that it does not 

 require so rich a soil as that for fatting beasts, and 

 that it produces food for pigs, or calves, and thus, 

 by nourishing more animals, creates additional 

 manure and a profitable consumption of the crops 

 on the spot. It has been calculated, that the her- 

 bage which will add 112 lbs. to the weight of an 

 ox, will enable a dairy cow to yield 450 gallons of 

 milk; which, upon reference to our previous state- 

 ments of the average produce of milk in butter, 

 cheese, or veal, and pork, will be found to exceed 

 the return in meat, alter making every fair allow- 

 ance for the additional expense of management. 

 Mr. Aiton estimates it at more than double;! but 

 his statements have been combated, and, to that 

 extent at least, are certainly questionable. 



In feeding pigs, it has been found that four cows 

 will, in the season, fat a pig of forty pounds 

 weight, to twelve score, which is fifty pounds each 

 cow, besides keeping the calves until weaned: and 

 pigs, it may be remarked, have been fattened to 

 great weights upon milk alone. 



Some dairymen allow two hogs to five cows, 

 also rearing the calves; but experience proves, 

 that two cows will support a two year old hog 

 until he is put up to fatten. In the neighborhood 



* See Book I. Chap. VII. 

 | Dairy Husbandry, p. 171. 



of a good market, it will, however, be most profit- 

 able to fatten porkers. 



Of skim-7nilk cheese, the quantity maybe calcu- 

 lated at two cwt. from each cow; but in com- 

 paring the two modes of employing the milk, 

 there must be deducted from the product of this 

 application of it the value of the dung that would 

 have been made by the pigs. 



Throughout the system of dairy management, 

 the vigilant eye of the principal ought carefully to 

 pervade; as it rarely happens that servants are to 

 be found who will give that minute attention to 

 every particular, which is so indispensably neces- 

 sary to ensure success. On this account, it is more 

 likely that a dairy-farm of a moderate size — one 

 tor instance that will keep ten to twenty cows — 

 will, if well managed, afford a larger proportionate 

 profit than one of a greater extent; because, in the 

 former case, the farmer's wife and. daughters can 

 more easily superintend, or perhaps perform a con- 

 siderable part of the dairy operations themselves; 

 and this always better done by them than it can 

 ever be expected to be by hired servants. No 

 branch of husbandry, in fact, deserves and re- 

 quires such unremitting attention. "If," Sir John 

 Sinclair very justly remarks, "a few spoonfuls of 

 milk are left in the udder of the cow at milking — 

 if any one of the implements used in the dairy be 

 allowed to be tainted by neglect — or if the dairy- 

 house be kept dirty, or out of order — if the milk is 

 either too hot or too cold at coagulating — if too 

 much or too little rennet is put into the milk — if 

 the whey is not speedily taken off — if too much or 

 too little salt is applied — if the butter is too slowly 

 or too hastily churned — or if other minute atten- 

 tions are neglected, the milk will be in a great 

 measure lost. If these nice operations occurred 

 only once a month, or once a week, they might be 

 easily guarded against; but, as they require to be 

 observed through every stage of the process, and 

 almost every hour of the day, the most vigilant 

 attention must be kept up throughout the whole 

 season. This is not to be expected from hired 

 servants. The wives and daughters of farmers, 

 therefore, having a greater interest in the concern, 

 are more likely to bestow that constant, anxious, 

 and unremitting attention to the dairy, without 

 which it cannot be rendered productive."* 



From St. John's Egypt. 

 VISIT TO THE EGG-HATCHING OVENS OF 

 CAIRO. 



The hatching oven consists of a suite of small 

 square chambers, or cells, arranged on either side 

 of a small passage, in which they open; the door- 

 way, when there are eggs within, being closed 

 with mats. In some of the chambers the eggs 

 had been newly put in, and were perfectly white; 

 in others,having already undergone many changes, 

 they exhibited a dirty yellow color; while in seve- 

 ral cells, the embryo having been warmed into 

 life, had shattered its prison, and was emerging 

 through the broken shell. Nothing is more com- 

 mon than the process of incubation, which, in fact, 

 falls under the eye of every man; and the princi- 

 ple of the Egyptian hatching ovens, in which a 

 heated atmosphere perlbrms the office of the hen, 



* Sir John Sinclair on the Husbandry of Scotland. 

 Vol.11, p. 124. 



