EXPERIMENTS WITH DIFFERENT KINDS OP FOOD. 537 



In the South of Europe, ihe Swiss breeds are considered the best for 

 dairy purposes, and of these that of the Canton of Schweitz, which, in 

 size, is intermediate between the large cattle of Fribourg and Berne, and 

 the small breed of Hasti. They have enormous udders and give much 

 milk, but like that of the Suffolk cows it is less rich in butter and chee.sc. 



The influence of breed alone upon the quality of the milk is well il- 

 lustrated by the resuh of a series of trials made at Bradley Hall, in 

 Derbyshire. During the height of the season, and when fed upon the 

 same pasture, cows of four ditferent breeds gave per day — 



Or 1 lb. of butter was 

 Breed. Milk. 



Holderness . . 29 quarts, and 



Aldemey ... 19 " 



Devon ... 17 " 



Ayrshire ... 20 " 

 The Ayrshire cows gave the richest milk and a larger quantity of both 

 milk and butter than the Alderneys or Devons, but the Holderness breed 

 surpassed them all. It gave \ lb. more butter than the Ayrshire, and 

 nearly one-half more milk. It would appear, therefore, to be admirably 

 adapted to the purposes of the town dairyman, whose profit arises from 

 milk and cream only. It does not appear what is the relative value of 

 this breed in the production of cheese. 



9°. The kind of food. — But tbe kind of food has probably more in- 

 fluence upon the quality of the milk than any other circumstance. It is 

 familiar to every dairy farmer that the taste and colour of his milk and 

 cream are affected by the plants on which his cows feed, and by the food 

 he gives them in the stall. The taste of the wild onion and of the turnip, 

 when eaten by the cow, are often perceptible both in the milk and in the 

 butter. If madder be given to cows the milk is red, if they eat safiron 

 it becomes yellow. It has also been observed from the most remote 

 times, that when fed upon one pasture a cow will yield more cheese, 

 upon another more butter. From this has arisen the practice more or 

 less observed in all dairy districts of varying the food of the cattle — of 

 giving some artificial food in addition to that obtained in the natural pas- 

 tures — of leaving the animal at liberty to roam over wide pastures and 

 thus to seek out for itself, as the sheep does on extensive sheep-walks, 

 those different kinds of herbage which are necessary to the production 

 ©f a rich and valuable milk — or in more inclosed districts, and where 

 different soils exist on the same farm, of turning them during the former 

 part of the day into one field, and during the latter part into another. 



Various sets of experiments have been made with the view of deter- 

 mining the relative quantities of butter and cheese produced by the same 

 animals, when fed upon different kinds of food. Much, however, re- 

 mains yet to be done both by the practical dairy farmer and by the fui- 

 alytical chemist, before this subject can be fully cleared up. According 

 to theory, as I shall more fully explain in my next lecture, the legumi- 

 nous plants — clover, tares, &c., and the cultivated seeds of such plants — 

 peas and beans, ought to promote the production of cheese ; while oil- 

 cake, oats, and other kinds of food which contain much oily matter, 

 ought to favour the yield of butter. The most recent experiments we 

 possess, however, do not lend any disided confirmation to these theoreti- 



