122 SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Inglorious victory ! Ye Cheshire meads, 

 Or Severn's flow'ry vales, where Plenty treads, 

 Was your rich milk to suffer wrongs like these, 

 Farewell your pride ; farewell renowned cheese ! 

 The skimmer dread, whose ravages alone 

 Thus turn the mead's sweet nectar into stone." 



There ai'e many causes which make certain districts 

 famous above others : the merit does not lie wholly in. 

 the pastures, though these are the chief causes of success ; 

 much is also due to the skill of the dairy people, and 

 the breed of cows they keep. The milk of cows varies 

 greatly in richness, as any one may see by using a simple 

 little instrument called a lactometer, which shows the 



THE LACTOMETER. 



pi'oportion of cream to the milk of any particular cow. 

 The best kind of lactometer will show the comparative 

 richness of the milk of four or five cows. It consists of 

 four or five glass tubes, about half an inch diameter and 

 eleven inches long, fitted into an upright mahogany 

 frame ; each tube having a fine line drawn round it ten 

 inches from the bottom ; three inches from the line 

 downwards it is graduated into inches and tenths of 



