AND HORTICaLTUliAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSKPH BRECK & CO., NO, 52 NORTH MARIfRT STPPPT ,i ^ T 



' llUtVltl MAttl4.1Ll blKKh,!, (AGRICnLTUEAL WahEHOUSE.) 



vol.. XIX.] 



BOSTON, WED NESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 21, 1840. 



N. E. FARMER. 



DUTCH DAIRIES. 



A writer in tiie Journal of llie English Afrriciil- 

 tiiral Society, in an article entitled "Rural Econo- 

 my ol'Sclileswig, Molstein, and Lanenburg," gives 

 an instructive account of tlie dairies of the Hol- 

 landers and theirniode of maliing butter, from which 

 we extract the following: 



"The pride and boast of the Holsteiner is his 

 dairy; and the fame of Holstein butter, which, if 

 wc except that made in Holland Proper (or Del- 

 flaiid,) may well claim to be the best in the world 

 not ordy justifies his preference, but may render a 

 sketch of those peculiarities of management, by 

 which the Holstein dairy system is more especial- 

 ly distinguished, neither uninteresting nor useless 

 to the English farmer. These may be chiefly 

 classed under four heads, viz: the buildings and 

 utensils ; the time of milking, and number of 

 hands employed j the management of the milk ; and 

 the mode of working, salting, and packing the but- 

 ter. 



The buildings indispensable to a lanre dairy 

 (which varies from 100 to 400 cows) are" a milk 

 cellar, a butter cellar, a churning house, (and close- 

 ly adjoining the horse-mill, by which the operation 

 of churning is invariably effected), a cheese room, 

 and a kitchen, in which not only the various uten,^ 

 sils are washed, but the food cooked for all the per- 

 sons immediately engaged in the dairy-work; to 

 which must commonly be added their sleeping and 

 eating apartments, as, on large estates, the whole 

 of the establishment is usually kept apart from the 

 mansion house. The size and site of the milk cel- 

 lar are esteemed matters of first rate importance : 

 It ought to front the north; be shaded from the 

 Bou'hern sun by rows of trees— elder being espe- 

 cially selected for this purpose, and indeed placed 

 If possible near the windows, on account of their 

 influence in keeping off the insect tribes ; and a 

 that, hed projecting roof is pieforred, affordin.r nreat- 

 er protection from the heat: while, in chooslntr tl,e 

 site, peculiar care is taken to place the dairy be- 

 yond the reach of every thing calculated to g,.ne- 

 rate bad odors, or in any way taint the atmos- 

 phere. The h'ize of the milk cellar must necessa- 

 rily be regulated by the nuiiiher of cows; hut it 

 ehould always be calculated to contain the produce 

 of tourmilkings; and as the milk dishes usually 

 occupy a .space of two feet s.pjare, the produce of 

 lUO COW.S, giving on an average 8 quarts per day 

 (a large average for the cows of this country 

 throughout the year,) would fill ^0 milk dishes at 

 each milking, and would require a ground surface 

 500 square feet, as the milk dishes are invaria- 

 bly placed on the floor, the amount of each milkino- 

 a little apart ; and there must unavoidably be spat 

 ces left, to enable the dairy maids to go throuo-h 

 their various operations of skimming, sievin-^ and 

 removing cream, &c. The floor; though "some- 

 times .lugged, IS more gener.-.lly of brick, neatly 

 titi.ed,so that no water ma v lodge in the joints ■ 

 and always gently inclined, with a grated opening 



[NO. 16. 



at the lower end, to facilitate the mopping and 

 washing of the floor, which is never omitted to he 

 done twice a day, notwithstanding that every avoid- 

 able impurity is carefully guarded against, and ev- 

 ery drop which may fall at the time of the milk be- 

 ing strained, is instantly wiped up. A great im- 

 provement has been recently made in some newly 

 arranged dairies, by dividing the floor into compart- 

 ments with brick ledges, from 3 to 4 inches high, 

 between which the milk dishes stand; and The 

 compartments (the lower extremity of which is fit- 

 ted with a small sluice) being filled, by means of a 

 pump, with cold water twice a day, the milk is pre- 

 served so cool as to prevent all approach to acidity 

 for several liMirs longer than when placed on a dry 

 floor: thus affording, even during the summer sol- 

 stice, sulficient time for a complete separation of 

 the milk and cream, without which the full propor- 

 tion of butter cannot be obtained. For effectua- 

 ting the same desirable result, ice ia frequently 

 resorted to in sultry weather, either by dropping a 

 piece of pure ice in each milk-pan, or by placing a 

 pailful in the dairy, which, by giving off its cold, 

 sensibly lowers the atmospheric temperature. 



It is considered necessary that the milk cellar 

 should be sunk from 3 to 4 feet in the ground ; be 

 Irom 1(3 to 18 feet high (the best have an arched 

 roof, as being more conducive to coolness than 

 boards) ; and be furnished with two rows of win- 

 dows, (and, if possible, on three sides, north, east 

 and west,) to secure a thorough air. The lower 

 range consists of wooden trellis v/ork, provided in- 

 side with gauze frames to e.xclude insects, and out- 

 side with hanging shutters, which can be lowered 

 and elevated at pleasure. The upper range is fur- 

 nished with glass sashes when light only is requi- 

 site, which are exchanged for gauze frames, when 

 more coolness is desirable. The butter-cellar also, 

 must be light, airy and cool; being likewise sunk 

 in the ground, and the same precautions adopted as 

 in the milk cellar, to secure an abundant current 

 of pure air. In it the butter, when carried from the 

 churning house, is worked, salted, and packed ; and 

 the filled butter casks ranged on clean boards, some- 

 what elevated above the floor, to admit a free pas- 

 sage of air, are weekly turned and wiped. 



Next in order comes the churning house, which 

 differs in no respect frou. similar arrangements in 

 England, excepting that, of late years, the perpen- 

 dicular movement of the churn staff has been ex- 



changed for the rotatory,* which is found to 



in a shorter time, and with less risk of producing, 



even in hot weather, what is called oiling. 



The cheese room is never admitted near cither 

 milk or butter cellar, and is, in newly arranged dai- 

 ries, placed as far v.a may be from them. In fact, 

 as cleanliness forms the great object of the HoU 

 j stein dairy system, the closest attention ia paid to 

 I guard against every impurity, and to remove eve- 

 ' ry thing from the vicinity of the dairy which could, 

 j by possibility, exercise a sinister influence on the 

 j very susceptible substances of milk and butter; 

 i which suffer, to a degree those unaccustomed to 



"Sevenlytwo revolutions per minute. 



observe it would little 3u<^pect, from a tainted at- 

 mosphere. As the preparation of cheese is better 

 understood in England than here, I will only men- 

 tion that three sorts arc made — sweet milk, skim- 

 med milk, and occasionally what is termed cream 

 cheese ; and shall now proceed to describe the man- 

 agement of the milk, first enumerating the number 

 of persons required. These consist, in large dai- 

 ries, of a meycr or overseer, a cooper, one or two 

 cow herds (as may be requisite,) one or more swine 

 herds, an upper dairy woman, and dairy maids in 

 the proportion of I to every 18 cows. The over- 

 seer's duty involves a general charge of the cattle, 

 whether in health or sickness, with a competent 

 knowledge of their diseases and the remedies; he 

 is responsible for the swine being properly cared 

 for; that the calves, whether fatting or rearing for 

 stock, are regularly and suitably fed ; that the 

 cow herd does his duty; that the hours of milking 

 are pum-tually adhered to ; and that every thing 

 and every person is in proper place and keeping! 

 He must further pay strict attention that the cows 

 are milked thoroughly out, on which so very much 

 depends ; as not only the coav which is allowed to 

 retain any portion of milk, diminishes her produce 

 by so much from day to day, but the last, being by 

 far the richest part, a loss of butter is incuTred, 

 much more than proporcionate to the quantity of 

 milk, by this culpable negligence or laziness. Ac- 

 cording to the observations of an accurate exami- 

 ner. Dr. Schubler, the first drawn niilk contains 

 only 5, the second 8, and the fifth 17 per cent, of 

 cream! If the number of cows be not above a 

 hundred, the overseer can also undertake the coop- 

 er work ; which, when wooden milk dishes are 

 used, in addition to the cream barrels, milking 

 pails, and butter casks required in the course of a 

 year, is a consideration both of time and expense. 

 But in large dairies, a cooper is kept in addition, 

 who, however, must likewise milk a certain number 

 of cows, assist in carrying the milk, feeding the 

 cows when housed, or any other dairy work which 

 a man is capable of. The wages of these two per- 

 sons vary according to the extent of the dairy, but 

 may be averaged the tirst at UO, and the second at 

 40 dollars per annum. 



The dairy maids, besides milking, cleaning the 

 vessels, &c., work in the garden in summer, spin 

 in winter, and wash, bake, brew and cook for their 

 own establishment, under the superintendence of 

 the upper dairy woman, who is by far the most im- 

 portant per-onage in it, as on her skill, attention, 

 and diligence depend, in great measure, both the 

 quantity and quality, and, by consequence, the pro 

 ht ot the produce. She must not only thorouirhly 

 understand, hut accurately fdiserve, the moment 

 when the milk should be creamed ; the degree of 

 acidity it must attain in the cream barrels; its tern- 

 perature, whether requiring the addition of warm 

 or cold water to the churn, as well as the all-ira- 

 portant operations of kneading, beating, salting, 

 and packing the butter. She must not only be 

 punctiliously clean herself in person and work, but 

 keep a strict eye over the cleanliness and order of 

 her subordinate maidens. In very laro-e dairie» 



