318 



Visit to a Holstein Farm. 



V0L.V. 



Visit to a Holstein Farm. 



Arrived at 2 P. M., and were received 

 with great politeness by Mr. Hirclifield. Af- 

 ter dinner, visited the stables ; the first con- 

 tained six carriage and two riding horses, all 

 bays ; also, a long-tailed black horse for the 

 use of the dragoons, every gentleman being 

 obliged to keep a horse subject to tlie king's 

 order. This stable is 126 feet long, 44 broad, 

 and 55 feet high : at the end is a carriage, 

 wagon, and harness house. The next stable, 

 under the same roof, was for 30 horses, stand- 

 ing in pairs: the whole is causewayed, and a 

 space of 20 feet in the centre for threshing 

 the grain ; at the end are rooms for the men, 

 corn-chests, &c., and a space above for 80 

 loads of hay, and two tiers of grain lofts. 



We next visited the cow-houses : the first 

 was 198 feet long, 70 broad, and 60 high, 

 with four tiers of stalls for 240 cows: the 

 standards are ten inches thick, and between 

 each, a space of nine feet, stood tiree cows, 

 A trough of solid masonry ran fiom end to 

 end, about a foot deep and two fe;t broad at 

 the top, for the food and water. All these 

 houses have doors large enough t) admit of 

 a cart of hay passing through. The next 

 cow-house is 90 feet long, 24 bread, and 30 

 feet high, with 58 stalls, and a laige space to 

 feed young cattle : the space abo\e these sta- 

 bles will contain 400 loads of hty. Adjoin- 

 ing stands the large barn, 180 f:et long, 70 

 broad, and 65 feet high. The lew barn is 

 152 feet long, 64 feet broad, and '0 feet high. 

 The dairy-house is 125 feet bng, 36 feet 

 broad, and 50 feet high ; the flooi is laid with 

 brick on edge, with a slope tovvirds the cen- 

 tre, through which a stream of water runs. 

 On the right is a store-house, sid a dining- 

 room for tiie servants, twenty-si: in number; 

 the fire-place or chimney being 2 feet wide; 

 on one side is a fixed boiler, on he other are 

 large sways for hanging coppen for dressing 

 food, &c. Next is a neatly finished room 

 for the head dairy-maid, and ehind that a 

 room for a respectable old man. who superin- 

 tends the whole of that departrent. On the 

 opposite side of the building i a large bed- 

 room for twelve female servans. The neat 

 manner in which the female ervants of the 

 dairy are dressed, deserves paiicular notice : 

 their dress consists of a short pwn, with full, 

 fashionable sleeves, which do Dt reach to the 

 elbow ; a yellow, black and icarlet linsey- 

 woolsey petticoat ; blue stocings and san- 

 dals; their hair is neatly braidd under a low- 

 crowned cap, and as smooth a possible, with 

 not a hair out of its place : in he field, while 

 milking, they wear straw hts. The head 

 dairy-maid might have gone t any assembly, 

 she was so pretty, neat and ;lean ; yet she 

 worked more than her apperance bespoke. 

 Returning back to the left i&he milk-cellar, 



down a few steps, neatly laid with brick and 

 kept perfectly clean, and at the foot of the 

 stairs stand the salt barrels; that used for the 

 butter is from Lunenburg, in Hanover ; that 

 for the cheese, from Liverpool. The butter- 

 room is on the left side of the stairs, and is 

 railed round ; there were 84 tubs of butter in 

 it, each weighing 200 lbs., about half an inch 

 of salt on the top, and the heads laid loosely 

 on ; the whole covered with clean, white 

 sheets. There were 500 milk-tubs, made of 

 oak, 20 inches in diameter and 6 deep, hooped 

 with willows; they are u'ashed after being 

 used, by six servants, with warm and cold 

 water, ashes and coarse cloths, scrubbers and 

 brushes, and then put out to dry ; and if in 

 summer they get the least sour, they are 

 boiled, and again undergo the same process 

 of scouring. This morning there were 269 

 tubs on the floor, the produce of their milk- 

 ings. 



A few steps on the right hand of the milk- 

 room, is the cheese-room, in which were de- 

 posited 600 cheeses of 22 lbs. each, all made 

 of skimmed milk, and of very inferior quality. 

 On the left of the entrance door, stands the 

 butter-churn, holding about 140 gallons, turn- 

 ed by a mill with a horse, from the outside: 

 all the refuse runs through a wooden channel 

 into a trough in the pig-shed, where were 60 

 hogs fattinir. Next, was the dairy-barn, 60 

 feet long, 28 broad, and 30 feet high, in which 

 were English sheep, deer, and a growing 

 stock of young hogs. 



The mansion-house is not modern, but very 

 handsome and commodious, 104 feet long, 44 

 feet deep, and 40 feet high, with excellent 

 vaulted cellars below ; spacious gardens, hot- 

 houses, melon-beds, &c. The poultry-yard is 

 well stocked, 105 geese, as many turkeys, 

 and other poultry in proportion ; the fowl- 

 houses commodious and well planned. In a 

 small room adjoining were the nests, a foot 

 in diameter and a foot above the ground, the 

 last egg being always left in the nest: this 

 department was in charge of an old woman 

 and boy, and was kept remarkably clean. 

 There was an egg-table, with three tiers of 

 holes for difi^rent eggs and their dates; and 

 the housekeeper had that day packed a cask 

 with 14 dozen in fine wood ashes, for winter 

 use : these consisted of peacock, turkey, goose, 

 duck, and hen eggs. 



The following is the process of the dairy 

 work. In summer, one servant rises at 2 

 o'clock in the morning to make fires; all the 

 others, half an hour after: they skim the milk 

 and run the cream through a sieve into the 

 butter-churn ; they have then half an hour to 

 sort themselves, and then proceed to the field 

 to milk the cows, every female having 20 

 cows to milk; the milk is then put into the 

 tubs and set away. Then comes the butter- 



