No. 8. 



The Dairy. 



243 



ownerof adairy to be particularly attentive to 

 this circumstance. In judging of the value 

 of a cow, it ought rather to be the quantity 

 and the quality of the cream produced from the 

 milk of a cow in a given time, than the quan- 

 tity of the milk itself This is a circumstance 

 that will be shown in the future to be of 

 more importance than is generally imagined. 

 The small cows of the Alderney breed afford 

 the richest milk hitherto known ; but indivi- 

 dual cows in every country may be fi^und, by 1 

 a careful selection, that afford much thicker, 

 milk than others; these- therefore ought to! 

 be searched for with care, and their breed | 

 reared with attention, as being peculiarly! 

 valuable. 



Few persons who have had any e.xperience 

 at all in the dairy way can be ignorant, liow-| 

 ever, that in comparing the milk of two cows, j 

 to judge of their respective qualities, par- 

 ticular attention must be paid to the time 

 that has elapsed since their calving; for the 

 milk of the same cow is always thinner soon 

 after calving, than it is afterwards; as it 

 gradually becomes thicker, though generally 

 less in quantity, in proportion to ihe time the 

 cow has calved. The color of the milk, how- 

 ever, soon after calving is richer than it after- 

 wards becomes ; but this, especially for the 

 first two weeks, is a faulty color that ought 

 not to be coveted. 



To make the cows give abundance of milk, 

 and of a good quality, they must at all times 

 have plenty of food. Grass is the best food 

 yet known for this purpose, and that kind of 

 grass which springs up spontaneously on rich} 

 dry soils is the best of all.* If the tempera- 1 

 lure of the climate be such as to permit the '■ 

 cows to graze at ease throughout the day, 

 they should be suffered to range on such pas- ! 

 tures at freedom ; but if the cows are so much 

 incommaled by the heat as to be prevented \ 



*So little attention has hitherto been bestowed on 

 this subject, th.it I An not know of any regular sei of 

 experiments that have ever yet been made with a view 

 to ascertHin the effects of any of the natural grasses 

 that spontaneously spring up in abundance on our 

 fielils, either on the quantity or the qiinlitij of the milk 

 of cows, and few that have been attempted even with 

 regard to those plants that have been cultivated by art 

 as green forage for them; though it be well known 

 that some particular kinds of plants strongly affect the 

 taste, and alter the quality ;>f particular products of 

 milk. It is indeed, in all cases, confidently asserted, 

 that old pastures alone can ever be made to afford rich 

 butter or cheese. This, however, I know from my own 

 repeated experience to be a popular error, as I have 

 frequently seen much riclier butter made by one person 

 from cows that were fed in the house chiefly with rw\ 

 clover and ryegrass, than that which was made by 

 others, where the cows were fed on very rich old pas- 

 tures. Mankind are in general disposed to throw the 

 blame of every failure upon some circumstance that 

 does not reflect on themselves as bad managers.— 

 Hence it is that the grass of a farm is often blamed for 

 the want of richness of the butter produced upon it ; 

 when, if the circumstances were fully investigated, it 

 would lie found to be occasioned by the unskilfulnpss of 

 t)ie dairy-maid, or the waul of attention iu the choice 

 of proper cows. 



from eating through the day, they ought in 

 that case to be taken into the cool shades for 

 protection, where, after allowing them a pro- 

 per time to ruminate, they should be supplied 

 with abundance of green food fresh cut for 

 the purpose, and given to them by hand fre- 

 quently in small quantities fresh and clean 

 so as to induce them to eat it with pleasure.* 

 When the heat of the day is over, and they 

 can remain abroad with ease, they may be 

 again turned into the pasture, wliere they 

 .-should be allowed to range with freedom all 

 night during the ntild weather of summer. 



Cows, if abundantly fed, should be milked 

 three times a day during the whole of the sum- 

 mer season ; \ in the morning early, at noon, 

 and in the evening, just before night-fall. In 

 the choice of persons for milking the cows, 

 great caution should be employed ; for if that 

 operation be not carefully and properly per- 

 formed, not only the quantity of the produce 

 of the dairy will be greatly diminished, but it^ 

 quality al.>^o will be very much debased ; for if 

 all the milk be not thoroughly drawn from a 

 cow when she is milked, that portion of milk 

 which is left in the udder seeiis to be gradu- 

 ally absorbed into the system, and nature 

 generates no more than to supply the waste of 

 what has been taken away. If this les.sened 

 quantity be not again thoroughly drawn off, 

 it occasions a yet farther diminution of 

 the quantity of milk generated; and so on 

 it may be made to proceed in perpetual 

 progression from little to less, till none at 

 all is produced. In short, this is the prac- 

 tice in all cases followed, when it is meant to 

 allow a cow's milk to dry up entirely without 

 doing her hurt. In this manner, therefore, 

 the profits of a dairy might be woriderfuUy 

 diminished ; so that it much behoves the own- 

 er of it to be e.xtremely attentive to this cir- 

 cumstance, if he wishes to avoid ruin. It 

 ought to be a rule without an e.xception, 

 never to allow this important department to 

 bo entrusted, without control, to the manage- 



* [n very warm climates, where the heat is extreme- 

 ly oppressive to cows, and the flies are exceedingly 

 troublesome, sheds open on one side, the roof being 

 only supported there liy pillars, would not afford them 

 such effectual shelter as they would require. In these 

 cases, the sheds should be walled up on both sides, and 

 he left open only at the two ends, which, if properly 

 placed, would produce a continued stream of air through- 

 out the whole building, that would provj highly salu- 

 tary to the cattle. 



t If cows be milked only twice in the day [04 hours] 

 while they have abundance of surxili^nt food, they will 

 yield a much smaller quantity of milk in »he same 

 time than if they be milked three times. Some atten- 

 tive observers I have met with think a cow in these 

 circumstances will give nearly as much at fzrh time, 

 if milked three times, as if she were milked only twice. 

 This fact, however, has not. that I know of. been as- 

 certained by experiment There can he n.i doubt hut 

 they give more, how mtich. is not ascertained; nor 

 whether it wntild h" ailvantagcous in any case to milk 

 them four times, or oflener ; or what effitcl frequent 

 milking produces on the quality of tUc milk. 



