244 



The Dairy. 



Vol. III. 



ment of hired servants.* Its importance will 

 be still more manifest from what follows: 



In the management of a dairy, the follow 

 ing peculiarities respecting milk ought to be 

 very particularly adverted to ; some of them 

 are, no doubt, known in part to attentive 

 housewives, but they never yet, I have reason 

 to believe, have been adverted to as their im 

 portance deserves; and by many have never 

 been thought of at all. I put them down in 

 the form of aphorisms, that they may be the 

 more adverted to, and the easier retained. 



APHORISM I. 



Of the Milk that is drawn from any cow at one time, 

 that which comes oflTat the first is always thinner 

 and of a much worse quality, than that which comes 

 afterwards, and the richness goes on continually in- 

 creasing to the very last drop that can be drawn from 

 the udder at that time. 



Few persons are ignorant, that milk which 

 is taken from the cow last of all at milking, 

 which in this country is called stroakings, is 

 richer than the rest of the milk — but fewer 

 still are aware of the greatness of the dispro- 

 portion between the quality of the fiist and 

 the last drawn milk from the same cow at 

 one milking. *The following facts respecting 

 this circumstance were ascertained by me 

 many years ago, and have been confirmed by 

 many subsequent experiments and observa- 

 tions. 



Having taken several large tea-cups exact- 

 ly of the same size and shape, one of these 

 tea-cups was filled at the beginning of the 

 cow milking, and the others at regular inter- 

 vals till the last, which was filled with the 

 dregs of the stroakings. These were each 

 weighed, the weight of each cup being settled 

 so as to ascertain that the quantity of milk in 

 each was precisely the same; and from a great 

 number of experiments, frequently repeated, 

 ■with many different cows, the result was in 

 all cases thus : 



1. The quantity of cream obtained from 

 the first drawn cup wa.s, in every case, much 

 smaller than from that which was last drawn ; 

 and those between afforded less or more, as 

 thpy were nearer the beginning or the end. 

 It is unnecessary here to specify these inter- 

 mediate proportions; but it is proper that the 

 reader should be informed, that the quantity 

 of cream obtained from the last-drawn cup, 

 from some cows, exceeded that from the first, 



*Cows should always be treated with great gentle 

 neas, and soothed by niilJ usage, especially when 

 young and ticklish, or when the paps are tender; in 

 which last case, the udder ought to Ue fomented with 

 warm water before milking, and touched with the 

 gieatest gentleness, otherwise the cow will be in dan- 

 ger of contracting Imd habits, becoming stubborn and 

 unruly, and retaining hermilk ever after. A cow never 

 lets down her milk pleasantly to the person she dreads 

 or dislikes. 'I'he udder and paps should always he 

 washed with clean water before milking; but care 

 should be taken that none of that water be admitted 

 into the milking pail. 



in the proportion of sixteen to one. In other 

 cows, however, and in particular circum- 

 stances, the disproportion was not quite so 

 great; but in no case did I find it fall short 

 of the rate of eight to one. Probably, upon 

 an average of a great many cows, it might be 

 found to run at ten or twelve to one. 



2. The difference in the quality of the 

 cream, however, obtained from these two 

 cups, was much greater than the difference 

 in the quantity. In the first cup the cream 

 was a thin tough film, thinner and perhaps 

 whiter than the paper on which I write; in 

 the last, the cream was of a thick butyrous 

 consistence, and of a glowing richness of 

 color, that no other kind of cream is ever 

 found to possess. 



.S. The difference in the quality of the 

 milk that remained after the cream was sepa- 

 rated, was perhaps still greater than either in 

 respect to the quantity or the quality of the 

 cream. The milk in the first cup was a thin 

 bluish liquid, like as if a very large propor- 

 tion of water had been mixed with ordi- 

 nary milk ; that in the last cup was of a thick 

 consistence and yellow color, more resem- 

 bling cream than milk, both in taste and ap- 

 pearance. 



From this important experiment it appears, 

 that the person who, by bad milking of his 

 cows, loses but half a pint of his milk, loses in 

 fact about as much cream as would be afford- 

 ed by six or eight pints at the beginning, and 

 loses besides that part of the cream which 

 alone can give richness and high flavor to his 

 butter. Many other useful corollaries may 

 be drawn from it, which I do not at present 

 stop to enumerate. Some of them will occur 

 in the sequel. 



APHORISM 11. 

 If niilX be put up in a dish and allowed to stand till it 

 throws up cream, that portion of cream which rises 

 first to the surface is richer in quality, and greater 

 in quantity, than what rises in a second equal por- 

 tion of time; and the cream that rises in the second 

 interval of time is greater in quantity and richer in 

 quality than that which rises in a third equal space 

 of time; and that of the thiid than the fourth, and 

 so on, the cream that rises decreases in quantity, 

 and declines in quality continually as long as any 

 rises to the surface. 



My experiments not having been in this 

 case made with so much accuracy as in the 

 former, I have not been enabled to ascertain 

 the difference in the proportion tliat takes 

 place in equal portions of time ; but they have 

 been so often repeated as not to leave any 

 room to doubt the fact ; and it will be allow- 

 ed to be a fact of no small importance in the 

 management of the dairy. It is not certain, 

 however, but that a greater quantity of 

 cveam may upon the whole be obtained from 

 the milk by taking it away at different times, 

 but the process is so troublesome as not to be 

 counter-balanced by the increased quantity 



