No. 9. 



The Dairy. 



275 



farm. At reofiilar times the cows are driven 

 to the door or the calves' inclosure, wlicre the 

 youn<T ones fail not to meet thcin. Eacii calf 

 is then separately let out, and runs directly 

 to its motlisr, where it sucks till the dairy- 

 maid judges it has had enough, when she or- 

 ders it to be driven away, having previously 

 shackled tlio hinder legs of the mother, by a 

 very simple contrivance, to oblige her to stand 

 still. i?()ys drive away the calf with switches, 

 and return it to the inclosure, while the dairy- 

 maid milks off what was lefl by the calf 

 Thus they proceed till the whole of the cows 

 are milked, and thus do they obtain a small 

 quantity of milk, it is true, but that milk of 

 an exceeding rich qualify ; which, in the 

 hands of such of the inhabitants as know how 

 to manage it, is manufactured into the richest 

 marrowy butter that can be any where met 

 with. This richness of the Highland butter 

 is universally ascribed to the old grass the 

 cows feed upon in their remote glens, but it 

 is in fact chiefly to be attributed to the prac- 

 tice here described which has long prevailed 

 in these regions.''' Whether a similar practice 

 could be economically adopted elsewhere, I 

 do not take upon me to say, but doubtless 

 other secondary uses might be found for the 

 milk of inferior quality ; on some occasions it 

 might be converted into butter of an inferior 

 quality; on others it might be sold sweet, 

 where the situation of the farm is within 

 reach of a market-town ; on other occasions 

 it might be converted into cheeses, whicli, 

 by being made of sweet milk, would be of a 

 very fine quality if carefully made ; and still 

 other uses might be devised for its applica- 

 tion, wiiich I cannot now stop to enumerate.f 

 4. If the quality of the butter be the chief 

 object attended to, it will be necessary not 



* And perhaps, in some measure, to the nature of the 

 bca.sl. 



1 1 shall here mention one mode of managing milk, 

 by means of which the inferior kinds of it might, on 

 many occasions, especially within reach of towns, he 

 disposed of to great advantage. Take common skim- 

 med milk when it has begun to turn sour, put it into 

 an upright stand churn, or a barrel with one of its ends 

 out, or any other convenient vessel. Heat some water, 

 and pour it into a tub that is large enough to contain 

 ■with ease the vessel in which the milk was put. Set 

 the vessel containing the milk into the hot water, and 

 Jet it remain there for the i^pace of one night. In the 

 morning it will be found that the milk hath separated 

 into two parts, a thick creain-like subsLance wfiich oc- 

 cupies the upper part of tlie vessel, and a thin serous 

 watery pan, that remains in the bottom; draw otftlie 

 thin part, (called here trigg) by opening a stop-cock 

 placed for that purpose close above the bottom, ami re 

 serve the cream for use. Not much le.->s than the half 

 of the milk is thus converted into a sort of cream, 

 which, wnen well made seems to be as rich and fat as 

 real crjam itself, and is only distinguishable from 

 that by its sourness. It is eaten with sugar, and es- 

 teemed a great delicacy, and usually sells at double 

 the price of fresh unskimmed milk. It requires prac- 

 tice, however, to be able to make this nicely; the de- 

 gree of the heat of !hi? water, and many other circum- 

 .Btanres, gnsativ alf:T.ting the operation. Tiiese things 

 .practice best discovers. 



only to separate the first from the last drawn 

 milk, but also to take nothing but the cream 

 that is first separated from the best milk, as 

 it is this first rising cream alone that is of the 

 prime quality. The remainder of the milk, 

 which will be still sweet, may be cither em- 

 ployed for the purpose of making sweet milk 

 cheeses, or it may be allowed to stand to 

 throw up cream for making butter of an infe- 

 rior quality, as circumstances may direct. 



5. From the above facts we are enabled to 

 perceive that butter of tlie very best possible 

 quality can only be obtained from a dairy of 

 considerable extent, wiien judiciously man- 

 aged ; for when only a very small portion of 

 each cow's milk can be set noart for throwing 

 up cream, and when only a very small pro- 

 portion of that cream can be reserved as of 

 the prime quality, it follows, that, unless the 

 quantity of milk wore upon the whole very 

 considerable, the quantity of prime cream 

 produced would be so small as to be scarcely 

 worth the wjiile for manufacturing separate!}'. 



6. From these premises we are also led to 

 draw another conclusion extremely different 

 from the opinion that is commonly entertained 

 on this subject: viz. That it seems probable 

 that the very best butter could only be with 

 economy made in those dairies, where the 

 manufacture of cheese is the principal object. 

 The reasons are .obvious: — If only a small 

 portion of the milk should be set apart for 

 butter, all the rest may be made into cheese 

 while it is yet warm from the cow and per- 

 fectly sweet ; and if only that portion of cream 

 which rises during the first three or four hours 

 after milking is to be reserved for butter, the 

 rich milk which is left after that cream is 

 separated, being still perfectly sweet, may be 

 converted into cheese with as great advan- 

 tage nearly as the newly milked milk itself 



But as it is not probable that many persons 

 could be found, who would be willing to pur- 

 chase the very finest butter made in the man- 

 ner above pointed out, at the price that would 

 be sufficient to indemnify the farmer for his 

 trouble in making it; these hints are thrown 

 out merely to satisfy the curious in what way 

 butter po.ssessing this superior degree of ex- 

 cellence may be obtained, if they choose to 

 be at the expense ; but for any ordinary mar- 

 ket, I am satisfied, from experience and at- 

 tentive observation, that if in general about 

 the first drawn half of the milk be separated 

 at each milking, and the remainder only be 

 set up for producing cream, and if that milk 

 be allowed to stand to throw up the whole of 

 its cream, even till it begins sensibly to taste 

 sourish, and if that cream be afterwards care- 

 fully managed, the butter thus obtained will 

 be of a quality greatly superior to what can 

 usually be obtained at market, and its quan- 

 tity not considerably less, than if the vyliole 



