Y4 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



These figures are, hoMrever, much above the average 

 in our best dairy districts. 



In about one-half ol' tlie States, milk-maids and 

 other sLM-vants do not know how to milk a cow as the 

 operaliiin ought to bt.^ performed. They draw the 

 milk with their tliumbs and Fore-lingers — not with 

 the whole hand. Tiiere is some excuse for this where 

 the teats are short and small. To uiide.-Htiind the 

 art of milking, one needs a correct knowle !ge of the 

 anatomy of the lacteal gland in which milk is separated 

 from the blood. This gland is a very important 

 or'Tan, and has a peculiar anatomical structure to fit 

 it for a particular function. The whole weight of 

 the milk, as it passes from the capillary tubes anci 

 colls which intervene between the extremities of the 

 arteries and veins in the gland, does not rest on the 

 circular muscles that close the end of the teats. If 

 such were the case, these ring-like muscles would be 

 over-burdened and soon relax, so as to permit all the 

 milk to iall out and be lost on the ground. If the 

 muscles were strong enough to bear up the whole 

 weight of several gallons of milk, the teats would be 

 so firmly contracted that no calf would be able to 

 obtain any food by sucking. The Author of Nature 

 has given to this curious gland, in all mammalia, an 

 arrangement which every owner of a cow and every 

 milker ought to understand. We purposely avoid 

 technical terms (too common in the medical profes- 

 sion), and ask. When a cow's bag cakes before she 

 gives birth to her calf or afterward, what takes place 

 within this gland? Milk is coagulated and becomes 

 solid curd, but not generally in the main milk-ducts 

 that extend from the teats into the gland. These 

 ducts must be open, or not a dop of milk could be 

 drawn — a condition that sometimes exists. Every 

 where in the gland or bag, numerous little milk-bot- 

 tles (cul de sacs) are attached to the milk-ducts, 

 and hang down like pears, and serve at once as reser- 

 voirs to hold some gallons of milk, and to relieve the 

 teats of the great pressure that would otherwise fall 

 upon them. When the milk in these bottles becomes 

 curdled and caked, the capacity of the gland is sadly 

 diminished, and the cow should be milked oftener than 

 u>ual. Cows full-fed, which have a copious secretion 

 of milk, and withal an inflammatory action in the svs- 

 tem, a;-e most likely to suffer from this disorder. AYe 

 h.ave had cows that had to be milked several weeks 

 before calving ; and this precaution is too often neg- 

 lected by dairymen. Whenever milking is necessary 

 foi- the relief of the bag. it never injures the unborn 

 offspring, as some have supposed. 



It is difficult, if not impossible, to milk a cow dry 

 bv using only the thumbs and fore-fingers for the pur- 

 pose. In this operation the cul de sacs are not 

 emptieil; the milk is liable to coagulate, become ab- 

 sorbed, and the secretion of milk, slowly but surely, 

 lessened. Many a man loses neariy or quite all the 

 profits, of his cows by bad milking. In six years' 

 pretty close observation at the South, we never saw 

 but one first rate milker, and she was the servant of a 

 ladv who was born in Pennsylvania. Instinct teaches 

 the calf and lamb to knock their heads upward 

 against the lacteal gland to empty the milk-bottles 

 wdiifh we have described ; pigs and colts rub their 

 no->es against the gland for a similar purpose. A 

 child accomplishes the same end by passing its hand 



continually over the breast of its mother while draw- 

 ing tlienco its natural food. No thura!) and finger 

 milking will attain this object, unless the hmid is up- 

 raised against the bag to upset and compress the 

 s ick-llke re-;ervoir3. After a good milker has drawn 

 the li(|uid from the ducts, he (or she) uniformly lifts 

 the hand against the gland as it grasps th ; teat, com- 

 pressing it nearest the bag first, and gradually con- 

 traciing the fingers from the fore one to thu little 

 finger. If the teat is long, the hand has to be drawn 

 down toward the extremity of it to expel all the milk. 

 These particulars are entered into, becau.se it is im- 

 portant that cows be gently, speedily, and cleanly 

 milked. 



This done, the next question in order is how to turn 

 the milk to the best possible account. If used for 

 making butter, considerable butter-milk, and often 

 skim-milk, remains ; and if cheese be manufactured, 

 then a good deal of whey is left. Now, it may inter- 

 est some of our readers to know that the residum 

 after making cheese is worth about a third or a fourtli 

 as much as that left in the production of butter. 

 AVliey consists essentially of milk-sugar largely diluted 

 in water. The butler in milk ought to be retained 

 in the curd that forms cheese; but sometimes we find 

 not a little of it in whey. To prevent the creamy 

 part of millv, or its buttery particles, from being ex- 

 pressed in pressing cheese, is one of the most difficult 

 points in the dairy business. Too high a temperature 

 favors this loss of butter in cheese. The skillful 

 management of new curd, rennet, pressing, &c., will 

 be discussed in another article. Very few underetand 

 making first rate cheese, that will keep in warm 

 weather, or in hot climates. There is less difficulty 

 in making prime butter, provided the cows are sup- 

 plied with the right sort of feed. Rich, finely fla- 

 vored butter, can only be made from green forage, 

 roots, or some thing that will impart the proper aroma 

 and color. The sweet-scented Vernal Grass is be- 

 lieved to have given fame to the best butter made in 

 the vicinity of Philadelphia. Leeks, gariic, and even 

 turnips, often impart a very offensive taste to butter. 

 Indeed, we regard food as every thing in butter 

 dairies. Have that right, and one must be a sorry 

 husbandman who can not turn out excellent butter. 

 Of coui-se some cows yield much more butter from a 

 given quantity of gra.^s, hay, roots, or other feed, than 

 othei-s, but this fact does not cause any one to pro- 

 duce bad butter. To avoid this, the extreme neat- 

 ness of the Holland system deserves the closest at- 

 tention. Dutch dairy women obtain two prices for 

 their butter simply because they really deserve such 

 a premium. The amount of bitter, frowy, or rancid 

 butter in American markets, exceeds all belief. 



Jefferson county contains some of the best dairies 

 in this State, as well as one of the most spirited and 

 useful Agricultural Societies. We commend the fol- 

 lowing remarks, made by one of its " Viewing Com- 

 mittees," to the attention of all butter makers: 



" In examming the butter dairies, we did not find 

 that excellence and uniformity in color, flavor and 

 sallins^ that would have resulted from a more fixed 

 rule of proceeding than appears to have been adopted. 



"There appears to be too much of a hap-hazard 

 system, or toanl of system, in the business of butter 

 making; or too much departure from necessary rulea 



