120 On the different Kinds of Cattle Farms, 



duces more milk with a full bite, though coarse, than with a scanty 

 supply of finer herbage. The western side of both England and Scot- 

 land therefore, where the rains are more copious, and at any rate more 

 protracted, and of course the herbage more luxuriant, is better suited 

 to dairy husbandry, than the eastern side of the island, where the 

 rains are less frequent, and the growth of the natural grasses more 

 stunted. 



The dairy however, may be carried on with advantage, in every 

 part of Great Britain, where artificial herbage, or roots calculated for 

 the purpose of producing milk, are raised for that special purpose. 



3. On the Breeds best calculated for the Dairy Husbandry. 

 Dairy cows are not an indigenous breed, but are artificially formed, by 

 human skill and industry ; for such is the pliancy of the animal economy, 

 that cows and various other animals, may be formed into something 

 surprisingly different from the original stock. Much certainly depends 

 upon soil and climate, and various accidental circumstances ; but by 

 the skill and industry of man, when properly applied, still greater 

 changes can be effected. 



The principal dairy districts in Britain are, those of Cheshire and 

 Ayrshire. In regard to Cheshire, it is stated by Mr Holland, the in- 

 telligent surveyor of that county, that the average quantity of milk 

 given by the cows there, may be calculated at eight quarts per day, 

 for twenty- two weeks in the year, and the average return in cheese, 

 at 300 Ibs. each cow *. 



Mr Aiton, who surveyed the county of Ayr, and has written an able 

 work on the dairy husbandry, calculates, that each dairy cow of that 

 breed, when properly fed and attended to, will yield, at the rate of 

 2000 Scotch pints, equal to 1000 English gallons, per annum. If the 

 calf is produced about the beginning of May, the amount in milk will 

 regularly diminish according to the following table : 



The first 50 days 12 pints per day, 

 Second 50 days 10 do. do. 

 Third 50 days 7 do. do. 

 Fourth 50 days 4* do. do. 

 Fifth 50 days 4 do. do. 



Sixth 50 days 3 do. do. 



600 

 500 

 350 

 200 

 200 

 150 



2000 



And as every 7J or 8 pints of milk, give a pound of butter, of 24 

 oz. or 1 J Ib. imperial, the return of each cow, in the course of the 

 year, will be from 375 to 400 Ib. imperial of butter, for each cow 

 every year. The butter-milk also, sells at a penny per pint, or L.8, 6s. 

 8d. from each cow in the course of a year ; and as every 55, or from 

 that to 60 pints of milk, gives a stone of 16 Ibs. and 24 oz. to the 

 pound of cheese, the return of cheese from each cow, in the season, 

 is from 33 to 36 stones of that weight, or from 782 Ib. to 864 Ib. im- 

 perial, of full milk cheese, from each good milch' cow, on an average. 

 Another excellence of the Ayrshire breed of cows is, that after 



* Holland's Survey of Cheshire, p. 250. 



