750 MASS. BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



conversing with other persons. Cows should be milked quick 

 and clean. When once gone through with, they should be 

 again stripped, as the richest milk comes at the last of the 

 milking. 



We come to the second part of the question : " The most 

 advantageous use to be made of the milk." 



Milk is divided into three parts : the oily or butteraceous, 

 the buttermilk, and whey. 



This last is by far the poorest part of the milk. It will be 

 perceived, at a glance, that the disposition of the milk depends 

 upon circumstances. In the first place, upon the location of the 

 dairy. If it is near a market, where the milk can be disposed 

 of at a reasonable price, it would be better to sell it than to make 

 it either into butter or cheese, unless there should be, from 

 some contingency, a disproportioned value between the two 

 last articles and the milk, which is not likely to be of perma- 

 nent duration. Farmers differ as to the quantity of milk it 

 takes to make a pound of butter. This depends upon the 

 quality of the milk. It usually takes from 22 to 28 pounds of 

 milk to make a pound of butter. We will say 25 pounds, or 

 about three gallons. If the milk will bring two cents a quart, 

 the farmer had better sell his milk than make it into butter, 

 though butter may be worth twenty cents a pound. There is 

 a great difference in the richness of milk. It is said that five 

 quarts from the famous Oaks cow would make a pound of 

 butter. The quality of the milk must depend upon the breed 

 of the cow, and the manner of feeding. It matters but 

 little what the breed is, if the cow is a starveling. A cow 

 kept upon coarse fodder, miserably poor, will return to the 

 owner milk as much deteriorated in quality as in quantity ; 

 dairies cannot be kept poor, and be profitable. In making 

 milk into cheese, this will again depend upon the relative value 

 of the articles. If seven quarts of milk, or nearly that, will 

 make a pound of cheese, would it not be better to sell the milk 

 for 1| cents a quart, than to make it into cheese, though the 

 cheese would bring nine cents a pound. 



The serous portions, or whey, after the caseous part is re- 

 moved, is not very valuable, but worth something for store 

 pigs, but not so valuable as buttermilk, when the cream is 

 churned in the usual way. There is, I find, a great difference 



