VII. 



MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY COWS. 



102; 



seem well calculated for an extensive system of fatting by those who do not breed, but purchase stock 

 every year from different parts. [Sup. E. Brit. art. Agr.) 



68.56. The two great points in feeding animals to proof, according to the author of the Farmer's Calendar, 

 are, regularity, and a particular care of the weaker individuals. On the latter account there ought ever 

 to be plenty of trough or rack room, that too many may not feed together ; in which very common case 

 the weaker are not only trampled down by the stronger, but they are worried, and become cowed and 

 spiritless, than which there cannot be a more unfavourable state for thriving ; besides, these are ever com- 

 pelled to shift with the worst part of the meat. This domineering spirit is so remarkably prevalent amongst 

 horned cattle, that he has a hundred times observed the master-beasts running from crib to crib, and abso- 

 lutely neglecting their own provender for the sake of driving the inferior from theirs. This is, much 

 oftener than suspected, the chief reason of that difference so visible in a lot of beasts, afler a winter's keep. 

 It is likewise, he says, a very common and very shameful sight, in a dairy of cows, to see several of them 

 gored and wounded in a dozen places, merely from the inattention of the owner, and the neglect of tipping 

 the horns of those that butt. The weaker animals should be withdrawn and fed apart ; and, in crib- 

 feeding in the yard, it is a good method to tie up the master-beasts at their meals. 



6857. Fattening cattle, Donaldson observes, are usually put to grass in May or June, according to the 

 season and situation in regard to climate. The period necessary for fatting an ox for the butcher depends 

 on several circumstances; as the condition he was in when put to grass, the nature of the pasture, and 

 many others j but, in ordinary cases, an ox will be completely fattened in three months. There is, he says, 

 one method of fattening, connected with the grazing system, that the farmers in England are, from the 

 superior excellence of the climate, enabled to adopt with success, which can never be attempted with pro- 

 priety in Scotland. It is very common, at the close of the grass season, when the fattening stock happen 

 not to be fully in condition (or the butcher, to render them so, by giving them hay two or three times a 

 day in the field, or in hovels erected for the purjjose, into which they have access at pleasure. 



6858. When turnips are employed for ilie purpose of fattening cattle, especially if they are put up to 

 the stalls in proper condition, which, considering the season of the year (November), must, with ordinary 

 attention, always be the case, from ten to thirteen weeks is fully sufficient to render them fit for market. 



68."/9. The fattening of cattle with grains may, in some respects, be considered as a branch of the distillery 

 business ; but yet there are some instances wherein those who cultivate farms practise it with a double 

 view the obtaining of a profit on the sale of cattle, and the acquisition of a valuable treasure of useful 

 manure. Adam, the renter of the farm of Mount Nod, near Strealham, in the county of Surrey, erected 

 a very complete building, for the purpose chiefly of fattening cattle on grains. In this building might 

 sometimes be seen several hundred head of cattle. 



6860. The method of fattening cattle with oil-cake, com, cut chaflf, &c. is practised in many of the English 

 counties, with a degree of success sufficient to warrant farmers in other parts of the island to follow the 

 same practice. The cattle are commonly put up to fatten at the end of the grass season. The usual al- 

 lowance of oil-cake, after it is broken in a large mortar, or, in the fruit districts, in a cyder-mill, is about 

 half a peck per day, one half in the morning, and the other in the evening ; to which is added hay, and 

 in some cases ground corn, that is, oats or barley of inferior quality, and cut straw, provincially "chaff." 

 As bullocks fattened in this manner get regularly five, and sometimes six, meals a day, it is sufficiently 

 evident that, although it may be, upon the whole, an expensive mode of fattening, yet it must be both 

 expeditious and eftectuaL 



6861. Boolh'i establishment for fatfenitig cattle at Urentford is 

 one of the most extensive in the neighbourhood of London. It 

 was formed for the purpose of consuming on the spot the grains 

 and wash of the extensive distillery of that family. The build- 

 ing is 210 feet long, and 180 feel wide; and calculated to contain 

 COO head of cattle. It cost 8000/. The side wal's are about 

 10 feet high, with 20 windows on each side, and 8 windows 

 at each end, not glazed, and a few glazed skylights in the 

 roof. The roof forms one ridge, and the centre part of it 

 affords space for an ample hay -loft; it is supported by cast- 

 iron and wooden pillars, so numerous as to have the ap])ear- 

 ance, on first entrance, of a fortst of columns. A pa- sage of six 

 feet, the centre of which is paved with plates of cast-iron, is 

 continued round the whole building, and between every two 

 rows of cattle are passages of the same width and description. 

 The whole is lighted by thirty-six gas-lights. The cattle stand 

 in stalls seven feet and a half wide ; and the space from the 

 manger to the gutter behind the cattle is about ten feet : the 

 glitters have an inclination to one end, and there are also under- 

 ground drains having a similar inclination, into which the 

 liquid fi-om the gutters runs through iron gratings. There 

 is a common manger which extends the whole length of each 

 row of cattle, the bottom of which is on a perfect level. The 

 portion of this manger contained in every double stall has a 

 second bottom, with two ends let into it, the second or upper 

 bottom descending to within three inches of the bottom com- 

 mon to the whole manger. In the upper trough so formed, and 

 which, in length, occupies about half of the length of the por- 

 tion of the manger belonging to each stall, is put the grains, 

 or other solid food ; the common manger being for the re- 



ception of the wash, or other liquid food or drink. The 

 immense quantity of wash produced by the distillery is kept in 

 a cistern or tank above the level of tliese mangers, and in a 



them, so that by turning a cock the whole of the catt'e 

 in any one of the ranges are instantly supplied with wash. This 

 article serves both as food and drink, as it contains the finer 

 particles of the ground malt, and the greater part of the barley 

 meal used in the mashing process. The grains are kept in deep 

 pits about twelve feet square, and ten or twelve feet deep, some- 

 what narrower at b6ftom than at top, lined with brick set in 

 cement ; and when the grains are trodden in, and raised like 

 the ridge of a house, they are covered with road stuff" to exclude 

 the air, and protect them from the weather. Little or no litter 

 ^is used, and neither green food nor hay uncut is ever given. 

 Oil -cake is used, but not always ; it beingfound that rough clover 

 chaff mixed with the grains and wash will fatten to any ex- 

 tent. 



6862. This bui/Jing, though erected at great expense, is very 

 unsightly, and far from complete. It is much too cold in win- 

 ter from the openness of the roof, and, exteriorly, very un- 

 pleasing to the e\v f.om its great height. Within, the view ij 

 utterly disfigured by seemingly innumerable posts, three fourths 

 of which are of little or no use. For one third part of the cost 

 an equally useful, and much handsomer structure might have 

 been erected. It has never paid a profit to its owners, who, if 

 they could sell their wash and grains at the present market 

 price, calculate that their profits wouid be considerably greater 

 than by consuming it on tlie premises. 



864 



SuBSECT. 7. Management of Cows kept for the Dairy. 



6863. Milch cows are kept for the manufacture of butter and cheese, for the suckling of calves for the 

 butcher, and for the immediate use of the milk. 



6864. The kind of cow used by the dairyists who supply the London market is chiefly the Holderness, 

 a variety of the short-horned breed, with large carcasses and short horns. They are bred chiefly in York- 

 shire and Durham ; but in part in most counties. The Edinburgh dairies are supplied by short-horned 

 cows from Roxburghshire, and other pastoral districts in the south of Scotland. For private dairies, the 



variety bred in Ayrshire [fig. 864.) have a decided pre- 

 ference, as giving a rich milk and large proportion of but- 

 ter ; and the cheese made from the milk of this breed, 

 known as Dunlop, is decidedly celebrated. In Lancashire, 

 the native long-horned breed is said, in the Report of that 

 county, to obtain the general preference : but in Hodgson's 

 dairy at Caton, in the same district, it was found that a 

 short-horned cow, upon an average of twelvemonths, will / 

 yield nine quarts of milk in the day, and four and a half ^ 

 pounds of butter in the week ; and a long-horned cow gives i 

 eight quarts of milk in the day, and four pounds of butter ^ 

 in the week, for the same period. The cows of both kinds 

 had constantly the same kind of food; but, in order to have 

 the clear result, the quantity of food consumed by each cow 

 of the different breed should have been fully ascertained. 

 The produce of milk and butter is on the side of the short. 

 3 U 



