1028 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



fi891. The advantage of iri-ieaiing grass lands mith the cow's 

 urine almost exceeds belief. Last season some small fields of 

 old grass were cut six times, averaging fifteen inches in length 

 at each cutting, and the sward very thick. The soap-suds of a 

 public washintj-house are applied to the same purpose with 

 considerable advantage. 



6892. The ailvantaee of this system to the owner of the cattle 

 is shown by the following abstract, in Harley's own words ; 

 but the benefit of a liberal supply of genuine milk to the 

 community at large, particularly to children, it is not easy to 

 estimate : 



To the general health of the cattle by ven- 

 tilation ... 



To the prevention of a disease called grain 

 sickness, when fed on grains 



To the prevention of swelling, by eating young 

 and wet ^rass 



To the prevention of (hoking, when feeding 

 on turnips or potatoes, &c. 



To saving in the expense of feeding, by im- 



:} 



5 per cent. 



15 do. 



To a. ing of labour in feetlins, dunging, &c. 

 50 per cent, as one person will do as much 

 as two on the old plan ; but allow 25 of 

 this for draining, &c., leaves 25 per cent, 

 profit on servants' wages ... 



do. 



To savitig of timber In the building, as they 



will last more than double the time 50 per cent. 



6893. Harley has a steam-engine for driving the following 

 machinery : 



A small threshing-mill. 

 A straw-cutter. 

 A turnip and potato slicer. 

 The churning apparatus. 

 Pumping water, &c. 



The same boiler that drives the engine steams the food, 

 warms water, &c. 

 6891. Afler much study, labour, and expense, the establish- 

 ment is now brought to such a state of perfection, that it re- 

 ceives the cordial approbation of all who have seen it ; furnish- 

 ing the community with genuine milk at a comparatively low 

 price. It U admitted, that the greater part of the system is 

 original, and is not to be met with in any part of the kingdom. 

 (Farm. Mag. xv. 189.) 



6895. The merits of Harley's system are now considered to be 

 greatly exaggerated in the above account. Taking the system 

 altogether, it may be described as essentially that employed by 

 the dairy-farmers in Holland and the Nether ands, described 

 at length by Kadcliifand Sinclair, and noticed in preceding 

 sections of the present work from the above and other writers. 



6896. T/ie London dairies of most eminence are the two at Islington, belonging to Mr. Laycock and 

 Mr. Rhodes, and the Metropohtan Dairy in the Edgeware Road. From 1822 to 1829, a number of other 

 dairies sprang up, and made a conspicuous figure for a time ; but, like other bubbles of those years, 

 they have nearly all burst, and none now remain worth notice. We examined the Islington and Metro- 

 politan dairies in October 18iO, and the following is a brief outline of the result: 



6897. Rhodes's Islifigton dairy is the most complete of the three 

 establishments. It has been in existence for upwards of thirty 

 years, having been commenced by the father of the present 

 possessors, and carried on for a considerable time in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Greenwich. The number of cows kept by the 

 present Messrs. Rhodes exceeds, on an average of the year, 

 four hundred; at one time these individuals are said to have 

 had upwards of a thousand cows in their different establish- 

 ments. The surface on which the buildings are placed is a 

 slope of two or three acres, facing the east ; and its inclination 

 is about one inch in six feet. The she<ls run in the direction 

 of the slope; as well for the natural drainage of the gutters, 

 and the more easily scraping, sweeping, and wheeling out of 

 the manure, as for s\ipplying water for drinking to small cast- 

 iron troughs, which are fixed in the walls, at the heads of the 

 cattle, in such a manner as that the one trough may be sup- 

 plied from the other throughout the whole length of the shed. 

 The sheds are twenty-four feet wide ; the side walls about 

 eight feet high ; the roof of tiles, with rising shutters for ven- 

 tilation, and with panes of glass, glazed into cast-iron skeleton 

 tiles, for light. The floor is nearly flat, with a gutter along 

 the centre ; and a row of stalls, each seven feet and a half wide, 

 and adapteil for two cows, runs along the sides. The cows are 

 fastened by chains and rings, which rings run on upright iron 

 rods, in the comers of the stalls ; the common mode being de- 

 parted from only in having iron rods instead of wooden posts. 

 A trough or manger, formed of stone, slate, or cement, of the 

 ordinary size of those used for horses, and with its upper 

 surface about eighteen inches from the ground, is fixed at 

 the head of each stall. Four sheds are placed parallel and close 

 to each other, and in the party walls are openngs, about a foot 

 in bresidth and four feet hi^h, opposite each cow. The bottom 

 of these openings is about nine inches higher than the upper 

 surface of the troughs, and is formed by the upper surface of 

 the one-foot-square cast-iron cisterns, which contain the water 

 for drinking. Kach cistern serves two cows, which of course 

 are in different sheds, but adjoining and opposite each other. 

 All these troughs are supplied from one large cistern by pipes, 

 in a manner which can be so readily conceived, that we shall 

 not stop to offer a description. Each of these troughs has a 

 wooden cover, which is put on during the time the cows are 

 eating their grains, to prevent their drinking at the same time 

 and droppinf^ grains in the water. At the upper end, and at 

 one comer ot this quadruple range of sheds, is the dairy, which 

 consists of three rooms about t>velve feet square : the outer, or 

 measuring room ; the middle, or scalding room, with a fire- 

 place and a boiler ; and the inner, or milk and butter room, 

 separated by a passage from the last. At the low er end of the 

 range is a square vard, surrounded by sheds ; one X x fattening 

 the cows when they have ceased to give milk, and the others 

 for store and breeding pigs. The pigs are kept for the purpose 

 of consuming the casual stock of skim milk which occasionally 

 remains on hand, owing to the fluctuations in the demand. 

 This milk is kept in a wt- 11, walled with brick laid in cement, 

 about six feet in diameter, and twelve feet deep. The milk 

 becomes sour ihere in a very short time; and, as it is well 

 known, is found most nourishing to the pigs when given 



however, in procuring this breed was found so great, that 

 Mr. Rhodes was obliged to leave it off. The length of time 

 during which a cow, treated as in this establishment, continues 

 to give milk, varies from six months to the almost incredible 

 period of two years. We were assured of there being at this 

 moment several cows among the 390 which we saw, that had 

 stood in their places even more than two years, and continued 

 to give upwards of one gallon of milk daily. 



6899. The treatment of the cows in Rhodes's dairy differs from 

 that in most other establishments. The cows are never untied 

 during the whole period that they remain in the house. In 

 most other establishments, if not in all, stall-fed cows or cattle 

 are let out at least once a day to drink ; but these animals have 

 clear water continually before them. They are kept very clean, 

 and the sheds are so remarkably well ventilatetl, by means of 

 the openings in the roofs, that the air seemed to us purer 

 than that of any cowhouse we had ever before examined; 

 probably from its direct perpendicular entrance through the 

 roof, this, in moderate weather, bein^ certainly far preferable 

 to its horizontal entrance through the side walls. 



6900. The principal food of the corrs in Rhodes's dairy, as in all 

 the other London establishments, consists of grains ; that is, 

 malt after it has been used by the brewer or the distiller. As 

 the brewing seasons are chiefly autumn and spring, a stock of 

 grains is laid in at these seasons suflicient for the rest of the 

 year. The grains are generally laid in pits bottomed and lined 

 with brickwork set incement, from ten to twenty feet deep, 

 about twelve or sixteen feet wide, and of any convenient length. 

 The grains are firmly trodden down hy men, the heaps being 

 finished like hay-ricks, or ridges in which potatoes are laid up 

 for the winter, and covered with from six to nine inches of 

 moist earth or mud, to keep out the rain and frost in winter, 

 and the heat in summer. As a cow consumes about a bushel 

 of grains a day, it is easy to calculate the quantity required 

 to be laid in. The grains are warm, smoking, and in a state 

 of fermentation when put in, and they continue fit for use 

 for several years ; becoming somewhat sour, but they are, 

 it is said, as much relished by the cows as when fresh. It is 

 common to keep grains two or thrf e years ; but in this esta- 

 biishment they have been kept nine years, and found perfectly 

 good. The exclusion of the air almost prevents the increase of 

 the fermentation and consequent decomposition. What is 

 called distiller's wash, which is the remainder after distillation 

 of a decoction of ground malt and meal, is also given to cows, 

 but more frequently to such as are fattening than to those in 

 milk. The present price of brewers' grains is four-pence half- 

 penny per bushel ; of distillers' grains, on account of the meal 

 which they contain, nine-pence a bushel ; of wash, thirty-six 

 gallons for sixpence. 



6901 . Salt is given to the cows in Rhodes's dairy at the rate of 

 two ounces each cow a day. It is mixed with the grains which 

 are supplied before milking, about three o'clock in the morn- 

 ing; and in the afternoon, about two o'clock, just before 

 milking. 



6902 Of green food or roots portions are supplied alternately 

 with the grains; and in winter, when tares pr green grass can 



Known, IS louna most nourisnmg to tne pigs wnen given in not be procured, after the turnips, potatoes, or mangold wurzel 

 tliat state. Breeding swine are found most profitable; the have been eaten, a portion of dry hay is given. 



sucking pigs being sold for roasting. Beyond this yard is a deep 

 and wide pit or pond, into which the dung is erriptied from a 

 platform of boards projecting into it. The only remaining 

 building wanted to complete the dairy establishment is a house 

 or pit for containing the exhausted malt (grains), on which the 

 cows are chiefly tied. Messrs. Rho^'.es have a building or pit 

 of this description at some distance, where they have a smaller 

 establishment. There are a stack-yard, sheds, and pits for 

 roots, straw, and hay, a place for cutting hay into charfi cart- 

 sheds, stables, a couiiting-house, and other buildings and places 

 common to all such establishments, which it is not necessary 

 to describe- 



6898. The corns in Rhodes's dairy are purchased newly calved 

 in the cow market held in Islington every Monday. They 

 are kept as long as they continue to give not less than two 

 gallons of milk a day, and are then fattened on oil-cake, grains, 

 and cut clover hay, for the butcher. The short-horned breed 

 is preferred, partly for the usual reason of being more abun- 

 dant milkers than the long horns, partly because the shortness 

 of their horns allows them to be placed closer together, and 

 partly because this breed is more frequently brought to market 

 than any other. The Ayrshire breed has been tried to the 

 number of 150 at a time, and highly approved of, as affording 

 a very rich cream, as fattening in a very short time when they 

 have left off giving milk, and as producing a beef which sold 

 much higher than that of the short honu. The difficulty. 



6903. The produce of this dairy is' almost entirely milk and 

 cream for private families and for public hospitals and other 

 institutions. A number of the public establishments are sup- 

 plied directly from the dairy, by contract ; but private 

 families are principally supplied by milk-dealers : these have 

 what are called milk-walks ; that is, a certain number of 

 customers whom they call upon with supplies twice a day ; 

 and they are thus enabled to ascertain tne average of what 

 their customers consume, and to contract with Messrs. Rhodes 

 for this average. The latter calculate the number of cows 

 suflicient to give the dealer the supply wanted, and this 

 number the dealer undertakes to milk twice a day, to wit, at 

 three o'clock in the morning and at three o'clock in the after- 

 noon. The milk is measured to the dealer, and should he 

 have milked more than his quantity it remains with the 

 dairy-man ; but should the cows have been deficient in the 

 quantity, it is made good from the milk of other cows milked 

 on account of the contracts of the establishment. As the 

 supply of the cows and the demand of the dealers are con- 

 tinually varying, it often happens that considerable quantities 

 of milk remain on the dairy-man's hands, frequently, we are 

 told, as much as sixty or seventy gallons a day. This quantity 

 is placed in shallow earthen vessels, to throw up the cream in 

 the usual manner ; this cream is churned, and the butter sold, 

 and the skim-milk as well as the butter-milk is put in the 

 cesspool for the pigs. 



