Book VII. 



WORKING OF HORNED CATTLE. 



1029 



6904. The management of Rhndes's dairy is committed to three 

 persons : A clerk, vfho keeps the books, collects debts, pays and 

 receives; a man, who superintends the feeding and the treat- 

 ment of the stock, and lias the general care of the premises ; 

 and a dairy- woman, who sees the milk measured to the 

 dealers, and superintends the dairy. The cows are purchased 

 and sold bv regular salesmen. 



C90o. Latjcuck'3 dairy establishment is also situated at Isling- 

 ton, and covers a number of acres. The cows vary in amount 

 from 400 to 700; but there are open sheds sufficient to 

 shelter from 8000 to 9000 head of cattle, and these sheds are 

 accordingly appropriated to taking in cattle for the nights pre- 

 vious to the days on which Smithtield market is held. We 

 shall only notice those particulars in which this establishment 

 differs from that of Messrs. Rhodes. The cows are fed in the 

 same manner, with the exception of not receiving any salt 

 among their grains; but the hay is salted when put into the 

 rick. They are turned out once "a day to drink from troughs 

 in the yards, remaining out from half an hour to three hours, 

 according to the weather and the season of the year. From 

 the end of June till Michaelmas, the cows are turned into the 

 fields from six o'clock in the morning till eleven o'clock, and 

 from two o'clock in the afternoon till about three o'clock in 

 the following morning. The remaining hours of the twenty- 

 four they are in the cow-houses for the purpose of being milked. 

 The cows are kept in use much longer than at Messrs. Rhodes's 

 establishment. Those which become barren are fattened in 

 the same manner on grains, oil-cake, and, hat is rather un- 

 common, boiled linseed. This linseed is boiled in a common 

 boiler, and when reduced to a pulp, let out by tub-.s into large 

 wooden cisterns, where it is mixed with clover-chaff, roughly 

 cut, and sometimes with grains, and afterwards given to 

 the cattle. Those cows which are good milkers are allowed 

 to take the bull, for which purpose eight bulls are kept. The 

 usual period of keepmg the cows is three or four years ; the 

 calves are sold in Smithfield, when only a few days old, to 

 those whose business it is to take them to the country and teed 

 them for the butcher. Mr. Laycock has an extensive farm at 

 HoUoway, another at Enfield, and one at Clapton ; at one or 

 other of 'these farms the cows in calf are kept when. dry. The 

 hair of the tails is kept short to avoid the risk of dirtying the 

 milk, and their bodies are sometimes curry-comlied- The 

 fattening cows stand with their hind feet on planks, laid as 

 part of the pavement, the latter consisting of rather small 

 sharp stones. The pigs, in addition to milk kept till it be- 

 comes sour, are fattened with ground linseed and grains. 

 The manure made by the cattle and pigs is very consi- 

 derable, and is all used on Mr. Laycock's own farms. The 

 establishment here, as well as a dairy and cattle rejxisitory, 

 mav be considered as a central farm-yard to three hay-farms, 

 and there are, accordingly, implements of various kinds, 

 stables, a carpenter's shop, smith's shop, wheel-wright, &c. &c. 

 Mr. Laycock himself seems to take the entire management, 

 sissisted by a clerk and a very su;tive house-keeper, with a dairj- 

 woman. 



6906. The Metropolitan Dairy establishment is situated in the 

 Edgeware Road ; it was founded by the late Mr. Rhodes fifteen 

 years ago, and after undergoing various changes, and amoni; 

 "others being possessed by one of the bubble companies, from 



which its present name is derived, is now the property ot 

 Mr. Wilberforce. It stands on less than an acre of ground, and 

 is well arranged. It is calculated for 360 cows, and it now 

 contains 320, most of which are in milk, but some are 

 fattening. The cowhouses are in parallel ranges twenty- 

 four feet wide, the side walls eight feet high, the space 

 allowed for each cow about three feet nine inches, and the 

 greater number of cowhouses without stalls. There is one 

 gutter in the centre, and no raisid foot-path there; it being 

 found that the latter is very apt to make the cows stumble, 

 when turned out upon any occasion. It is true, these occasions 

 are rare, for the cows here, as in Messrs. Rhodes's establishment, 

 are never untied from the day they are put into the milking shed 

 till they are removed to the fittening sheds, or till they are 

 taken out to be sold, or to be sent into the country to remain 

 till calving time. A cow so treated seldom produces more than 

 two calvesj remaining after each calf, at an average, eighteen 

 months in milk. There is one cow here, however, which has 

 given milk upwards of three years since she calved, still pro- 

 ducing a gallon and a half a day. The cows are milked at 

 three o'clock in the morning, and two o'clock in the afternoon, 

 and the milk disposed of to dealers. The food consists of grains, 

 which, instead of being kept in pits in the open air, are pre- 

 served in the cellar, or lower part of a building, about four- 

 teen feet deep, the upper floor serving as a hay-loft, or chafF- 

 cutting room. To protect the grains from the influence of the 

 air, they are covered to the depth of a foot with cow-dung. 

 Grass and roots constitute the rest of their food ; dry hay being 

 seldom given, and the chaff of clover hay being always mixed 

 with grains or wash. The cows are never turned cut to water ; 

 but from a large cistern pipes are conducted to every cow- 

 house, and at a certain hour every day (one o'clock) the water 

 is turned into the manger, which is on a perfect level, and it 

 runs slowly past each cow, who drinks at pleasure. When any 

 cow becomes sick, she is bled, and purged by giving her one 

 pound of Epsom salts, with two ounces of flower of sulphur, 

 and abundance of warm water. This mode of treatment 

 seldom or never fails. Four bulls are kept for the cows ; and as 

 there js no farm belonging to the establishment, when a cow in 

 calf becomes dry or nearly so, she is sent to any grass fzirm in 

 the country, till near her .calving time. To render a cow dry, 

 it is only necessary to give two or three extra-doses of salt in 

 her food. The quantity of salt given here daily with the 

 grains is not much more than an ounce a day, on account 

 of its drying quality. Manure has been sent from this 

 establishment to Yorkshire; but this is found not to pay; 

 and of so little value is it considered as manure, that as 

 much as possible of the fluid part is discharged by the com- 

 mon sewer; and the present proprietor contemplates to com- 

 press the more consistent material into small squares like 

 peats for fuel. By a hvdraulic press we have no doubt that 

 a two-horse cart load of any common cow-dung might be re- 

 duced to the size of a cubic foot. The cows in this establish- 

 ment, as in the two others, are very sparingly littered ; what is 

 given is chiefly laid about their fore legs, and in consequence 

 the other parts of the cowhouse, for want of under-ground 

 gutters, as in Holland and Germany, are always watery and 

 dirty. 



6907. The defects of the London dairy establishments appear to us to be chiefly want of cleanliness, and 

 imperfect ventilation. The first is to be removed by under-ground gutters, covered with oak plank pierced 

 with numerous holies ; and by the more abundant supply of litter : the second by openings in the roof as 

 at Messrs. Rhodes's establishment, which, as we have said before, seems the most perfect in that respect 

 of the three just examined. Compared with the Dutch and German dairies (p. 525. 587. and 611.}, and with 

 that of Harley of Glasgow (p. 6882.), they are very deficient both in original design and in management. 

 It is a great mistake to suppose that they are lucrative concerns ; and the idea is by no means pleasing of 

 consuming milk chiefly manufactured from grains and distiller's wash, and produced by cows deprived of 

 all exercise in the open air. Not more agreeable is the knowledge of the fact that the London market is 

 supplied with so large a proportion of cattle fattened chiefly on oil-cake. According to a calculation we 

 formed, the three establishments mentioned must supply, at an average of the year, nearly thirty fat 

 cattle weekly. Booth's establishment, already described (6861.), probably furnishes half that number at 

 the average of the year ; and taking into consideration other establishments for fattening on oil-cake and 

 grains, local and provincial, we shall probably not be far wrong in estimating that this description of beef 

 is at all times the prevalent one in the London market. The cattle fed in pairs in hammels, ( 28.'51.) 

 that is, permitted to walk about in an open shed, as in Berwickshire and East Lothian, must produce 

 a very different description of beef. The time will no doubt arrive when oil-cake beef will not find a 

 market in England, but when the cattle so fed will be sent alive in steam boats to the Continent, or 

 other parts of the world, where the taste of the inhabitants in the article of butcher's meat is less refined. 

 Already country dairies have sprung up at the distance of from five to twenty miles from London, and the 

 milk and cream are sent to town in close vessels in spring carts, which go at a rapid trot. When, instead 

 of these spring carts, rail-roads are established, on which carriages may go at the rate of thirty miles an 

 hour, the milk and butter used by the commonest people of London will be of as good a quality as that 

 now used almost exclusively by gentlemen who have country seats. 



SuBSECT. 8. Working of Horned Cattle. 



6908. The arguments for and against the working of oxen have been already stated. (4828.) Though 

 horned cattle are gradually disappearing as beasts of labour, it is probable they will in many places be 

 occasionally used as a substitute for horses, or to get up one or two additional teams on extraordinary 

 occasions. Indeed we see no objection to the occasional use of both oxen and cows for thi.s purpose ; more 

 especially in cases likely to occur in the farming of an extensive proprietor, such as breaking up his park, 

 or cutting down and carting away timber, earth, gravel, &c. to a greater extent than can be readily per- 

 formed by the ordinary teams of the establishment. For these and similar purposes of amateur farmers, 

 and probably for some purposes on the farms of rent-paying cultivators, the horned cattle of the farm may 

 aflTord a valuable resource. For these reasons, it seems fitting in this work not to consider the working of 

 oxen as altogether an obsolete practice; and we shall, therefore, notice the training, harnessing, shoeing, 

 age of being put to work, and general treatment of these animals so employed. 



6909. The training of the calf intended for labour, according to some, should commence at an early 

 period ; and after being accustomed to be handled, he should be taught to present his foot to the shoeing 

 smith, as readily as the horse, which is partially the practice in some places. No animal, however, is so 

 easily broke as the ox at any age ; and in most countries, where they are used in labour, they are nev^r 

 handled till harnessed and put in the plough, or to drag a tree. This is the case both in Devonshire and 



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