CHAP. VIT. YIELD 0!F CHEESE PER COW. 349 



The average product of full-milk cheese or whole-milk cheese in the 

 best English dairies, where the whole milk and cream are used, cannot 

 be estimated at more than four cwt. In Leicestershire and on other 

 deep grazing soils that carry heavy stock, a well-managed cow is 

 reckoned to make from three to five cwt., 1 besides supporting her calf 

 until it can be weaned ; but such cows require fully three acres of the 

 best meadow land, for summer and winter keep, and it is not in the 

 power of every farmer, even if he has the stock, to procure such land 

 to maintain them. In Somersetshire the average is four cwt. and a 

 half ; * in Essex not so high ; 3 and Mr. Marshall states that of all the 

 Midland Counties at something more than three cwt. 4 



The cows of Wiltshire are reckoned to yield from three and a half 

 cwt. to four cwt. of cheese in the year, besides a pound of whey butter 

 per week during the summer season. 5 



Suckling that is, fattening calves for the butcher is generally con- 

 sidered the least profitable, as well as the most precarious division of 

 dairy farming, both from the accidents to which calves are liable, and 

 from the more variable price of veal than of butter and cheese. It is, 

 however, the least troublesome ; and probably, from the making of 

 butter being combined with it, would be the most advantageous. Sup- 

 posing a steady weekly demand for butter throughout the year, the 

 most advisable plan might be to keep such a number of cows as would 

 supply that demand dui'ing the winter ; and in summer, when butter is 

 cheap and veal in request, to apply the extra milk to suckling calves, 

 either for the market or for stock, as may best suit the ulterior views 

 of the farmer. This must, however, depend on the situation of the 

 farm ; for that may not always afford an opportunity for the purchase 

 of a succession of calves for suckling, or a market for them when fat ; 

 or it may not be adapted for the rearing of stock ; and, in such cases, 

 the best application of the skim-milk is either to feed pigs or to raise 

 calves. The usual time required for fattening calves for the butcher 

 has been already stated to be from ten to twelve weeks : 6 perhaps it 

 would be less in summer, when the milk is abundant and the atmo- 

 sphere genial and warm ; but as the calf does not require the entire 

 milk of the cow for some weeks after its birth, she will, for a short 

 period, support two ; and two cows, calving at different periods, may 

 be calculated to fatten seven calves in the course of the year. 



Compared with grazing, every branch of dairy husbandry should be 

 profitable ; but the trouble and difficulty of management exceeds the 

 mere feeding of cattle for the shambles. Danying has also this 

 superiority in other points of considerable importance on farms where 

 the mixed system of tillage and grazing is adopted it does not require 

 so rich a soil as that for fattening beasts, and it produces food for pigs, 



1 'Leicester Agricultural Survey," pp. 154 and 227. "Cheshire" ditto, p. 271. 



- 'Somerset Agricultural Survey," 3rd edit. p. 251. 



3 ' Essex Agricultural Survey," vol. ii. p. 271. 



4 ' Rural Economy of the Midland Counties," 2nd edit. vol. i. p. 326. 



5 ' Report of ' The Times ' Commissioners." 



6 See Book i. chap. vii. 



