DAIRY FARMS. 17 



CHAPTER IT. 

 DAIRY FARMS. 



The choice of land for a dairy farm should be made 

 with reference to some special points which have a great 

 influence on the successful pursuit of the business. Some 

 particular localities excel in this respect. Vermont, 

 Western Isew York, Western Pennsylvania, the Western 

 Reserve of Ohio, Central Wisconsin, and parts of Iowa, 

 have become noted for the excellent quality of their dairy 

 products, and have gained a high reputation as dairy 

 districts. If we consider how truly these localities excel 

 in this, we find they possess some special peculiarities of 

 soil and herbage. All of them are underlaid by a lime- 

 stone formation, and have a somewhat loamy open soil, 

 which produces very sweet and nutritious herbage, con- 

 sisting mainly of blue grass, or, as it is sometimes called, 

 June grass, the Poa pratensis of the botanists, and 

 Kentucky blue grass of the seedsmen. They are some- 

 what rolling or even hilly as to surface, are well drained 

 naturally, and are well supplied with good pure water, 

 more or less impregnated with lime, or as is commonly 

 called, hard. As pasturage is the main reliance of the 

 cows, the herbage and the character of the surface are 

 important considerations ; for the quality of the grass 

 has much to do with the character of the milk, cheese 

 and butter, and the ease of locomotion of the cattle over 

 gentle slopes, and the general healthfulness of such 

 ground, are equally important. 



If we go abroad into foreign countries, we shall find 

 that similar peculiarities of the land have conferred 

 upon certain districts the character and reputation 

 of excellent dairy localities. The English counties of 

 Cheshire^ wher^ the famous Cheshire cheese is made, 



