34 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



rich and abundant supply of milk, realise the ideal of 

 pastoral life. A good cow of this breed will give more 

 than four thousand litres ~* of milk in the year : on 

 an average they yield three thousand. And these ani- 

 mals are to be found everywhere, both in Scotland and 

 England. 



A cow which does not give milk may be considered 

 the exception in that country. Ireland itself possesses 

 two races of milch cows ; the one small and coarse, similar 

 to our Breton race, and belonging to the wild mountains 

 of Kerry ; the other large and strong, bred upon the rich 

 pastures of the Shannon. 



The consumption of milk under every form is enormous 

 among the English. Their habits in this respect are those 

 of past ages. Caesar said of them, long ago, Lacte et came 

 vivunt. They are not in the habit of preparing their 

 food with fat and oil, like most of the French, but use 

 butter for all culinary purposes ; cheese, too, appears at 

 their principal repasts. The quantities of butter and 

 cheese manufactured throughout the whole extent of the 

 British Isles exceed all belief. Cheshire alone produces 

 cheese to the value of a million sterling, or twenty-five 

 millions of francs annually. Not content with what their 

 own dairies give, the English import butter and cheese 

 from abroad ; and this circumstance, showing to what 

 extent the national taste is carried, explains the reason 

 why it is that the average price of milk with them is 

 higher than in France. While our producers obtain at 

 most ten centimes per litre (Id. per quart) for their 

 milk, the English get twenty centimes (2d.) 



In fine, the milk produce of English cows may be 

 reckoned at three milliards (three thousand millions) of 

 litres, of which one milliard goes to feed the calves, and 



* A litre is equal to about a quart (or 2.1135 wine pints). T. 



