Sect. I. THE COUNTY OF FIFE. 253 



the dairy. A good Fife cow will give from 10 

 to 14 Scots pints of milk per day, ( 2 Scots pints 

 are nearly equal to an English gallon) from 7 to 9 

 lib. of butter, and from 10 to 12 libs, of cheese per 

 week, tron-weight, for some months after calving. 

 The quantity, indeed, gradually diminishes in 

 harvest and winter, and especially as the next 

 calving approaches. Yet, as they generally give 

 milk for 10 or 11 months, the quantity just 

 now stated may be considered as the average 

 for 26, perhaps for 28 weeks in the year. It 

 must be confessed, however, that a great many 

 of our cows do not produce so much milk and 

 butter ; but this is not owing to any imperfec- 

 tion in respect of kind, but to the less quantity 

 or inferior quality of their food, and in some 

 instances, to misconduct, either in rearing the 

 cows, or in managing the dairy. 



The cows are, generally, milked thrice every 

 day. This practice is certainly very proper, as 

 it produces a greater quantity of milk, than when 

 they are drawn only twice a day, and besides, pre- 

 vents the cow from being fretted and uneasy by 

 an over-distended udder. The milk, when taken 

 from the cow, is usually poured through a wire 

 or woollen search into flat wooden vessels, which 

 are, by most people, thought preferable to earth- 

 en or metal ones. The milk is never allowed 

 to be above four Or five inches deep in the ves- 

 sel, which makes it cool sooner, and throw up 

 the cream more readily and more completely. 

 The plunge and 'patent churns are both in use ; 

 the construction of which it is unnecessary to 

 d escribe, as they are well known almost every 

 where, The cream is churned, either every 



