WEST DEVONSHIRE. 25^ 



^ire dairy. The clouts or rags of cream 

 being throwj) into a large wooden bowl, 

 they are ftirred about, by a circuitous 

 motion of the hand and arm, until the 

 butyraceous particles unite ; leaving a fmall 

 quarjitity of thick creamlike matter, or 

 ferum j anfwering to the churn milk of 

 the ordinary butter dairy. In ** fcald 

 cream dairies," no churn is in ufe. 



The origin of fo peculiar a practice may, 

 perhaps, be traced back to the forefl; ftate. 

 After the arts of producing butter and 

 cheefe were difcovered ; yet while, per- 

 haps, each family was polTeiTed of no greater 

 dairy than two or three cows ; any procefs 

 which enabled the proprietor of fuch a 

 dairy to manufacflure thofe valuable articles, 

 with a degree of certainty, was embraced 

 as eligible : and how could a more fortu- 

 pate procefs have been flruck out, than 

 that of fecuring the milk and the cream 

 from their natural propenlity of entering 

 the diiferent ftages of fermentation, than 

 the application of fire ; which, at once, 

 fecures the milk fr^-^m acidity, and the 

 cream from putrefaction ; until a lufficient 



g^uan- 



