80 THE OX AND THE DAIEY. 



an alteration in the quality of the milk, so as to render the 

 cheese made from it very inferior. It is also found to be an 

 excellent plan to remove the cattle frequently from one pas 

 ture to another ; and, when the hay is off, to turn them upon 

 the new after-grass of the meadows, the succulent young 

 herbage being conducive to abundance of good milk. 



The produce of a good cow should average from three and 

 a half to four and a half hundred weight of cheese per annum, 

 or from .twelve to eighteen quarts of milk per day. Some 

 first-rate cows, on rich pasturage, have been known to yield 

 twenty-four quarts every day, at two milkings, for the space of 

 seven months after calving; but this is an uncommon circum- 

 stance. After the seventh month the quantity of milk rapidly 

 diminishes, till within six weeks previously to calving again, 

 when the cow is no longer milked. Mr. Rudge, in his Agri 

 cultural View of Gloucestershire, considers that the profit 

 on a dairy of twenty good cows, costing 20 each (in all 400), 

 fed upon forty acres of land, will amount to about. 136 per 

 annum. He calculates the cost of the dairy utensils as under 



Two sorts of cheese are made, single and double Glou- 

 cester; the former is prepared from skimmed milk, and a 

 superior sort from a mixture of skimmed and pure milk ; the 

 double Gloucester from pure unskimmed milk only. Great 

 quantities are made in the vale of Berkeley 



During winter the milch cows are kept in dry and sheltered 

 situations, and supplied with hay, as are also the young store 

 beasts ; in the hilly districts, however, less attention is paid 

 to them at this season, and they often suffer greatly. This is 

 bad management and false economy: the cows ought to be 

 kept in fair condition, so as to benefit immediately by the 

 spring pasturage. Sufficient shelter is often too much ne 

 glected : good sheds are essential as a protection against 

 severe cold; nor are they less serviceable in the extreme 

 heats of summer. Deficiency of food, moreover, deteriorates 

 and stunts the growth of the young stock, foiling the best 

 endeavours for the improvement of the breed. This mis- 

 management is, however, chiefly confined to the hilly district, 

 where the soil is unproductive, rendering winter fodder scarce; 

 or where, from old custom, no efficient attempts are made to 

 meet the exigency. More liberality would be far more profit- 

 able 



The prevalent breed of cattle in Sussex closely resembles 



