118 THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 



A A A, passage through the cow-house and dairy, ten feet 

 wide, paved with bricks, set on edge, or Dutch clinkers. The 

 food is brought along this passage in a small cart, and dis- 

 tributed to the cows. B, part of the passage above mentioned, 

 closed in with doors, and forming a vestibule to the dairy. 

 c, the dairy-room, in which only milk, cream, and butter are 

 kept : it is sunk three feet under the level of the cow- 

 house, and covered with a brick arch; it has one latticed win- 

 dow, and several ventilators, on a level with the place on 

 which the milk vessels are set. D, the room where the uten- 

 sils are scalded, and where cheese is made : in one corner is 

 a fireplace, with a large kettle or a copper set. E, stairs to go 

 up to the cheese-room M, and the loft N F, calf-pens, in 

 which the calves are tied up to fatten, so that they cannot turn 

 to lick themselves ; there is a small trough with pounded 

 chalk and salt in each pen. G, the place for the cows, without 

 partitions, each cow being tied to two posts by two small 

 chains and two iron rings, which run on the posts; the chains 

 are fastened to a broad leathern strap, which is buckled 

 round the neck of each cow. H H, two sinks, or drains, with 

 iron gratings over them, to catch the fluid refuse from the 

 gutters 1 1, which run along each side of the cow-house. K, 

 the tank for the refuse, vaulted over with a door, L, to clean it 

 out, and a pump to pump up the liquid manure, o o in this 

 section are places where the green food or roots are deposited 

 for the day's consumption. 



With respect to the fluid manure, of which the Dutch and 

 Flemish are so careful, it is generally wasted by the dairy- 

 farmers of England. Yet, as a manure for gardens, &c., it is 

 very valuable ; and in Belgium would return, by contract, an 

 average of 2 per cow by the year ; four hundred cows would 

 thus produce 800 per annum in this manure alone, good 

 interest for the outlay of constructing the vaulted tanks for its 

 reception. 



Such is the general outline of the plan of stall-feeding 

 milch cows. The system may be carried on by the cottager 

 with a small plot of ground and one cow ; and it is so, more 

 or less thoroughly, by the large dairymen, who supply 

 London and other populous towns and cities with milk, as 

 well as by the farmers of Holland and Belgium, where farms 

 are small, where great attention is paid to agriculture, and 

 where manure is extremely valuable. In England, however, 

 within the last few years, comparatively speaking, the system 



