DAIRY. 



547 



Daiiy- Kps and Hose become chopped and sore ; and though 

 ■■"V™* the air is cool, there is a disagreeable sensation of 

 prickling heat upon the skin, as it* it had been washed 

 with spirits of hartshorn. If this wind continues for 

 fire or six days, the scarf skin peels off from the hands 

 and face, and even from the rest of the body, if it con- 

 tinues a few days longer. 



Such are the baneful effects of the Harmattan on 

 animal and vegetable nature, and yet it is not unpro- 

 ductive of beneficial effects on the human system. In 

 certain diseases it is conducive to health. It contri- 

 butes to the cure of ulcers and cutaneous eruptions ; 

 of fluxes, and intermitting fevers ; and, in all cases in 

 which the frame has been relaxed, the nerves soon re- 

 sume their former tone and vigour. Infection not be- 

 ing easily communicated in that dry state of the atmo- 

 sphere, the Harmattan stops the progress of all epide- 

 mic diseases ; and the small-pox, fluxes, and remittent 

 fevers, not only disappear, but those who are labouring 

 under these disorders, are blessed with a speedy and 

 perfect recovery. See Dalzel's History of Dahomy ; 

 Norris's Memoirs of the Reign of Bossa Ahadee ; and 

 Voyage d la Cole de Guinee, par Labarthe. (a. f.) 



DAIRY, a place where milk is deposited, and where 

 it is manufactured into butter, cheese, and other articles 

 of food. In some situations, the farmer brings his milk 

 to market in its natural state, and then he is said to keep 

 a milk dairy ; in other situations he manufactures but- 

 ter or cheese, and, in such cases, he is said to keep a 

 butter or a cheese dairy. It is quite evident, that it 

 must depend on circumstances, which of all these three 

 sorts will afford the most profit. Within a few miles of 

 a large town, where there is always a ready sale for 

 milk and butter, and where the carriage is short, the 

 milk and butter dairy will generally answer best ; but 

 where the distance from a market is considerable, the 

 sale of milk in its natural state is out of the question, 

 and the dairy farmer will probably find it necessary to 

 engage in the manufacture of cheese. 



Sir John Sinclair, in his Account of the Systems of 

 Husbandry adopted in the more improved Districts of 

 Scotland, states, that in the neighbourhood of Glasgow 

 and Paisley, such farmers as live within two miles of 

 these towns, sell their milk there when newly taken 

 from the cow. Those who are from two and even to 

 ten miles distant from town, generally churn their whole 

 milk, and sell it and the butter in Glasgow or Paisley ; 

 and all who live at a greater distance make their milk 

 into cheese. " The produce of these different modes," 

 he says, " is in the proportion of 6d. per Scotch pint 

 (that is two English quarts) for new milk, 4d. when 

 churned, and sold in butter and butter milk, and 3d. 

 when made into 'cheese." The nourishment derived 

 from a pint of milk used fresh, is equal to that of two 

 when made into cheese, together with the meat that is 

 obtained from the whey when employed in feeding 

 hogs. The dairy system is perhaps the most profitable, 

 as well as the most pleasing, of all the parts of husban- 

 dry. It was certainly the earliest. Herbage may be 

 converted into human food, either in the form of flesh 

 or of milk ; but it is calculated, that a much larger 

 quantity of human food will be produced from the same 

 quantity of herbage in the latter case than in the for- 

 mer. The herbage that would be sufficient to add 112 

 pounds to the 'weight of an ox, would, if employed in 

 feeding cows, afford 4,50 English gallons of milk. This, 

 if made into cheese, which is not the most advantageous 

 way of consuming milk, would produce 430 lbs. besides 

 the flesh that might be obtained by feeding hogs with 

 the whey. The 112 lbs. of beef, at the rate of 8s. a 



stone of 14lbs. would amount to L.3, 4s.; but the Dairy. 

 4301bs. of cheese at 12s. a stone of 24lbs. would bring v — — v-— ' 

 more than L. 10, 10s. The trouble and expence, how- 

 ever, requisite to produce the cheese, would be greater 

 than what would attend the production of the beef. 



In the erection of such buildings as are necessary Buildings 

 for dairy purposes, two things ought always to be kept {or 'he 

 carefully in view, — conveniency of situation, and the l'" r P" s ? s of 

 preservation of a proper temperature. If the buildings a ' ry ' 



are inconveniently situated, much labour will be lost ; 

 and if the air in them be either too hot or too cold, no 

 process will go on as it should do. Their size will be 

 proportioned to the number of cows kept, and their in- 

 terior arrangement to the business intended to be car- 

 ried on, whether this be cheese-making, butter-making, 

 or merely the preservation of milk for sale. A dairy- 

 house for forty cows, may be twenty feet by sixteen ; 

 and for an hundred cows, forty feet by thirty. These 

 are the usual proportions in the county of Gloucester. 

 Ornament is sometimes studied in the erection of -a 

 dairy-house ; and this, when it happens to be the case, 

 will of course regulate in a great measure the situation 

 of the building. 



A butter daily, when well constructed, consists of 

 three apartments or rooms ; one for depositing the milk, 

 one for performing the operation of churning, and ano- 

 ther for containing and cleaning the necessary utensils. 

 A cheese dairy should consist of four rooms ; a milk 

 room as before, a room for making and pressing the 

 cheese, another for the process of salting, and a fourth 

 for stowing and preserving the cheeses, till they are 

 ready to be brought to market. This last may be con- 

 veniently placed as a sort of loft over the other three. 

 The milk dairy properly requires only two apartments, 

 one for the milk, and the other for serving it out, scald- 

 ing, and cleaning the different utensils. Temperature 

 in a dairy is of the first importance ; for, if too much 

 heat be admitted, the milk will quickly become sour, 

 and if too cold an atmosphere prevails, neither butter 

 nor cheese making can be carried on with success. 



Different plans have been proposed for securing a Method „f 

 proper degree of heat. Double Avails and roof have been heating die 

 recommended by Dr Anderson; others have proposed dairy, 

 hollow walls ; and Mr Loudon, in his Treatise on Coun- 

 try Residences, thinks that, for common purposes, a va- 

 cuity of eight or ten inches left betwixt the wall and the 

 lath and plaster, will be sufficient. A fountain, or jet 

 d'eau, where such can be commanded, will always 

 be a very agreeable and convenient acquisition in a 

 dairy. Mr Marshall, who has paid much attention to this 

 subject, advises that the walls shall be at least six 

 feet thick, a foot on the inside to be of brick or stone, 

 the outside to be constructed of sod, and the space be- 

 tween to be closely filled with earth. The roof, he says, 

 should be of thatch, three feet thick at the least, and 

 should project completely over the walls on each side. 

 The materials of such a building being all bad conduc- 

 tors of heat, it would, he conceives, if provided with 

 double doors, naturally preserve in this climate a tem- 

 perature of about fifty to fifty-five degrees of Fahren- 

 heit at all seasons of the year. But as the milk itself 

 when brought in warm, would naturally tend in sum- 

 mer to raise the temperature too high, an ice-house 'is 

 recommended to be attached to the dairy, of a simple 

 and ingenious construction. A small quantity of ice 

 placed when necessary in the milk room, would soon 

 lower the temperature to any degree that might be 

 wanted ; and if the cold in winter should become too 

 great, a barrel of hot water close stopped, or a few hot 

 bricks placed on the floor or table of the milk room. 



