348 



DAIRY. 



Aairv. 



IT: ensile. 



!• ..ry 

 farms. 



would readily counteract its effects. A chaffing-dish 

 with burning coals should never be used, as it is apt to 

 communicate a bad taste to the milk. Many other sim- 

 ply and cheap forms of dairy-houses are found to answer 

 ■well. Mr Marshall tells us, that in Wiltshire the rooms 

 of the dairies have commonly outer doors, which open 

 under a penthouse or lean-to shed. This he considers 

 as a great advantage, for it communicates, by affording 

 shade, a beneficial degree of coolness to the whole build- 

 ing. 



The utensils required in a dairy are principally the 

 following : milk-pails, milk-strainers or sieves, milk- 

 eowls, coolers or pans, milk-skeels or creaming dishes, 

 lading dishes, skimming dishes, cheese ladders, cheese 

 rats, cheese presses, and churns. The expence of all 

 which must evidently vary in different situations, but 

 it is believed, that a sufficient assortment of them for a 

 dairy of twenty cows, may, in most cases, be provided 

 for L.25 or L.30. Wood has, in general, been employ- 

 ed in their construction, and is probably upon the whole 

 the most eligible material. Lead, brass, and copper, 

 are altogether inadmissible ; for the acid contained in 

 milk (which is now known to be the acetic) combines 

 with these metals, and forms with them poisonous com- 

 pounds. The same may be said of earthen vessels gla- 

 zed with lead ; and it is obvious, that true porcelain, or 

 glass, can never come into general use for dairy pur- 

 poses. Cast iron itself is far from being unobjection- 

 able, because though the acid of milk does not form 

 with iron a compound that is poisonous, it forms with 

 it one, which may, in a considerable degree, alter the 

 taste and quality of dairy products. The least objec- 

 tionable of all the metallic milk dishes, are probably 

 those which have been lately invented by Mr Baird of 

 the Shotts ironworks, in Linlithgowshire. They are 

 made of cast iron, softened by annealing in charcoal, so 

 as not to be liable to break by an ordinary fall, turned 

 smooth in the inside, and laid over with a coat of tin, to 

 prevent the iron from coming in contact with the milk. 

 Even these, however, we do not think quite free from 

 objection, because, though the iron comes not in 

 contact with the milk, the tin does; and though the 

 acetic acid acts upon tin only in a slight degree, still it 

 acts upon it, and forms with it a compound, which when 

 evaporated is viscid, and has a very fetid disagreeable 

 smell. It may therefore be supposed to injure, in some 

 degree, the products of the dairy. The Shotts milk 

 dishes, however, are, we understand, coming very ge- 

 nerally into use, and Sir John Sinclair pronounces their 

 invention, ". one of the greatest improvements that has 

 lately taken place in regard to dairy management." 

 They are much more easily kept clean than wooden 

 dishes, and their superior power of conducting heat, 

 cools the milk put into them so much faster, that Sir 

 John says, " the farmers' wives, who have given them 

 a fair trial, affirm that they throw up one third more 

 eream from an equal quantity of milk." They are made 

 at the Shotts foundery, from half an English quart to 

 twenty -four in content, and their prices are from Is. to 

 9s. 6d. 



It has been lately found, that slate makes very good 

 milk coolers ; and in some of the midland counties of 

 England, the common flag, or transition slate, has been 

 employed for this purpose. 



Dairy farms, in general, consist chiefly of meadow 

 and pasture, with only a small portion of the land 

 under tillage. But Mr Holland, in his Survey of 

 Cheshire, and Mr Curwen of Workington, in the 5th 

 vol. of Communications to the Board of Agriculture, have 

 shewn, that stall-feeding with green crops, is a most 



important improvement in the management of cows. .Dairy. 

 In this way, they can be kept in milk not only for a "•"V""* 

 month longer in autumn than by the common modes, 

 but even through the whole Avinter season. Mr Cur- 

 wen's extensive experiments on this subject have put 

 the matter beyond all doubt, and it is now, we believe, 

 pretty generally if not universally practised. 



The greatest dairy farms in Britain, are found in 

 Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, 

 Cambridgeshire, Dorset, and Suffolk, some of the mid- 

 land counties, and in Ayrshire. Essex, Cambridgeshire, 

 Suffolk, and Dorset, are chiefly famed for butter, the 

 rest for cheese. It is more likely that a dairy farm of 

 no very great extent, say of ten or twelve cows, will, if 

 well managed, be profitable, than a large concern 

 of this sort ; for the farmer's wife and daughters can 

 more readily superintend, or perhaps perform a great 

 part of the dairy operations themselves, when the farm 

 is of a moderate size ; and this is always better done by 

 them, than we can ever expect it to be by hired servants. 

 Sir John Sinclair justly remarks, that no branch of hus- 

 bandry requires such constant and unremitting atten- 

 tion. " If," says he, "a few spoonfuls' of milk are left 

 in the udder of the cow at milking ; if any one of the 

 implements used in the dairy be allowed to be tainted 

 by neglect ; if the dairy -house be kept dirty or out of 

 order; if the milk is either too hot or too cold at coa- 

 gulating ; if too much or too little rennet is put into 

 the milk ; if the whey is not speedily taken off; if too 

 much or too little salt is applied ; if the butter is too 

 slowly or too hastily churned, or if other minute atten- 

 tions are neglected, the milk will be in a great measure 

 lost. If these nice operations," continues Sir John, 

 " occurred only once a month, or once a week, they 

 might be easily guarded against, but as they require to 

 be observed during every stage of the process, and al- 

 most every hour of the day, the most vigilant attention 

 must be kept up throughout the whole season. That 

 is not to be expected from hired servants." 



A proper choice of cows is of the greatest consequence, Variet'e? 

 because certain species of this animal, as well as cer- of cows, 

 tain individuals of the same species, afford vastly more 

 abundant and richer milk than others. 



All the black cattle of the island have been divided 

 into four classes. 1. The short-horned, or Dutch. 2. 

 The long-horned, or Lancashire. 3. The polled, or Gal- 

 loway. 4. The kyloes, or Highland. But in each of 

 these classes there are many varieties. 



The cows of the first class yield much milk : those of 

 the second less, but its cream is more abundant and rich- 

 er. The same quantity of the milk also yields a greater 

 proportion of cheese. The polled or Galloway cows 

 are excellent milkers, and their milk is rich. A sort 

 called the Suffolk duns, said to be a variety of the Gal- 

 loways, are much esteemed for the abundance of their 

 milk, and the excellence of the butter it produces. Two- 

 thirds of these, with one-third of the small Alderney or 

 French cow, (mixing the milk, ) are recommended by 

 some as the best dairy stock that can be kept. Ayr- 

 shire, or Kyle cows, are much esteemed in Scotland ; 

 and in England the improved breed of the long-horned 

 cattle, by Mr Bakewell of Dishly in Leicestershire, is 

 highly prized in many dairy districts. The limits of 

 this article will not permit us to mention a variety of 

 other good breeds that might be pointed out. Every 

 judicious selector, however, will always, in making his 

 choice, keep in view not only the different sorts and 

 individuals of the animal, but also the nature of the, 

 farm on which his cows are to be put, and the sort of 

 manufactured produce he is anxious to bring to market; 



