THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 



23 



THE DAIRY. 



> The dairy should be cool, airy, dry, and free from vermin of all kinds. To pre- 

 vent the intrusion of flies, the windows or ventilators ought to be covered with a 

 fine wire gauze. The floor should be laid with smooth glazed tiles, and also the 

 lower part of the walls^ the benches on which the milk pans are to be placed are 

 best when made of stone or slate, and about thirty inches broad. The ceiling 

 should be at least eight feet from the floor, and finished in every respect like that 

 of an ordinary dwelling-house. A slate roof is preferable to one of tile, as it tends 

 to keep the temperature more equable. Cleanliness is of the most essential con- 

 sequence in dairy management, and, if not strictly looked after, may cause con- 

 siderable loss. It is this which has raised the produce of the dairies of Holland 

 so much in public estimation. Every article in which milk is placed, more es- 

 pecially when made of wood, ought to be washed in boiling water, with a little 

 soda or lime dissolved in it. If milk should happen to sour in any dish, .the acid 

 thus generated will injure any which may be afterward put into it ; but if washed 

 in water in which an alkali has been dissolved, the acid will be destroyed. 



The utensils of a dairy are very numerous. The principal are milk-pails, shal- 

 low coolers for holding the milk, sieves for straining it through after it is taken 

 from the Cow, dishes for skimming the cream, churns for making the butter, 

 scales, weights, &;c. For making cheese, there are likewise ladders, vats, tubs, 

 curd-breakers, and presses ; and various other articles will be required, which it 

 is almost impossible to enumerate. The majority of them are made of wood ; 

 but in some of the best dairies in England and Scotland, it is now the practice to 

 have the coolers made of cast-iron, wood lined with tin in the inside, or glazed 

 earthenware. Maple is the wood generally used in England for the manufacture 

 of these dishes ; both from its lightness, and being easily cut, it can be finished 

 in a neater style. In Holland, the milk-dishes are very commonly made of brass ; 

 and certainly brass or iron is to be preferred to wood, because the dishes made 

 from either of these materials are more durable, and can be easier cleaned. It 

 has been objected to earthenware vessels, that, being glazed with lead, the acid 

 of the milk acting upon the glaze forms a very noxious poison. This, however, 

 is scarcely correct ; it would require a much stronger acid than that of milk to 

 decompose the glaze. Zinc pans are now coming into use, and they can be safely 

 recommended for their cool and cleanly qualities, besides being economical. We 

 have seen it stated that cream rises best in zinc pans. 



Churning is now, in all large dairy establishments, performed by machinery, 

 worked either by horse or water power. Churns vary in size from ten to fifty, 

 and even one hundred gallons, according to the size of the establishment. Great 

 care should be taken to wash chums thoroughly with boiling water both imme- 

 diately after they have been used, and before they are again to be put in opera- 

 tion ; and those chums which admit of being easily cleaned are always to be re- 

 commended, even although they should not be so elegant in construction. 



DAIRY PRODUCE. 



Milk. 



Milk consists of three materials blended together — called, in Science, the but- 

 teraceous, lactic, and serous kinds of matter — which can be separated by artificial 

 means, so as to form butter, the milk called buttermilk, and serum or whey. — 

 The whey is little else than water, slightly saline, and is generally the chief in- 

 gredient in the milk. When taken from the Cow, milk should be removed to 

 the dairy or milk-house, and, after being sieved, placed in shallow pans, to throw 

 up the butteraceous matter termed cream, which, being lightest, floats on the 

 top. 



The following observations on mili: and its management, made by Dr. Ander- 

 son, are worthy of the consideration of cow-keepers : 



" Of the milk drawn from any Cow at one time, that part which comes off at 

 the first is always thinner, and of a much worse quality for making butter, than 

 that afterward obtained ; and this richness continues to increase progressively to 

 the very last drop that can be obtained from the udder. 



" If milk be put into a dish, and allowed to stand till it throws up cream, the 

 portion of cream rising first to the surface is richer in quality and greater in quan- 



