THE COW AND THE DAIRY. 



27 



1 



his " Encyclopaedia of Agriculture," has condensed the following description of 

 its extent and mode of management from various publications : 



" The number of Cows kept by the present Messrs. Rhodes exceeds, on an ave- 

 rage of the year, four hundred : at one time these individuals are said to nave 

 had upward of a thousand Cows in their diflferent establishments. The surface 

 on which the buildings are placed is a slope of two or three acres, facing the 

 east ; and its inclination is about one inch m six feet. The sheds run in the di- 

 rection of the slope — as well for the natural drainage of the gutters, and the more 

 easily scraping, sweeping, and wheeling out of the manure, as for supplying wa- 

 ter for drinking to small cast-iron troughs, which are fixed in the walls, at the 

 heads of the cattle, in such a manner as that the one trough may be supplied 

 from the other throughout the whole length of the shed. The sheds are twenty- 

 four feet wide ; the side walls about eight feet high ; the roof of tiles, with rising 

 shutters for ventilation, and with panes of glass, glazed into cast-iron skeleton 

 tiles, for light. The floor is nearly flat, with a gutter along the center ; and a 

 row of stalls, each seven feet and a half wide, and adapted for two Cows, runs 

 along the sides. The Cows are fastened by chains and rings, which rings run on 

 upright iron rods, in the corners of the stalls — -.the common mode being departed 

 from only in having iron rods instead of wooden posts. A trough or manger, 

 formed of stone, slate, or cement, of the ordinary size of those used for horses, 

 and with its upper surface about eighteen inches from the ground, is fixed at the 

 head of each stall. Four sheds are placed parallel and close to each other, and 

 in the party walls are openings, about a foot in breadth and four feet high, oppo- 

 site each Cow. The bottom of these openings is about nine inches higher than 

 the upper surface of the troughs, and is formed by the upper surface of the one- 

 foot-square cast-iron cisterns, which contain the water for drinking. Each cis- 

 tern serves two Cows, which, of course, are in different sheds, but adjoining and 

 opposite each other. All these troughs are supplied from one large tistern by 

 pipes, in a manner which can be so readily conceived that we shall not stop to 

 offer a description. Each of these troughs has a wooden cover, which is put on 

 during the time the Cows are eating their grains, to prevent their drinking at the 

 same time, and dropping grains in the water. At the upper end, and at one cor- 

 ner of this quadruple range of sheds, is the dairy, which consists of three rooms 

 of about twelve feet square : the outer or measuring room ; the middle or scald- 

 ing room, with a fire place and a boiler ; and the inner or milk and butter-room, 

 separated by a passage from the last. At the lower end of the range is a square 

 yard, surrounded by sheds — one for fattening the Cows when they have ceased 

 to give milk, and the others for store and breeding pigs. The pigs are kept for 

 the purpose of consuming the casual stock of skim milk which occasionally re- 

 mains on hand, owing to the fluctuations in the demand. This milk is kept in a 

 well, walled with brick laid in cement, about six feet in diameter and twelve feet 

 deep. The milk becomes sour there in a very short time, and, as is well known, 

 is found most nourishing to the pigs when given in that state. Breeding swine 

 are found most profitable, the sucking pigs being sold for roasting. Beyond this 

 yard is a deep and wide pit or pond, into which the dung is emptied from a plat- 

 form of boards projecting into it. The only remaining building wanted to com- 

 plete the dairy establishment is a house or pit for containing the exhausted malt 

 (grains), on which the Cows are chiefly fed. Messrs. Rhodes have a building or 

 pit of this description at some distance, where they have a smaller establishment. 

 There are a stack-yard, sheds, and pits for roots, straw, and hay, a place for cut- 

 ting hay into chaff, cart-sheds, stables, a counting-house, and other buildings and 

 places common to all such establishments, which it is not necessary to describe. 



" The Cows in Rhodes's dairy are purchased newly calved in the cow-market 

 held in Islington every Monday. They are kept as long as they continue to give 

 not less than two gallons of milk a day, and are then fattened on oil-cake, grains', 

 and cut clover hay, for the butcher. The Short-Horned breed is preferred, partly 

 for the usual reason of being more abundant milkers than the Long-Horns, partly 

 because the shortness of their horns allows them to be placed closer together, 

 and partly because this breed is more frequently brought to market than any 

 other. The Ayrshire breed has been tried to the number of 150 at a time, and 

 highly approved of, as affording a very rich cream, as fattening in a very short 

 time when they have left off giving milk, and as producing a "beef which sold 



