48 BUTTER. 



BUTTER. 



Although the making of cheese has been carried 

 on in Ayrshire from a remote antiquity, it has not 

 excluded the practice of using the milk, at least since 

 the beginning of the present century, for other pur- 

 poses. The manufacturing industries of this region 

 have concentrated population and fostered artificial 

 wants. Previous to the year 1811, and probably 

 very much earlier, butter was manufactured from the 

 milk in winter, but in a ruder method than at present. 

 As early as 1811, Alton could state that all the milk 

 made at more than a mile and a half, and not more 

 than ten miles from Glasgow, was converted into but- 

 ter and sold in that city. 



In 1861) we ourselves found butter made exten- 

 sively in the dairies throughout the county ; and in 

 all the cheese dairies that came under our observa- 

 tion, the Sunday's milk was reserved for the making 

 of butter. 



In 1864 Mr. E. J. Thomson, of Kilmarnock, tried 

 a series of experiments on feeding roots to Ayrshire 

 milch cows. The percentages of cream varied from 

 12| to 14J in the four animals, as the average of a 

 six weeks' trial. In another trial by the same gentle- 

 man in 1865, with 8 cows, the cream percentage 



