72 



On the Production of Butter. 



winds, passing over both Channels, bear over the county, pro- 

 motes the growth of herbage. A Dorset dairy-farmer will tell 

 you that there is nothing like good sweet grass for the produc- 

 tion of a large quantity of milk fit to make the very best quality 

 of butter, and that during the winter the best food for cows is 

 the hay made from the best sort of grasses. Doubtless good 

 natural grasses are the most economical and best summer food 

 of cows, as is the hay for the winter, but the great object of our 

 search is the best substitute or auxiliary. It cannot fail to have 

 been remarked, that one pasture is admirably suited to the 

 making of cheese, and is comparatively worthless for making 

 butter, and vice versa. The solution of this difficulty cannot be 

 obtained until scientific research has enabled the farmer to 

 ascertain which of the natural grasses is best suited for cheese 

 and Avhich for butter. The London dairyman, on the contrary, 

 insists on the milk-producing properties of distillers' grains. 

 Amongst both classes swedes are disliked, for the strong and 

 disagreeable turnipy flavour they impart both to milk and butter ; 

 and even the very valuable discovery made some few years since 

 by the Rev. Anthony Huxtable, of Sutton Waldron, though 

 proved to be a complete remedy for the evil, has failed to intro- 

 duce the general use of swedes into the Dorsetshire or the London 

 dairies. This remedy is so important, that, though it has ap- 

 peared several times in print, I am induced to insert it in this 

 paper. The recipe was kindly given to me by the reverend 

 "gentleman himself: — 



" Dissolve half an ounce of chloride of lime in one gallon of water, and add 

 a table-spoonful of this to each gallon of milk. Frequently, if the turnips are 

 very strong, three times as much will be required 5 but this will depend on 

 the dairywoman's taste." 



The practice of root-feeding dairy cows, however, is a growing 

 one, and from many quarters we hear of the cheapness, to say 

 nothing of the convenience^ of this system of feeding. When the 

 pastures are locked up in winter and hay is neither very good in 

 quality nor cheap in price, the turnip-cutter is one of the dairy- 

 man's best friends. At a farm in Hampshire I found sliced 

 turnips given the cows twice a day. A little saltpetre was put 

 into the milk, and the taste of the butter was by no means dis- 

 agreeable. In February (1851) it was realizing lod. a pound in 

 the Southampton market. A Somersetshire gentleman boils his 

 turnips with chaff, and then mixes pea or l3ean meal with the 

 mess. He gets 6i lbs. of butter per week from each cow, with- 

 out any taste of turnips.* A somewhat similar practice is de- 

 tailed in a notice of Moresby Llall farm, near Whitehaven.f The 

 cows receive turnips twice a day, two stones weight at each time. 



♦ Agricultural Gazette. 



f The ' Times ' newspaper. 



