Dairy Farming in Denmark. 



379 



milk on its way from the creamery to the farm for cattle food, 

 in order to ascertain that the law, which requires that all 

 milk used as food for cattle shall be duly pasteurised, has 

 been carried out. 



The milch cattle are mostly of the red Danish breed, but 

 in Jutland the local breed is well represented. They are 

 tethered in the fields by chains of some 12 ft. long, with a 

 3 foot iron staple to fasten in the ground by means of a 

 mallet. They seldom drag their tethers, save under circum- 

 stances of great fear, e.g., at times of heavy thunderstorm or 

 after very excessive rain. The cows are moved seven times 

 a day gradually from one side of the field to another. 



Among the establishments visited by the writers of the 

 report was a farm at Sofiendal and a co-operative dairy at 

 Haslev, both being some thirty miles south-west of Copen- 

 hagen. Sofiendal is described as a large farm of some 300 

 cows, and with a milk business of £2,812 to £3,375 yearly, 

 entailing an annual outlay on about 400,000 lbs, of maize for 

 cattle. Milking is performed at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. The tails 

 of the cows are cut in winter for purposes of cleanliness, and 

 the coats of the cows brushed twice a day. Although it is not 

 considered desirable to wash the cows' udders, each of the 

 milkers has her own clean cloth wherewith to rub the udders 

 in winter, and is provided once weekly with a clean blue 

 apron to wear over her dress. Each milker washes her hands 

 before beginning to milk, and rinses them between the 

 milking of each cow. She milks from eighteen to twenty 

 cows, the milk being at once removed from the stable, emptied 

 into a large can, and screened. 



At the time of the visit of Dr. Bulstrode and Mr. Huddart 

 the cows were being milked in the fields, when there was no 

 cleaning of the udders (which is not regarded as requisite in 

 the open in the summer), but the women frequently rinsed their 

 hands, and the milk of each cow was at once passed through a 

 fine metal gauze screen, which was covered with a white cloth, 

 into a churn standing in a cart. The milk was also strained 

 at the farm before passing over an 18-coil cooler, and it was 

 then placed in an ice-water tank till despatched. The milk 

 is weighed before being sent off, and the cans are sealed. 



