to the Bearing and Feeding of Cattle. 
251 
quantity of it is consumed by the animal for the support of the 
heat of its body, and honce tho casein (cheese) in the milk is in- 
creased. To induce the cows to eat a large quantity of food (an 
indispensable condition, as the casein is in small proportion in 
grass), we find in large cheese-farms that they are driven to a 
fresh pasture every day. Very little cheese is produced from the 
milk of stall-fed cows, on account of the small quantity of food 
consumed in the stall and consequent diminution in the amount 
of casein. But the pastures fitted for the production of cheese 
should not be, strictly speaking, poor ; Stilton, Cheddar, and 
Cheshire cheeses contain a very large amount of butter — conse- 
quently the milk of the animal must contain a considerable 
quantity of this ingredient. In some parts of Somersetshire the 
cows are put into rich and poor pastures alternately after each 
milking.* This ensures the requisite quantity of butter, as well 
as of casein. 
The different flavours of the cheeses of various districts depends 
more upon the difference on the chemical state of the rennet with 
which it is prepared than in the herbage upon which the cows 
feed ; still there is no doubt that particular plants impart a peculiar 
flavour to the milk. You are well aware that swedes possess this 
property. Newman, as far back as the commencement of the 
last century, observed that milk is rendered yellow by taking 
saffron, bitter by wormwood, and odorous by garlic.f 
The greatest care must therefore be taken in removins; from 
the pasture those plants which may prove injurious to the cows 
feeding upon them. To give an example of the necessity for 
precaution, I may cite an instance which fell under my own 
observation. A few months since Professor Liebig, Dr. Buck- 
land, Dr. Daubeny, and myself were examining the pastures of 
a celebrated cheese-farm in Somersetshire. The proprietor of 
the farm took us to a field, the grass of which he affirmed scoured 
the cattle so much that it was unfit for pasture. Being well 
aware that this was not due to the grass, we began to examine 
the cause, and Dr. Daubeny found that purging flax (linum 
catharticum) grew luxuriantly over the whole field. This plant 
is quite noted for its purgative action, and at once explained the 
mystery. The next pasture to which we were taken had quite the 
opposite character ; and the cattle, after feeding on the first, used 
to resort to the second to correct the purgative effects received by 
this noxious plant. In this new pasture we found the common 
tormentil or septfoil (potentilla tormentilla) abounding, a plant 
equally well known for its astringent qualities. Attention to the 
* Information furnished by Mr. Norris, near Bridgewater. 
t Chymia Medica, dogmatico-experimentalis. 
