418 Abstract Mejjort of Agricultural Discussions. 
The Discussion. 
Mr. Beale Brown said, lie had found by liis own experience that it 
was possible to give additional food to his cows, which tended to fatten 
them, without making any difference in the yield of cream. He also 
inquired whether the practice of scalding milk, which was adopted 
in Devonshire, did not produce a complete separation of the cream 
from the milk ? — to which Professor Voelckcr answered, he had no 
doubt that the scalding of milk would throw up a little more cream ; 
but no amoimt of boiling woidd effect a complete se})aration. Mr. 
Bro\\Tie also called attention to a statement in the ' Irish Farmers' 
Gazette,' that the use of gorse greatly increased the quantity of milk ; 
and suggested that it might be well to resort to gorse at a period of 
the year vv'hcn other kinds of food were not abundant. 
Professor Voelcker was aware that in some i)arts of Scotland 
waste lands which did not bear anything before, arc now cultivated 
entirely with gorse, intended for horses ; and he was inclined to think 
that this, being a concentrated food, might also be given with advan- 
tage to dairy stock. 
Lord Feversham suggested that further inquiries as to the com- 
parative merits of different breeds of cows were desirable. The Pro- 
fessor had not alluded to roots, but he presumed he would not object 
to them as winter food. Mangold-wurtzel, carrots, and swede turnips 
were, ho believed, excellent food for winter. True, the turnip might 
impart a peculiar flavour to the milk, but some persons said that that 
might be coimteractcd. Mangold-wm-tzel, however, in winter, and 
early in spring, was certainly an important ingredient in feeding 
milch cows ; and he did not believe that it woidd bo the means of 
increasing the fat of the animal, but rather of augmenting the quantity 
of milk. 
Mr. MooEE said, some years ago he made experiments with Alderney, 
Shorthorn, Hereford, and pedigree cows, and the result was so far 
satisfactory that he foimd little difference between them. He tested 
in various ways — drawing off the milk by means of a syphon — the 
quantity of milk yielded morning and evening, at different dates 
from the time of calving, and foimd it very uniform in shorthorns, 
Herefords, and pedigree cows, though there was a great difference in 
quality. He wished to inquire of Professor Voelckcr, whether there 
was any one particular descrij)tion of milk-pau that was preferable to 
another, and whether the deptli of the pan was calculated to have any 
effect upon the quantity of cream that a certain quantity of milk would 
give forth ? 
Mr. Cantrell asked of what material the Professor would recom- 
mend the pans to be made. In his experience he had foimd that a 
common brown earthenware pan, glazed on the inside, threw up more 
cream than the enamelled iron pans, which he had also used with 
success. 
Professor Voelcker thought that, in reference to the shape and size of 
milk -pans, shallow vessels were the best. They threw up more cream, 
and preserved the milk better. Milk could not be kept together to 
any depth without its getting heated and spoiled. It was an erro- 
