Dairy Farming. 
689 = 425 
" A dairy of Dorset cheese — not blue (skim-milk) Dorset — 
iide at Barford was of excellent quality. Of a pure white 
(lour, and mild flavour, and perfect shape, they measured 1 foot 
anches in depth and 1 foot 1 i inch across the top." Some 
rerence to the skim-milk cheese manufactured in Dorsetshire 
; (1 other butter dairies will be found in the following chapter. 
CHAPTER V. 
The Manufacture op Buttee. 
"flE Butter Manufacture is, of course, more or less common The butter 
; over the country. In households where a single cow is manufactures. 
Ipt, and on farms where the milk of a large herd is devoted to 
tr manufacture of cheese, as well as in the so-called butter- 
ciry districts, the churn is in weekly use ; and butter-making, 
r re or less skilful, results in butter of various quality. There 
a , however, some districts where butter is as much the exclu- 
se produce of the dairy as cheese is elsewhere. From the 
ft of Cork, in Ireland, as many as 500,000 firkins of Irish 
I ter — weighing 70 lbs. apiece — are annually exported to 
I gland. And from Waterford, and other Irish ports also, large 
Cmtities are sent to the English market. The principal 
tglish butter districts occur in Dorsetshire and Buckingham- 
s>re, and till lately in Suffolk, where farms, generally below 
tl average size of the county, with herds of 20 to 30 cows 
aece, are devoted to this industry. In Ireland the cattle are 
aj airing more and more of a Shorthorn character, and this is 
a ) true of the Bucking-hamshire district, whence large-framed 
S)rthorn cows, used for two or three years for butter-dairy- 
ii, are afterwards sold for milk-produce to the London cow- 
h ses. In Dorsetshire the cattle are more mixed — red and 
w te Herefords, large red Devons or Dorsets, and half-bred 
S^rthorns. In Suffolk the characteristic polled breed of the 
ctnty is prevalent. I propose now to describe the Bucking- 
hiishire, Dorsetshire, and Irish practice, with shorter reference 
tc^ither districts ; and this will sufficiently illustrate the butter 
miufacture of the country. 
n B)ickinqhamshire a farm of perhaps 150 acres is probably A Bucking- 
a^iost wholly permanent grass-land. The cattle are grazed in hamshue dairy 
imer, and fed on hay during winter, still in the field, provided 
laps with an open shelter-shed. When a small proportion of 
lie land belongs to the farm, the cows may receive a few turnips 
iiangold-wurzels, with straw for fodder, and thus economise 
3 A 2 
