692 = 426 Dairy Famiing. 
from the pail the warm skim-milk, and after a short time the 
begin to eat a little hay and meal. They are kept well bedd« 
with straw, though their house is not cleaned out ; and in the east. 
part of May they go forth either for sale, or to be put on gre( 
food and become a portion of the stock of the farm. When tl 
dairies are let, a quarter's rent of a cow was formerly frequent 
allowed the dairyman for each calf brought up by him ; so th; 
to state something like an average sum, if the cows are taken 
12 guineas each, the price of the calf would be 3 guineas ; b 
^ now calves are worth more. 
In April there should be some feed ready in the water-meado 
to save the hay and to improve the quality and increase tl 
quantity of the butter ; and on or about May 12 the cows ta 
possession of the cowlease, and are entirely on grass until t 
frosty mornings of November make the first and comparative 
slight claims upon the haystacks. Some five or six weeks beil 
due to calve, the cows are allowed to go dry, and are th 
removed to the yards to feed upon straw, with a small allowan 
of cake. Formerly it was the rule to give nothing but stra 
which probably in the days of the flail may have been fresb 
and better, but dairy farmers now more generally recognise t 
utility of cake for the in-calf cow, as well as for the improveme 
of the land. 
Heifers are seldom permitted to bring their first calves befc 
they are three years old, and then not earlier than March 
April. Those rising two years are wintered on straw only, 
on inferior hay, with a run out if it is to be had. Calves are 1 
upon hay, roots, and some supplementary meal or cake. 
The butter average of the year may be from 16 to 18 dozen 
pounds. The importance of exact punctuality is fully recognisi 
Regularity, method, and cleanliness are the rule. The cream 
taken after the milk has stood twenty-four or thirty-six hoi 
in earthenware pans holding about 2^ gallons each, and it ; 
churned three or four times a week in the old-fashioned ban • 
churn. Care is taken to squeeze and knead, and beat a 
press, and wash the butter-milk out. The butter, duly salt 
is either rolled into lumps or fashioned in fancy pats, or tub 
as desired ; and despatched either to the country factor or 
some large London firm or hotel. 
As for the cheese made from the skim-milk, the skim-milll 
treated very much as ordinary whole milk is treated in 
manufacture of a cheese from it. And though more people 
know that Dorset cheese is made from skim-milk, yet m 
people like it ; and instead of being got rid of at 3</. per lb. 
now readily fetches twice as much, and the supply is bar 
equal to the demand. 
