Dairying  in  Denmark. 
157 
farmers  put  heifers  to  the  bull  at  15  months  old,  but  the  more 
advanced  farmers  prefer  to  wait  another  year.  This  practice  is 
in  direct  opposition  to  that  of  the  Jersey  breeders,  most  of  whom 
hold  that  for  milking  purposes  both  bulls  and  heifers  should  be 
used  as  early  as  possible.  This  divergence  may,  however,  be 
due  to  differences  in  the  climate  of  the  countries  where  the  two 
breeds  are  kept. 
During  the  summer  the  cows  are  tethered  in  lines  on  the  after- 
math  of  first  year’s  seeds,  and  the  whole  of  the  second  and  third 
Year’s  grass  ; but  they  are  rarely  put  on  permanent  pasture,  and 
then  only  on  the  aftermath.  It  is  very  striking  to  see  from  50 
to  200  or  more  cows,  all  of  one  colour,  tethered  in  one  or  two 
long:  lines  in  a larse  field  of  seeds.  Water  is  carted  to  them 
at  stated  times  twice  a day,  and  they  are  also  milked  twice  a day 
in  the  fields  as  they  stand.  In  the  winter  they  are  entirely  kept 
in  the  cow-house,  and  fed  on  chopped  hay  and  straw,  corn  in  the 
form  of  meal,  bran,  and  cake.  As  a general  rule,  the  allowance 
of  meal,  bran,  and  cake  commences,  soon  after  calving,  with  about 
4 lbs.  per  head  per  diem,  increasing  gradually  to  8 lbs.,  and  in 
some  cases  even  more.  Most  farmers  think  a great  deal  of  the 
value  of  bran  and  rape-cake  for  milch-cows,  but  palmnut-cake 
or  palmnut-meal  is  also  extensively  used.  Linseed-cake  is  not 
held  in  much  repute  by  dairy-farmers,  and  those  who  use  it  do 
so  very  sparingly,  as  its  tendency  is  to  produce  an  oily  consis- 
tency in  the  butter,  which  is  very  prejudicial  to  its  value  in  the 
market.  About  one-half  of  the  artificial  food  is  meal  obtained 
by  grinding  oats  and  barley  produced  on  the  farm,  and  the 
remaining  half  generally  consists  of  about  equal  parts  of  bran 
and  oil-cake. 
Of  late  years  the  system  of  keeping  the  cows  in  the  stalls 
during  a portion  of  the  summer  has  found  increasing  favour 
with  the  best  farmers,  and  they  have  modified  their  rotations 
accordingly.  Thus  the  practice  of  keeping  artificial  grass  down 
three  years  has  been  changed  to  that  of  a two  years’  ley  ; and  the 
year  in  the  rotation  thus  gained  has  been  utilized  by  inserting 
a crop  of  vetches,  oats,  barley,  peas,  &c.,  mixed  together, 
between  the  successive  crops  of  cereals,  which  formerly  were 
almost  universally  taken  for  three  or  four  years  following.  Part 
of  this  mixed  grain  and  pulse  crop  is  cut  green  for  early  summer 
feed,  and  part  left  to  ripen  for  use  in  the  stalls  when  the  cows 
return  after  their  restricted  sojourn  on  the  artificial  pastures. 
2.  Keeping  (or  Sour-cream ) Butter. — This  is  the  real  Danish 
butter  of  commerce — in  my  opinion  the  best  winter  butter  that 
comes  to  the  English  market.  The  following  detailed  descrip- 
tion of  its  mode  of  manufacture  will  probably  surprise  many 
persons,  therefore  I will  preface  it  by  saying  that  it  is  an 
