Dairy- Farming in the Netherlands. 
52& 
The method of making butter in this district may be de- 
scribed in a few words. In summer, when it is chiefly sold for 
immediate consumption, the cream is churned in the ordinary 
manner, but without such preliminary precautions as to its 
treatment as are observed in the Delft district. At other 
periods of the year the butter is made specially for the manu- 
facturers of artificial butter, and then the milk and cream are 
churned together, the skimming process being dispensed with, 
after the milk has stood long enough to get sour. Churning 
takes place two or three times a week, according to the season 
and the number of cows kept ; but the one object kept in view 
is to produce an article of sufficient strength of grain and flavour 
to meet the requirements of the makers of artificial butter. Near 
Deventer, which district is a continuation of that of Kampen 
through Zwolle, the process is even more accentuated, for before 
the butter comes, a quantity of unwashed butter, made at the 
previous churning, is put into the churn, the excuse being that 
it facilitates the process of washing the butter, and cleansing it 
from the buttermilk. 
Friesland Butter. — In this district butter is made, as a rule, 
in the same manner as in the Delft district, but the cream is 
often churned too sour, and not skimmed with sufficient care ; 
further, so much attention is not paid to the immersion of the 
cans of milk in cold water. For this last apparent neglect there 
is very good reason in the bad quality of the water which can 
be procured on most farms. Great eflforts are being made to 
improve the quality of Friesland butter, and to restore it to its 
previous high standing in our markets, by applying the Swartz 
method of deep-setting the milk, and by using the most im- 
proved dairy implements in vogue in Denmark and Sweden. 
The want of good water, however, is a serious drawback, and 1 
shall not easily forget the odour of the milk cellar at one of the 
best farms in Friesland, due entirely to the decomposing organic 
contents of the water in which the cans of milk were immersed. 
A farm situated north-west of Leeuwarden, held by Mr. K. N. 
Kuperus, consists of 125 acres, all in grass. Thirty-six cows, 
with a proportionate number of young stock, are kept, and some 
of the best calves that can be found are bought, and reared 
chiefly on buttermilk and whey. He informed me that in 1879 
his cows gave an average of 3850 litres (850 gallons) of milk in 
the year. Butter is made on the Danish system, the milk being 
skimmed the first time after standing 12 hours, and a second 
time after standing 24 hours. Skim-cheese is also made, and 
flavoured with cummin seed, the prices realised for it ranging 
from 345. to 40,9 per cwt. The calves sold at a few days' old 
fetch from 12.";. to 14s., unless they are good enough to be kept 
