74 
Town Milk. 
out of some wayside lair and driven straij^ht to the stall without 
entering the market, and after serving their time perhaps 8 or 
10 months, and yielding at first it may be 16 and at length 6 
quarts of milk a day, they go to the metropolitan market and are 
sold to the butcher in whatever condition as to fitness they may 
be. The dealers tell you that buyers invariably look to the 
prospect of a good sale when they buy, and that a cow which 
will " feed " as well as milk is essential to profit. The conse- 
quence is that the j>reparation of cows for the London market is 
a general practice in many dairy districts. Cows which are on 
the point of becoming too old for ordinary dairy usefulness are 
thus fed so as to be half fat at the time of calving, and Mr. 
Bruce Johnson's agents pick them up in this condition all over 
the northern and midland counties : and a finer lot of beasts is 
rarely to be seen than are offered weekly throughout the year at 
the Finchley Manor Farm. The attempt is made by liberal 
feeding and warm housing to retain this flesh with vv-hich they 
enter the cowhouse ; and add to it so soon as the milk begins to 
shrink, so that by -and -bye the cow is sold weighing 7 or 
8 cwts., fetching almost as much as was given for her. I have 
indeed seen before Christmas time a byre full of cows in 
Chelsea still giving 4 and 5 quarts of milk a-piece a-day, which 
must have been worth 28/. to 30/. a-piece for the beef they 
carried. That is one style of management. The cows sold out 
of the Somersetshire, Wilts, Gloucester, and Berkshire dairy 
districts do not come up so fat — do not fetch such large prices at 
the beginning — milk probably rather longer as a rule than the 
others, but lose more on being sold ; or if they sell like the others 
at a loss of 2/. or 3/. a-piece, yet that being a loss upon 16/. or 
18/., instead of on 20/. or 22/., is a larger loss per cent. The 
foreign and Irish cows, both of which are met with more 
frequently now than formerly, are bought much cheaper than the 
others, and are often very good milkers ; and though they are 
sold for considerably less at the end of their milking (for 
little or no attempt is made to fatten them), yet the loss, 
greater than usual perhaps upon every 100/. of their purchase- 
money, is not, probably, so great in reference to the quantity 
of milk which has been produced by the animal ; and this after 
all is the true test of economy. 
Food of the Cow. 
Having got your cows well purchased, the point of next 
importance is to feed them properly. Their invariable food in 
London cowsheds is grains (brewers' or distillers' grains, the 
spent barley or other grain after being well washed or " worked 
out " in the process of brewing and distilling) with mangolds and 
