Tovm Milk. 
75 
Iiay in winter, and grass in suuimer. VVlicn first tlu; cow is 
received into the shed it is important that she be gradually 
accustomed to her new food. She should therefore receive 
during the first week little but green food, grass, or clover or 
vc^tches in the summor, and mangolds and hay in winter, with 
bran mashes, into which grains may be gradually introduced, 
until, as she takes to them, she may at length be treated as the 
others are. What this management generally is, I take from 
the statements of two men, neither of them very large dairymen, 
but both of them successful managers. Mr. Sumpton, of Little 
Warner Street, Clerkenwell, who usually milks about thirty cows, 
describes his day's work as follows: — -The cowmen enter the 
shed at 4 a.m., and proceed to milk. In the case of the wholesale 
milk trade, when the dealers who buy the milk do the milking, 
one good man suffices for thirty cows. The cowman then 
only helps if necessary at milking-time, and sees that the work 
is thoroughly done,* his main business being to feed and tend 
the cows. When not only milking, but serving the customers 
at shops and houses has to be done, three men are required for 
thirty cows. They begin milking at 4 A.M., and finish between 
5 and 6. About a bushel and a half of grains is then given be- 
tween each pair of cows, and they are partly cleaned out, and when 
the grains are done, a truss of hay cwt.), is divided amon^jst 
twelve. In the meanwhile the men have been serving the milk ; 
after which they have their breakfast (about 8 a.m.). After 
breakfast time a bushel of chopped mangolds, weighing 50 or 
(jO lbs., is given to each two cows, and the cows receive another 
truss of hay amongst twelve. The cowshed is then cleaned 
out, and the cows are bedded and left. At 1 P.M. milking recom- 
mences, and very much the same feeding as before is given. 
At 2 30 grains are given as before, followed by the same quantity 
of hay and then (and only then during the twenty-four hours) the 
cows are freely watered. They again receive a truss of hay 
amongst twelve, and are left for the night. The grains are 
either brewers' or distillers' grains : the former are as much inferior 
to the latter in value as they are in price — the one at present 
costing od. to Ad. a bushel, and the other 8d. and dd. In the 
case of covv^s in heavy milk — also in the case of those rapidly 
losing their milk, which must be sent to market as quickly as 
possible — it is common to give 2 or 3 quarts of pea-meal mixed 
up with the grains morning and evening ; each cow thus receiving 
that quantity daily. And when the milking is coming to an 
* If he has any reason to suspect that a cow is not milked out, it is his duty to 
his master to " strip " her, for nothing injures a cow more than imperfect milking ; 
and if he succeeds in getting another half pint from her his master will give him 
Cd. or Is. for it, and fine the dealer that amount for his servant's default. 
