Town Milk. 
80 
tho floor ; and steam-jcts rise from it. After tlicy arn scoured 
t\w fliunis ;iro put uj)sido down over these, and receive a very 
tlioro'.ijji^li final cleansing by a jet of steam playins^ thus for four 
or five minutes within them. Tliey then stand on an open floor 
in an open shed to drain and cool, and are fit for use. Clean- 
liness and coolness are essential things. Having these, and pro- 
viding as rapid a transmission as possible, the consumer, will 
receive the milk, such as it may be, at its very best. 
The JEilk Produce. 
What this milk is, however, depends upon the cow and the 
treatment of her, to which we have been referring. The milk of 
every cow has its own natural standard of quality, but taking 
the case of each apart, her milk is rich or poor, /Z/'.si', according to 
her nearness to the time she calved ; and secondly, according to the 
quality of her food. The milk of a big ordinary cow, bought 
half fat for a London cow-house, Avill throw up 14 to 16 per cent, 
of cream in three hours in the lactometer during the first few weeks 
after calving ; and the same cow similarly fed will not yield much 
more than half so good a quality, when after six or eight months 
milking she is rapidly diminishing her quantity. At an equal 
age however at the pail, the London cow, fed so as if possible 
to maintain or increase her flesh, will yield a richer milk than 
a country-fed cow which is being milked at grass. The way 
to keep a uniform quality when, as in London, a great part of 
of the food (grains and hay) is constant throughout tlie year, 
is to keep buying in fresh cows in pretty constant numbers, 
tlirougliout the year. But except in the poorer districts, where 
the demand for milk does not vary throughout the year, this is 
not commonly done. A London cowshed in the west-end for 
example, is full only during the spring and summer months 
when London is full. And as it is then that a richer milk is 
wanted for the sake of the cream which is required at " good 
houses " during the season, that is the proper time to buy in 
freshly calved cows. And, as the quotation given at the outset of 
this essay proves, dealers do not scruple to take a portion of the 
cream it throws up, and even to add water before selling the thus 
manufactured article as new milk. 
As regards the average quantity of milk yielded ])y a cow 
under the circumstances of a London cowhouse, I have been told 
that this very dishonesty is sometimes a difficulty in the way of 
obtaining trustworthy information. The small cowman who, by 
adding Avater, sells more than his cows produce, will, it is said, 
report a yield larger than the truth to cover his roguery. 
At many small cowhouses which I visited two years ago I was 
