573 
DAIRY FARMING. 
By the Northern Farmer. 
{Continued from p . 564.) 
The Dairy , — A dairy is popularly supposed to be a structure 
combining neatness with elegance, while at the same time it 
affords every possible convenience for the preservation of milk 
and cream until manufactured into butter. Beautiful dairies 
are certainly not scarce, but they are mostly in connection 
with the establishments of wealthy families, who take a 
special pride in having the dairy a model of cleanliness and 
good order, and fitted up with every contrivance that will save 
labour, and enable the dairy-maid to have everything con- 
nected with her department in first-class condition, fit at all 
times for inspection, besides supplying cream and butter for 
the family of the very best quality. The ordinary farmer, 
however, is very differently situated in this respect, his dairy 
being too frequently a mere make-shift, in no way adapted 
to the purpose for which it is used : circumscribed in its 
limits, with low roof, damp floor, and incomplete ventilation, 
it is almost impossible to preserve that thorough state of 
cleanliness so indispensable for the production of high class 
butter. It is clear that an improperly constructed dairy must 
be most inimical to the farmer's interests, being the fruitful 
cause of much butter of indifferent quality, the lower price at 
which it must be sold taking a goodly slice off the annual 
receipts. For the convenience of those concerned in its 
management, and for the sake of having the milk removed to 
the vessels in which it is to be set with as little agitation as 
possible, and before being too much cooled, it is obvious that 
the milk-house should be situated conveniently to both the 
dwelling-house and milking-stalls. At the same time it 
should be completely removed from the manure-heap ; or if it 
must unavoidably be in the range of buildings which sur- 
round the cattle-yards, there should be no communication on 
that side, isolation so as to secure freedom from the gases 
evolved by the fermentation of manure being imperative. A 
north or north-west aspect is very suitable, and if at all prac- 
ticable the ground should slope away from the dairy with so 
much of a fall as to render it an impossibility to have such a 
thing as stagnant water in its neighbourhood. It is not 
necessary that the erection for this purpose should be large, 
as space can be economised by having a double tier of shelves; 
therefore a somewhat long and narrow house is preferable to 
one which is nearly square, centre space, especially where 
there is a churning-room attached, not being so much an 
