470 
Butfefo 
tioiis, do not universally, in a greater or less degree, injure the 
flavour of our milk and butter ; to this assertion, the Swedish 
turnip is an exception, in a most decided point of view. 
It appears, that the management of these cows is most simple 
and easy ; they are fed on hay, good oat-straw, and Swedish tur« 
nips 5 but it ought to be observed, that a degree of care and neat» 
ness is necessary in preparing these turnips for them. In the first 
place, they are drawn about the end of February or beginning of 
March, laid in ridges or heaps of a load or two each, and left on 
the land for two or three weeks ; they are then carted away to 
some convenient place, their tops and tails cut off clean, and piled 
on a heap, where they are kept as free from soil or dirt as possible. 
It is adviseable also, that the operation of topping and tailing be 
done in a yard apart from that where the cows are fed ; for should 
they eat any of the tops, this excellence of flavour in the milk and 
butter will be deteriorated considerably. The mode of preparing 
these turnips deserves particular attention. The drawing them 
from the land at the time they are in their most compact state, 
then depriving them of the absorption, if it may be so called, of 
the new or vernal sap of the soil, a diminution of that important 
matter does not take place, as from an opposite course of manage- 
ment would be the result, to the no small injury of the following 
crop. In this state too, they keep much longer ; and, moreover, 
which is of no less importance, the turnips are, in themselves, 
more nutritive, as would appear from the superior quality of the 
butter produced ; for, by being thus exposed to the air, and de- 
tached from the soil, a considerable portion of aqueous moisture 
is carried off by natural evaporation, which would otherwise add 
to the quantity of our dairies, but not the quality, as we find to be 
the case in feeding cows with those which have been recently 
drawn. Month, Mag. June 1809. ' 
