106 
MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY CATTLE. 
of my butter shows only 1*07 instead of 2*45 per cent, of 
casein, as before ; that it ranks as choice may be inferred, 
when I state that my purchaser willingly gives me Id, per 
roll more than the highest price in Otley market, and 
complains that I do not supply him with a greater quantity. 
In this dairy, of the small dimensions I have described, 
my produce of butter reaches at times 60 to 70 lbs. per 
week. Though the size may appear inconveniently small, 
yet I beg to remark on the greater facility of regulating the 
temperature of a small in comparison with a large dairy. 
This difficulty will be found greater in summer than in 
winter, as it is far easier to heighten than depress the 
temperature. 
I have cooked or steamed my food for several years. It 
will be observed that I blend bean-straw, bran and malt 
combs, as flavouring materials, with oat or other straw and 
rape-cake ; the effect of steaming is to volatilize the essential 
oils, in which the flavour resides, and diffuse them through 
the mess. The odour arising from it resembles that observed 
from the process of malting : this imparts relish to the mess, 
and induces the cattle to eat it greedily ; in addition to which 
I am disposed to think that it renders the food more easy of 
digestion and assimilation. I use this process with advan- 
tage for fattening, when I am deficient in roots. With the 
same mixed straw and oat- shells, 3 to 4 lbs. each of rape- 
cake, and half a pound of linseed oil, but without roots, I 
have fattened more than 30 heifers and cows free from milk, 
from March up to the early part of May; their gain has 
averaged fully 14 lbs. each per week — a result I could not 
have looked for from the same materials if uncooked ; this 
process seems to have the effect of rendering linseed oil less 
of a laxative, but cannot drive off any portion of the fattening 
oils, to volatilize which requires a very high temperature. My 
experience of the benefits of steaming is such, that if I were 
deprived of it I could not continue to feed with satisfaction. 
I have weighed my fattening cattle for a number of years, 
and my milch cows for more than two years ; this practice 
enables me at once to detect any deficiency in the per- 
formance of the animals ; it gives also a stimulus to the 
feeders, who attend at the weighings, and who are desirous 
that the cattle intrusted to their care should bear a com- 
parison with their rivals. Another obvious advantage is in 
avoiding all cavils respecting the weight by my purchasers, 
who, having satisfied themselves as to the quality of the 
animal, now ask and obtain the most recent weighing. The 
usual computation for a well-fed, but not over fat beast, is 
