502 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ June 18, 1891. 
NORMANDY BUTTER. 
Members of the British Dairy Farmers’ Association during 
their recent excursion had striking proof that good butter does not 
-depend upon any particular breed of cows, but upon management 
and manipulative skill. It was striking, because in the Channel 
Islands where the milk is so rich that quantity of butter is a 
certainty, its quality was found to be decidedly inferior, and the 
outspoken criticism of members of the Association and their offers 
of instruction gave great offence to Guernsey farmers. Several 
members of the Association went on to Normandy where they 
were certain of meeting with good butter, and at the farm of 
M, Duboscq at Vauselle, near Biyeux, where forty cows are kept, 
it was of the best quality, altogether superior to the Normandy 
butter sent to this country from the blending factories. The 
butter is in high demand in Paris, selling now at from Is. 6d. to 
Is. lOd. per lb., and in winter as much as 2s, 8d. per lb. is obtained 
for it. The prices denote unmistakeably the superiority of 
the butter, as the yield of butter of only 5^ lbs. per cow per 
week does the inferiority of the half-bred Normandy cows. The 
-cream is well ripened, a barrel churn is used, in which the butter 
grains are well washed, and no salt is used. At the farm of 
M. Castel at Maisons, where fifty or sixty cows are kept, the rate of 
butter yield was even lower, being only 5^ lbs. per cow per week. 
At the famous butter blending factory of Bretel Freres 150 
hands are employed, of whom fifty are women. The butter is 
obtained at the rate of 60,000 lbs. to 66,000 lbs. a day, or 
20,000,000 lbs. a year from the various local centres. It is 
separated into four grades, put separately through circular butter 
workers. No salt is used for the first and second grades, only a 
little for the third ; but for the fourth, which goes to India, 
Brazil, and other hot countries, salt is used abundantly. The 
salting is done on long narrow tables by weight and measure, 
the butter then being placed in a mixing machine, and afterwards 
in a second mixer. For French or British consumption the butter 
is made up in 2 lb. rolls, being first forced into a square box and 
sliced off level on top with a wooden strike. This gives the exact 
weight without actual weighing, and the square blocks of butter 
•are then made into rolls and packed. From 8000 to 9000 cases 
of 24 lbs. are sent to England weekly. 
The butter is made by the dairy farmers, and is sent to the 
factory precisely as it comes from the churn. The thorough 
working at the factory ensures uniform quality and a certain 
standard of excellence, but it cannot do more. Here is our chance, 
for at British factories the butter is made is decidedly superior to 
Normandy butter, and with many more or larger factories there 
.should be no difficulty about successful competition with either 
Danish or Normandy butter. For market purposes there can be 
no doubt about the superiority of the factory system, and though 
-the instruction now given by means of lectures and demonstration 
is undoubtedly highly valuable, yet the dairy difficulty is insuper¬ 
able. For one farmhouse that has a really well appointed dairy 
there are twenty faulty ones, and it is hopeless to expect a 
sweeping reform in them. Therefore farmers generally cannot 
compete successfully with a factory, and it would be much more 
to their interest to sell milk instead of butter, if only the factory 
is near enough to enable them to avoid expenditure on milk 
carriage. It is found that milk can be sent from a distance of a 
hundred miles to London at a profit ; but we wish the money 
paid for ca''ii ige to go into the farmers’pocket, as it would do, 
and does where fact ories exist. 
The most remarkable thing seen at the Normandy farms was 
not the butter-making, but the calf-rearing. At M. Duboscq’s 
farm there were seventeen calves being fattened solely on curdled 
skim milk. This is the processFor the first three days they 
are allowed to suck, and are then fed with new milk till they are 
three weeks old, when the gradual change to sour skim milk is 
made until they have nothing else, all the calves evidently thriving 
exceedingly well upon this food, the biggest one, about four months 
old, being worth £4 15s. in the local market. This method of 
fattening calves appears to be general in Normandy, and is cer¬ 
tainly worthy of attention by British farmers. It probably 
answers so well from the curdled milk being more digestible than 
sweet skim milk ; anyhow it does answer, and we strongly advise 
our readers to turn their valuable hint to account. As one of the 
deputation said, it was a veritable “ eye-opener,” for nothing could 
possibly be more satisfactory than the condition of the calves, and 
the economy of the plan is self-evident. With these few lessons 
of usefulness we conclude our notice of the Channel Island excur¬ 
sion. Guernsey cows, Normandy butter, and calf fattening are 
things to be remembered in such a manner as to be turned to 
subsequent account. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Never did we see corn crops so foul with weeds in June as they now 
are, and the backward sickly appearance of much of the corn does not 
give promise of much profit to cover the heavy expenditure involved in 
the attempt to kill some of the weeds. It was indeed a sign of the 
backward season to see the men just beginning work in the corn fields 
that is usually done in March or April. Charlock is of course rampant, 
and will, as usual, rob the soil of much of its fertility, which reminds vs 
of the very general evidence of soil poverty we have had in several 
recent long journeys. Both pasture and corn land show unmistakeably 
lamentable poverty of condition. We have been over midland pasture 
laid in for hay that will yield nothing like a ton an acre, and it is 
difficult to see how it can answer to pay rent for land and suffer it to 
remain so sadly out of condition. It might be supposed that the whole 
question of the profitable use of manures was about threshed out now. 
So it is, but to very little purpose so far as the ordinary farmer is 
concerned. As to chemical manures he is in a cloud, and we question if 
ever he will come out of it. We know many farmers, models of sobriety 
and industry, who work early and late to make ends meet, and who do 
it, too, but who might do so much better for themselves if only they did 
the best for the land which they hire. Why even the most stolid mind 
must understand that to keep on grazing or mowing pasture year by 
year, and to do nothing to it in the wav of a systematic application of 
manure, must induce poverty of soil and practically crop failure. 
The singling and hoeing of all root and green crops has made sat's- 
factory progress, and there is an excellent full plant of all such crops. We 
prefer sowing cattle Cabbage and Thousand-headed Kale in drills where 
the plants are to grow, and to thin rather than transplant from a seed 
bed as being more certain. The cost of an extra quantity of seed is more 
than counterbalanced by the lessened labour. It may appear that 
thinning or transplanting involves much the same amount of labour, 
but if the transplanted crop has to be watered a few times the cost 
mounts up quickly. 
OUR LETTER BOX. 
Diseased Cow (Z). A.).—We should be very sorry to drink any of 
the milk under the circumstances you describe, and we should think 
anyone would run a serious risk in doing so. 
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 
CAMDEN SQUARE, LONDON. 
Lat. 51° 32' 40" N.; Long. 0° 8' 0" W.; Altitude, 111 feet. 
DATE. 
9 AM. 
IN THE DAY. 
Hygrome- 
s • 
Shade Tern- 
Radiation 
5 
a? 
ter. 
perature. 
Temperature. 
J une. 
1 
is:: 
In 
On 
Dry. i Wet. 
Qo 
Max. 
Min. 
sun. 
Krass 
, 
Inches. 
deg. 1 deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
deg. 
In. 
Sunday. 
7 
29.929 
51.7 1 47.0 
N.E. 
55.2 
69.8 
48.8 
96.4 
47.0 
Monday . 
8 
29.919 
66.0 ' 50.9 
E. 
51.3 
66.2 
45.7 
113.9 
42.7 
Tuesday .... 
9 
29.918 
68.4 51.0 
N.E. 
54.9 
(>3.4 
51.3 
107.1 
50.9 
Wednesday.. 
10 
29.987 
60.0 52.2 
N. 
55.0 
68.7 
44.9 
IIO.O 
42.1 
Thursday..,. 
11 
30.18(5 
51.9 S6.2 
N.E. 
/i5.9 
61.9 
45.0 
116.6 
41.1 
_ 
Friday . 
12 
30.395 
51.6 ' 47.9 
N;E, 
.56.9 
65.0 
45.3 
li2.8 
40.3 
_ 
Saturday .... 
13 
30.383 
59.7 54.6 
S.W. 
55.4 
76.1 
45.9 
121.4 
41.9 
— 
30.102 
55.6 50.1 
53.5 
68.3 
46.4 
111.2 
43.7 
— 
REMARKS. 
ft'i.—Qjnerally overcast and coo’, but occasional g’eams of son. 
8th.—Occasional gleams of sun, but generally clou ly in m)raiag; ore O' tvo Slight 
showers In afternoon. 
9th. —Fine and generally bright, 
loth. — '5r gilt and tine, 
nth. — Sright, but cool. 
12th.— (vercast and cold morning ; generally bright after 2 P.M. 
13th.— t'illlant morning; osca-ional cloud in afternoon and evcniag. 
A fl le bright week, not s o warm, but rainless.—G. J. SYMONS. 
