1 ' " * "V. v^-' \ v r- \' N v, ■/ ^ N A- •V -•-* •s .lU, >-, A Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/milchcowsdairyfa03flin •.' :'M- IRY FARMING; COMPRISING THE BREEDS, BREEDING, AND MANAGEMENT, IN HEALTH AND DISEASE, OF DAIRV AND OTHER STOCK j THE SELECTION OF MILCH COWS, WITH A FULL EXPLANATION OF GUENON'S METHOD ; THE CULTURE OF FORAGE PLANTS, AND THE PRODUCTION OF MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE: EMBODYING THE MOST RECENT IMPROVEMENTS, 7 ' '^- T'V". Eg. 36 Eg. 35. Tic . 37 100 REAL EXTENT OF THE MIRROR. in the midst of the mirror. Figs. 45, 46, and 47, or form indentations on its edges, as in Figs. 42, 44, 45, 46, and 48. These indentations, concealed in part by the folds of the skin, are sometimes seen with difficulty ; but it is important to take them into account, since in a great many cows they materially lessen the size of the mir- ror. We often find cows whose milk-mirror at first sight appears very large, but which are only medium milkers ; and it will usually be found that lateral indent- ations greatly diminish the surface of up-growing hair. Many errors are committed in estimating the value of such cows, from a want of attention to the real extent of the milk-mirror. All the interruptions in the surface of the mirror indicate a diminution of the quantity of milk, with the exception, however, of small oval or elliptical plates which are found in the mirror, on the back part of the udders of the best cows, as in Figs. 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, and 40. These ovals have a peculiar tint, which is occasioned by the downward direction of the hair which forms them. In the best cows these ovals exist with the lower mirrors very well developed, as in Figs. 29, 30, and 32. In fine, we should state that in order to determine the extent and significance of a mirror it is necessary to consider the state of the perineum as to fat, and of the fulness of the udder. In a fat cow, with an in- flated udder, the mirror would appear larger than it really is; whilst in a lean cow, with a loose and wrinkled udder, it appears smaller. Fat will cover faults, a fact to be kept in mind in selecting a cow. In bulls, Fig. 51, the mirrors present the same pecu- liarities as in cows ; but they are less varied in their form, and especially much less in size. This will easily FORMS OP THE MILK-MIRROR. 1Q1 9* 102 MILK-HIEBOES ON CALVES. be understood from the explanation of mirrors given on a preceding page. . In calves the mirrors show the shapes they are after- wards to have, only they are more contracted, because the parts which they cover are but slightly developed. They are easily seen after birth ; but the hair which then covers them is long, coarse, and stiff; and when this hair falls off, the calf's mirror will resemble that of the cow, but be of less size. With calves, however, it should be stated, in addition to what has already been said, that the milk-mirrors are more distinctly recognized on those from cows that are well kept, and that they will generally be fully devel- oped at two years old. Some changes take place in the course of years, but the outlines of the mirror appear prominent at the time of advanced pregnancy, or, in the case of cows giving milk, at the times when the udder is more distended with milk than at others. The classification adopted by Magne appears still further to simplify the whole method, and to bring it within the easy reach and comprehension of every one who will examine the figures and the explanations con- nected with them. He divides cows, according to the quantity they give, into four classes : First, the very good ; second, the good ; third, the medium ; and fourth, the bad. In the first class he places cows both parts of whose milk-mirror, the mammary and the perinean, are large, continuous, uniform, covering at least a great part of the perineum, the udder, the inner surface of the thighs, and extending more or less out upon the legs, as in Figs. 29 to 33, with no interruptions, or, if any, small ones, oval in form, and situated on the posterior face of the udder, Figs. 29, 30, and 32. Such mirrors are found on most very good cows, FOEMS OF THE MILK-MIRROR, 103 Fig. 45. Tig. 46 104 FIEST-EATE COWS. but may also be found on cows which can scarcely be called good, and which should be ranked in the next class. But cows, whether having very well-developed mirrors or not, may be reckoned as very good, and as giving as much milk as is to be expected from their size, feed, and the hygienic circumstances in which they are kept, if they present the following characteristics : Veins of the perineum large, as if swollen, and visible on the exterior, as in Figs. 29 — 32, or which can be easily made to appear by pressing upon the base of the perineum ; veins of the udder large and knotted, milk- veins large, often double, equal on both sides, and forming zig-zags under the belly. To the signs furnished by the veins and by the mir- ror may be added also the following marks : A uniform, very large and yielding udder, shrinking much in milk- ing, and covered with soft skin and fine hair; good constitution, full chest, regular appetite, and great pro- pensity to drink. Cows rather inclining to be poor than fat. Soft, yielding skin, short, fine hair, small head, fine horns, bright, sparkling eye, mild expression, feminine look, with a fine neck. Cows of this first class are very rare. They give, even when small in size, from ten to fourteen quarts of milk a day, and the largest sized from eighteen to twenty-six quarts a day, and even more. Just after calving, if arrived at maturity and fed with good, wholesome, moist food in sufficient quantity and quality, adapted to promote the secretion of milk, they can give about a pint of milk for every ten ounces of hay, or its equivalent, which they eat. They continue in milk for a long period. The best never go dry, and may be milked even up to the time of calving, giving from eight to twelve quarts of milk a day. The Dutch cow, Fig. 54, was giving daily FORMS OP THE MILK-MIRROR. 105 106 SECOND-RATE COWS. twenty-two quarts of milk, a year after calving. But even the best cows often fall short of the quantity of milk they are able to give, from being fed on food that is too dry, or not sufficiently varied, or not rich enough in nutritive qualities, or deficient in quantity. The second class is that of good coivs ; and to this belong the best commonly found in the market and among the cow-feeders of cities. They have the mammary part of the milk-mirror well developed, but the perinean part contracted or wholly wanting, as in Figs. 34 and 37 ; or both parts of the mirror are moderately developed, or slightly indented, as Figs. 35 and 36. Figs. 38, 39, 40, and 41, belong also to this class, in the lower part ; but they denote cows which, as the upper mirrors, s s s, indi- cate, dry up sooner when again in calf. These marks, though often seen on many good cows, should be considered as certain only when the veins of the perineum form, under the skin, a kind of network, which, without being very apparent, may be felt by a pressure on them ; when the milk-veins on the belly are well developed, though less knotted and less prominent than in cows of the first class ; in fine, when the udder is well developed, and presents veins which are suffi- ciently numerous, though not very large. It is necessary, then, as in the preceding class, to have a mistrust of cows in which the mirror is not accompanied by large veins. This remark applies especially to cows which have had several calves, and are in full milk. They are medium or bad, let the milk- mirror be what it may, if the veins of the belly are not large, and those of the udder apparent. The general characteristics which depend on form and constitution combine less than in coavs of the pre- A COW OF THE FIRST CLASS. 107 Fig. 54. A Good Milch Cow. ceding class the marks of good health and excellent constitution with, those of a gentle and feminine look. Small cows of this class give from seven to ten or eleven quarts of milk a day, and the largest from thirteen to seventeen quarts. They can be made to give three fourths of a pint of milk, just after calving, 108 THIED CLASS. — BAD COWS. for every ten ounces of hay consumed, if well cared for, and fed in a manner favorable to the secretion of milk. They hold out long in milk when they have no upper mirrors or tufts. At seven or eight months in calf, they may give from five to eight quarts a day. The third class consists of middling cows. When the milk-mirror really presents only the lower or mammary part slightly developed or indented, and the perinean part contracted, narrow, and irregular, as in Figs. 42 to 47, the cows are middling. The udder is slightly developed or hard, and shrinks very little after milking. The veins of the perineum are not apparent, and those which run along the lower sides of the abdomen are small, straight, and sometimes unequal. In this case the mirror is not symmetrical, and the cow gives more milk on the side where the vein is largest. These cows often have large heads, and a thick and hard skin. Being ordinarily in good condition, and even fat, they are beautiful to look at, and seem to be well formed. Many of them are nervous and restive, and not easily approached. Cows of this class give, according to size, from three or four to ten quarts of milk. They very rarely give, even in the most favorable circumstances, half a pint for every ten ounces of hay which they consume. The milk diminishes rapidly, and dries up wholly the fourth or fifth month in calf. The fourth class is composed of bad coivs. As they are ordinarily in good condition, these cows are often the most beautiful of the herd and in the markets. They have fleshy thighs, thick and hard skin, a large and coarse neck and head, and horns large at the base. The udder is hard, small, and fleshy, with a skin covered with long, rough hair. No veins are to be seen either on the perineum or the udder, while those ANOTHER CLASSIFICATION. 109 of the belly are very slightly developed, and the mir- rors are ordinarily small, as in Figs. 48, 49, and 50. With these characteristics, cows give only a few quarts of milk a day, and dry up a short time after calving. Some such can scarcely nourish their calves, even when they are well cared for and well fed. Sickly habits, chronic affections of the digestive organs, the chest, the womb, and the lacteal system, sometimes greatly affect the milk secretions, and cause cows troubled with them to fall from the first or second to the third, and sometimes to the fourth class. The above classification is very similar to that of Pabst, a German farmer of large experience and obser- vation of stock, who, with a view to simplify the method of Guenon, and render it of greater practical value to the farmer, made five divisions or classes, con- sisting of, 1st, Very good or extraordinary ; 2d, Good or good middling ; 3d, Middling and little below mid- dling; 4th, Small; and, 5th, Very bad milkers. These classifications, adopted by Magne, Pabst, and other good breeders and judges of cows, appear to me to be far more simple and satisfactory than the more extended and complicated classification of Guenon him- self. Without pretending to be able to judge with any accuracy of the quantity, the quality, or the duration, which any particular size or form of the mirror will indicate, they give to Guenon the full credit of his important discovery of the escutcheon, or milk-mirror, as a new and very valuable element in forming our judgment of the milking qualities of a cow ; and simply assert, with respect to the duration or continuance of the flow of milk, that the mirror that indicates the greatest quantity will also indicate the longest dura- tion. The mirror forms, in other words, an important additional mark or point for distinguishing good milk- 10 110 SPECIAL • CASES. ers ; and it is safe to lay it down as a rule that, in the selection of milch cows, as well as in the choice of young animals as breeders, we should, by all means, examine and consider the milk-mirror, but not limit or confine ourselves exclusively to it, and that other and long-known marks should be equally regarded. But there are cases where a knowledge and careful examination of the form and size of the mirror becomes of the greatest importance. It is well known that cer- tain signs or marks of great milkers are developed only as the capacities of the animal herself are fully and completely developed by age. The milk-veins, for instance, are never so large and prominent in heifers and young cows as in old ones, and the same may be said of the udder, and the veins of the udder and per- ineum ; all of which it is of great importance to observe in the selection of milch cows. Those signs, then, which in cows arrived at maturity are almost sufficient in themselves to warrant a conclusion as to their merits as milkers, are, to a great extent, wanting in younger animals, and altogether in calves, of which there is often doubt whether they shall be raised ; and here a knowledge of the form of the mirror is of immense advantage, since it gives, at the outset, and before any expense is incurred, a somewhat reliable means of judging of the future milking capacities of the animal or, if a male, of the probability of his transmitting milking qualities to his offspring. It will be seen, from an examination of the points of a good milch cow, that, though the same marks which indicate the greatest milking qualities may not indicate any great aptitude to fatten, yet that the signs which indicate good fattening qualities are included among the signs favorable to the production of milk, such as soundness of constitution, indicated by good organs of BUYING DAIRY STOCK. Ill digestion and respiration, fineness and mellowness of the skin and hair, quietness of disposition, which inclines the animal to rest and lie down in chewing the cud, and other marks which are relied on by graziers in selecting animals to fatten. In buying dairy stock the farmer generally finds it for his interest to select young heifers. They give the promise of longer usefulness. But it is often the case that older cows are selected with the design of using them for the dairy for a limited period, and then feeding them for the butcher. In either case, it is ad- visable, as a rule, to choose animals in low or medium condition. The farmer cannot ordinarily afford to buy fat ; it is more properly his business to make it, and to have it to sell. Good and well-marked cows in poor condition will rapidly gain in flesh and products when removed to better pastures and higher keeping, and they cost less in the original purchase. It is unnecessary to say that regard should be had to the quality of the pasturage and keeping which a cow has previously had, as compared with that to which she is to be subjected. The size of the animal should also be con- sidered with reference to the fertility of the pastures into which she is to be put. Small or medium-sized animals accommodate themselves to ordinary pastures far better than large ones. Where a very large cow will do well, two small ones will usually do better ; while the large animal might fail entirely where two small ones would do well. It is better to have the whole herd, so far as may be, uniform in size ; for, if they vary greatly, some may get more than they need, and others will not have enough. This, however, can- not always be brought about. 112 A GOOD DAIRY COW. CHAPTEK IV. FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT OP DAIRY COWS. No branch of dairy farming can compare in import- ance with the management of cows. The highest success will depend very much upon it, whatever breed be selected, and whatever amount of care and attention be given to the points of the animals ; for experience will show that very little milk comes out of the bag that is not first put into the throat. It is poor econ- omy, therefore, to attempt to keep too many cows for the amount of feed we have ; for it will generally be found that one good cow well bred and well fed will yield as much as two ordinary cows kept in the ordi- nary way, while a saving is effected both in labor and room required, and in the risks on the capital invested. If the larger number on poorer feed is urged for the sake of the manure, which is the only ground on which it can be put, it is sufficient to remark that it is a very expensive way of making manure. It is not too much to say that a proper regard to profit and economy would require many an American farmer to sell off nearly half his cows, and to feed the whole of his hay and roots hitherto used into the remainder. A certain German farmer was visited, one day, by some Swiss from over the border, who desired to buy of him all the milk of his cows for the purpose of making cheese. Not being able to agree upon the 10* 8 114 CAUSES AND EFFECTS. terms, he finally proposed to let them take the entire charge of his cows, and agreed to furnish feed amply sufficient, the Swiss assuming the whole care of feeding it out, and paying a fixed price by measure for all the milk. " I found myself, at once," says he, " under the necessity of selling almost half my cows, because the Swiss required nearly double the quantity of fodder which the cows had previously had, and I was well sat- isfied that all the produce I could raise on my farm would be far from sufficient to feed in that way the number of cows I had kept. I was in despair at find- ing them using such a quantity of the best quality of feed, though it was according to the strict letter of the contract, especially as I knew that I had given my cows rather more than the quantity of food recommended by men in whom I had perfect confidence. Thus, while Thaer names twenty-three pounds of hay, or its equiv- alent, as food sufficient for a good-sized cow, I gave mine full twenty-seven pounds. But, if the change effected in the management of my cows was great, the result was still more striking. The quantity of milk kept increasing, and it reached the highest point when the cows attained the condition of the fat kine of Pharaoh's dream. The quantity of milk became double, triple, and even quadruple, what it had been before ; so that, if I should compare the product with that previously obtained, a hundred pounds of hay produced three times more milk than it had produced with my old mode of feeding. Such results, of course, attracted my attention to this branch of my farming. It became a matter of pleasure ; and my observations were followed up with great care, and during several years I devoted a large part of my time to it. I even went so far as to procure scales for weighing the food and the animals, in order to establish exact data on the most positive basis." A farmer's conclusions. 115 The conclusions to which he arrived were, that an animal, to be fully fed and satisfied, requires a quantity of food in proportion to its live weight ; that no feed could be complete that did not contain a sufficient amount of nutritive elements ; hay, for example, being more nutritive than straw, and grains than roots. He found, too, that the food must possess a bulk sufficient to fill up to a certain degree the organs of digestion or the stomach ; and that, to receive the full benefit of its food, the animal must be wholly satisfied, as, if the stomach is not sufficiently distended, the food cannot be properly digested, and of course many of the nutri- tive principles it contains would not be perfectly assim- ilated. An animal regularly fed eats till it is satisfied, and no more than is requisite. A part of the nutritive elements in hay and other forage-plants is needed to keep an animal on its feet, — that is, to keep up its con- dition, — and if the nutrition of its food is not sufficient for this the weight decreases, and if it is more than sufficient the weight increases, or else this excess is consumed in the production of milk or in labor. About one sixtieth of their live weight in hay, or its equiva- lent, will keep horned cattle on their feet ; but, in order to be completely nourished, they require about one thirtieth in dry substances, and four thirtieths in water, or other liquid contained in their food. The excess of nutritive food over and above what is required to sus- tain life will go in milch cows generally to the produc- tion of milk, or to the growth of the foetus, but not in all cows to an equal extent ; the tendency to the secre- tion of milk being far more developed in some than in others. With regard to the consumption of food in propor- tion to the live weight of the animal, however far it may apply as a general principle, it should, I think, 116 NUTRITIVE ELEMENTS OF FOOD. be taken with some qualifications. The proportion is probably not uniform as applied to all breeds indiscrim- inately, though it may be more so as applied to animals of the same breed. Bakewell's idea was that the quan- tity of food required depended much on the shape of the barrel ; and it is well known that an animal of a close, compact, well-rounded barrel will consume less than one of an opposite make. The variations in the yield of milch cows are caused more by the variations in the nutritive elements of their food than by a change of the form in which it is given. "A cow, kept through the winter on mere straw," says a practical writer on this subject, " will cease to give milk ; and, when fed in spring on green forage, will give a fair quantity of milk. But she owes the cessation and restoration of the secretion to respectively the diminution and the increase of her nourishment, and not at all to the change of form, or of outward sub- stance, in which the nourishment is administered. Let cows receive through winter nearly as large a propor- tion of nutritive matter as is contained in the clover, lucerne, and fresh grasses, which they eat in summer, and, no matter in what precise substance or mixture that matter may be contained, they will yield a winter's produce of milk quite as rich in caseine and butyr- aoeous ingredients as the summer's produce, and far more ample in quantity than almost any dairyman with old-fashioned notions would imagine to be possible. The great practical error on this subject consists not in giving wrong kinds of food, but in not so propor- tioning and preparing it as to render an average ration of it equally rich in the elements of nutrition, and es- pecially in nitrogenous elements, as an average ration of the green and succulent food of summer." We keep too much stock for the quantity of good MOIST FEED.— DAIRYMAN'S MOTTO. 117 and nutritious food which we have for it ; and the con- sequence is cows are, in nine cases out of ten, poorly- wintered, and come out in the spring weakened, if not, indeed, positively diseased, and a long time is required to bring them into a condition to yield a generous quantity of milk. It is a hard struggle for a cow reduced in flesh and in blood to fill up the wasted system with the food which would otherwise have gone to the secretion of milk ; but, if she is well fed, well housed, well littered, and well supplied with pure, fresh water, and with roots, or other moist food, and properly treated to the luxury of a frequent carding, and constant kindness, she comes out ready to commence the manufacture of milk under favorable circumstances. Keep the cows constantly in good condition, ought, therefore, to be the motto of every dairy farmer, posted up over the barn-door, and over the stalls, and over the milk-room, and repeated to the boys whenever there is danger of forgetting it. It is the great secret of suc- cess, and the difference between success and failure turns upon it. Cows in milk require more food in pro- portion to their size and weight than either oxen or young cattle. In order to keep cows in milk well and economically, regularity is next in importance to a full supply of wholesome and nutritious food. The healthy animal stomach is a very nice chronometer, and it is of the utmost importance to observe regular hours in feeding, cleaning, and milking. This is a point, also, in which very many farmers are at fault — feeding whenever it happens to be convenient. The cattle are thus kept in a restless condition, constantly expecting food when the keeper enters the barn, while, if regular hours are strictly adhered to, they know exactly when they are 118 COUESE OP FEEDING. to be fed, and they rest quietly till the time arrives. Go into a well-regulated dairy establishment an hour before the time of feeding, and scarcely an animal will rise to its feet ; while, if it happens to be the hour of feeding, the whole herd will be likely to rise and seize their food with an avidity and relish not to be mistaken. With respect to the exact routine to be pursued, no rule could be prescribed which would apply to all cases ; and each individual must be governed much by circum- stances, both in respect to the particular kinds of feed at different seasons of the year, and the system of feed- ing. I have found in my own practice, and in the prac- tice of the most successful dairymen, that, in order to encourage the largest secretion of milk in stalled cows, one of the best courses is, to feed in the morning, either at the time of milking — which I prefer — or imme- diately after, with cut feed, consisting of hay, oats, millet, or corn-stalks, mixed with shorts, and Indian, lin- seed, or cotton-seed meal, thoroughly moistened with water. If in winter, hot or warm water is far better than cold. If given at milking-time, the cows will gen- erally give down the milk more readily. The stalls and mangers ought always to be well cleaned out first. Roots and long hay may be given during the day; and at the evening milking, or directly after, another gen- erous meal of cut feed, well moistened and mixed, as in the morning. No very concentrated food, like grains alone or oil-cakes, should, it seems to me, be fed early in the morning on an empty stomach, though it is sanctioned by the practice in the London milk-dairies. The processes of digestion go on best when the stom- ach is sufficiently distended ; and for this purpose the bulk of food is almost as important as the nutritive qualities. The flavor of some roots, as cabbages and turnips, is more apt to be imparted to the flesh and ECONOMY IN WARMTH. 119 milk when fed on an empty stomach than otherwise. After the cows have been milked, and have finished their cut feed, they are carded and curried down, in well-managed dairies, and then either watered in the stall, which in very cold or stormy weather is far pref- erable, or turned out to water in the yard. When they are out, if they are let out at all, the stables are put in order ; and, after tying them up, they are fed with long hay, and left to themselves till the time of next feed- ing. This may consist of roots, such as cabbages, beets, carrots, or turnips, sliced, or of potatoes, a peck, or, if the cows are very large, a half-bushel each, and cut feed again at the evening milking, as in the morn- ing, after which water in the stall, if possible. The less cows are exposed to the cold of winter, the better. They eat less, thrive better, and give more milk, when kept housed all the time, than when exposed to the cold. Caird mentions a case where a herd of cows, which had been usually supplied from troughs and pipes in the stalls, were, on account of an obstruction in the pipes, obliged to be turned out twice a day to be watered in the yard. The quantity of milk instantly decreased, and in three days the falling off became very considerable. After the pipes were mended, and the cows again watered as before, in their stalls, the flow of milk returned. This, however, will be gov- erned much by the weather ; for in very mild, warm days it may be judicious not only to let them out, but to allow them to remain out for a short time, to ex- ercise. Any one can arrange the hour for the several process- es named above, to suit himself; but, when once fixed, let it be rigidly and regularly followed. If the regular and full feeding be neglected for even a day, the yield of milk will immediately decline, and it will be very 120 EEGULAEITY. — CHANGE. difficult to restore it. It may safely be asserted, as the result of many trials and long practice, that a larger flow of milk follows a complete system of regularity in this respect than from a higher feeding where this sys- tem is not adhered to. One prime object which the dairyman should keep constantly in view is, to maintain the animal in a sound and healthy condition. Without this, no profit can be expected from a milch cow for any considerable length of time ; and, with a view to this, there should be an occasional change of food. But, in making changes, great care is required to supply an equal amount of nourishment, or the cow falls off in flesh, and eventu- ally in milk. We should therefore bear in mind that the food consumed goes not alone to the secretion of milk, but also to the growth and maintenance of the bony structure, the flesh, the blood, the fat, the skin, and the hair, and in exhalations from the body. These parts of the body consist of different organic con- stituents. Some are rich in nitrogen, as the fibrin of the blood, albumen, &c. ; others destitute of it, as fat ; some abound in inorganic salts, phosphate of lime, salts of potr ash, &c. To explain how the constant waste of these substances may be supplied, Dr. Voelcker observes that the albumen, gluten, caseine, and other nitrogenized principles of food, supply the animal with materials required for the formation of muscle and cartilage ; they are, therefore, called flesh-forming principles. " Fats, or oily matters of the food," says he, " are used to lay on fat, or for the purpose of sustaining respiration. "Starch, sugar, gum, and a few other non-nitrogenized substances, consisting of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen, supply the carbon given off in respiration, or they are used for the production of fat. "Phosphates of lime and magnesia in food principally FEEDING FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES. 121 furnish the animal with the materials of which the bony skeleton of its body consists. "Saline substances — chlorides of sodium and potas- sium, sulphate and phosphate of potash and soda, and some other mineral matters occurring in food — supply the blood, juice of flesh, and various animal juices, with the necessary mineral constituents. " The healthy state of an animal can thus only be pre- served by a mixed food; that is, food which contains all the proximate principles just noticed. Starch or sugar alone cannot sustain the animal body, because neither of them furnishes the materials to build up the fleshy parts of the animal. When fed on substances in which an in- sufficient quantity of phosphates occurs, the animal will become weak, because it does not find any bone-pro- ducing principles in its food. Due attention, therefore, ought to be paid by the feeder to the selection of food which contains all the kinds of matter required, nitro- genized as well as non-nitrogenized, and mineral sub- stances ; and these should be mixed together in the proportion which experience points out as best for the different kinds of animals, or the particular purpose for which they are kept." " On the nutrition of cows for dairy purposes," Dr. Voelcker still further observes that "milk may be re- garded as a material for the manufacture of butter or of cheese ; and, according to the purpose for which the milk is intended to be employed, whether for the manu- facture of butter or the production of cheese, the cow should be differently fed. " Butter contains carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, and no nitrogen. Cheese, on the contrary, is rich in nitro- gen. Food which contains much fatty matter, or sub- stances which in the animal system are readily con- verted into fat, will tend to increase the proportion of 11 122 FOR MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE. cream in milk. On the other hand, the proportion of caseine or cheesy matter in milk is increased by the use of highly nitrogenized food. Those, therefore, who desire much cream, or who produce milk for the manu- facture of butter, select food likely to increase the pro- portion of butter in the milk. On the contrary, where the principal object is the production of milk rich in curd,— that is, where cheese is the object of the farmer, — clover, peas, and bean-meal, and other plants which abound in legumine, — a nitrogenized organic com- pound, almost identical in properties and composition with caseine, or the substance which forms the curd of milk, — will be selected." And so the quality, as well as the quantity, of butter in the milk, depends on the kind of food consumed, and on the general health of the animal. Cows fed on turnips in the stall always pro- duce butter inferior to that of cows living upon the fresh and aromatic grasses of the pastures. Succulent food in which water abounds — the green grass of irrigated meadows, green clover, brewers' refuse, distillers' refuse, etc. — increases the quantity, rather than the quality, of the milk ; and by feeding these substances the milk-dairyman studies his own interest, and makes thin milk, without diluting it with water, though, in the opinion of some, this may be no more legitimate than watering the milk. But, though the yield of milk may be increased by succulent or watery food, it should be given so as not to interfere with the health of the cow. Food rich in starch, gum, or sugar, which are the respiratory elements, an excess of which goes to the production of fatty matters, increases the butter in milk. Quietness promotes the secretion of fat in animals and increases the butter. Cheese will be increased by food rich in albumen, such as the leguminous plants. SUMMER POOD FOR COWS. 123 The most natural, and of course the healthiest food for milch cows in summer, is the green grass of the pastures; and when these fail from drought, or over- stocking, the complement of nourishment may be made up with green clover, green oats, barley, millet, or corn- fodder, and cabbage-leaves, or other succulent vegeta- bles ; and if these are wanting, their place may be partly supplied with shorts, Indian-meal, linseed or cot- ton-seed meal. Green grass is more nutritious than hay, which always loses more or less of its nutritive qualities in curing; the amount of the loss depending chiefly on the mode of curing, and the length of ex- posure to sun and rain. But, apart from this, grass is more easily and completely digested than hay, though the digestion of hay may be greatly aided by cutting and moistening, or steaming ; and by this means it is rendered more readily available, and hence far better adapted to promote a large secretion of milk — a fact too often overlooked by many even intelligent farmers. That green grass is better adapted than most other kinds of food to promote a large flow of milk, may be be seen from the following table, from which it will appear that greater attention should be given to the proper constituents of food for milch cows. Two cows were taken in the experiment. Food of two cows. Milk in five days. Butter in five days. Nitrogen in food in five days. 2. Barley and hay, . 3. Malt and hay, . . . 4. Barley, molasses, and\ hay, .... J 5. Barley, linseed, and\ hay, . . . . j 6. Beans and hay, . . . 114 lbs. 107 102 106 108 108 3. 50 lbs. 3.43 3.20 3.44 3.48 3.72 2.321bs. 3.89 3.34 3.82 4.14 5.27 124 AUTUMN POOD FOE COWS. Here grass produced the largest flow of milk, but of a quality less rich than bean-meal and hay, which pro- duced the richest quality ; one hundred and eight pounds making more butter than one hundred and four- teen pounds of grass-made milk. In autumn, the best feed will be the grasses of the pastures, so far as they are available, green-corn fod- der, cabbage, carrot and turnip leaves, and an addition of meal or shorts. Towards the middle of autumn, the cows fed in the pastures will require to be housed reg- ularly nights, especially in the more northern latitudes, and put, in part at least, upon hay. But every farmer knows that it is not judicious to feed out the best part of his hay when his cattle are first put into the barn, and that he should not feed so well in the early part of winter that he cannot feed better as it advances. At the same time, it should always be borne in mind that the change from grass to a poor quality of hay or straw, for cows in milk, should not be too sudden. A poor quality of dry hay is far less palatable in the early part of winter, after the cows are taken from grass, than at a later period ; and, if it is resorted to with milch cows, will inevitably lead to a falling off in the milk, which no good feed can afterwards wholly restore. It is desirable, therefore, to know what can be used instead of his best English or upland meadow hay, and yet not suffer any greater loss in the flow of milk, or condition, than is absolutely necessary. In some sec- tions of New England, the best quality of swale hay will be used ; and the composition of that is as variable as possible, depending on the varieties of grasses of which it was made, and the manner of curing. But, in other sections, many will find it necessary to use straAv, and other substitutes ; and it may be desirable to know how much is required to form an equivalent in NUTRITIVE EQUIVALENTS. 125 nutrition to good meadow or English hay. The follow- ing brief table of nutritive equivalents will be conve- nient for reference : 1. Meadow hay, . 2. Red Clover-hay, 3. Rye-straw, . . 4. Oat-straw, . . 5. Wheat-straw, . 6. Barley-straw, . 7. Pea-straw, . Percentage of Nitrogen. Nutritive equivalent. Dried. Undried. 100 1.34 1.15 75 1.70 1.54 479 0.30 0.24 383 0.36 0.30 426 0.36 0.27 . 460 0.30 0.25 64 1.45 1.79 The following is the composition of these several substances, in which their relative value will more distinctly appear : Water. Woody fibre. Starch, Gum, Sugar. Gluten, Albu- men, etc. Patty matter. Saline matter. 14 30 40 7.1 2 to 5 5 to 10 14 25 40 9.3 3 to 5 9 12 to 15 45 38 1.3 4 12 45 35 1.3 0.8 6 12 to 15 50 30 1.3 2 to 3 5 12 to 15 50 30 1.3 5 10 to 15 25 45 12.3 1.5 4 to 6 From these tables it will be seen that, taking good English or meadow hay as the standard of comparison, and calling that one, 4.79 times the weight of rye-straw, or 3.83 times the weight of oat-straw, contains the same amount of nutritive matter ; that is, it would take 4.79 times as much rye-straw to produce the same result as good meadow hay. The more elaborate nutritive equivalents of Boussin- gault will be found to be very valuable and suggestive, and the following table is given in this connection for the sake of convenient reference. 11* 126 TABLE OF EQUIVALENTS. Ph s p V) hJ H H h5 i-l x=> - * I t-m | t- uO r-^o cieido'i'j I oo oooooo OWOHOlMiCO C3MOrtoit-oini-ioooio« iflXTtli*-* OiOl- CO O CO O r— l^-*OOC<)000 HCOiOtD'ClCCCOH |HCOO-J)HOOOH1>C500C< Hriri 10COH(NHHC^c4o ^COO O CO -^ CO COOOOOOOOOCNIC T5 o 3 a 3 i 3 D "ti -E J \— E -F o & ?> Is* «5J is S 4 | 5^ ■j — 5 5 £ o j xE ^ O; — L <~~ TT 1 n "l r- •ti 6 6 O 1 \ 1 ^ L u i n ^N 5~. r i n at/. ^ is a bin receiving cut hay from third story, or hay-room, h h h h h h, bins for grain-feed, i is a tunnel to conduct manure or muck from the hay-floor to the cellar, jj, sliding doors on wheels. The cows all face towards the open area in the centre. 152 DESCRIPTION OF PLAN. This cow-room may be furnished with a thermom- eter, clock, etc., and should always be well ventilated by sliding windows, which at the same time admit the light, ■ 1 k _\(i \_.- c a ' 1 1 Fig. 57 is a transverse section of the cow-room, Fig. 56, a being a walk behind the cows, five feet wide ; b, dung-pit ; c, cattle-stand ; d, feeding-trough, with a bottom on a level with the platform where the cattle stand ; k, open area, forty-three feet by fifty-six. The story above the cow-room, Fig. 58, is one hun- dred feet by forty-two, the bays for hay, ten on each side, being ten feet front and fifteen feet deep, and the open space, p, for the entrance of wagons, carts, etc., twelve feet wide, b, hay-scales, c, scale-beam, m m m m mm, ladders reaching almost to the roof. I I I, &c, scuttle-holes for sending vegetables direct to the bins, III, etc., below, a a b b, rooms on the corners for storage, d, scuttles, four of which are used for straw, one for cut hay, and one for muck for the cellar, n and the other small squares are eighteen-feet posts. /, passage to the tool-house, a room one hundred feet long by fifteen wide, o, stairs leading to the scaffold in the roof of the tool-house, i i, benches, g, floor, h, boxes for hoes, shovels, spades, picks, iron bars, old iron, etc. j j j, bins for fruit, h, scuttles to put apples into wagons, etc., in the shed below. One side of this tool-house may be used for ploughs and large implements, hay-rigging, harrows, etc. PLAN OF BARN FLOOR, 153 $ \\ □ u . rj£ [ ] n r ^ i a : n D : D a : <*> g. ^ D DS > n a □ j •K & H* | o n a □ L U a O* L n L> — i 1 v □ 1 — -«-i J- 3 f 7* 55 L r cm H— ^ Proper ventilation of the cellar and the cow-room avoids the objection that the hay is liable to injury from noxious gases. 154 THE BARN-CELLAR. The excellent manure-cellar beneath this barn extends only under the cow-room. It has a drive-way through doors on each side. No barn-cellar should be kept shut up tight, even in cold weather. The gases are con- stantly escaping from the manure, unless held by absorb- ents, and are liable not only to affect the health of the stock, but to injure the quality of the hay. To prevent this, and yet secure the important advantages of a ma- nure-cellar, the barn may be furnished with good-sized ventilators on the top, for every twenty-five feet of its length, and with wooden tubes leading from the cellar to the top. There should also be windows on different sides of the cellar, to admit a free circulation of air. With these precautions, together with the use of absorbents in the shape of loam and muck, there will be no danger of rotting the timbers of the barn, or of risking the health of the cattle or the quality of the hay. The temperature at which the cow-room should be kept is somewhere from 50° to G0°, Fahr. The practice and the opinions of successful dairymen differ on this point. Too great heat would affect the health and appe- tite of the herd, while too low a temperature is equally objectionable, for various reasons. CHAPTER V. THE RAISING OF CALVES. It has been found in practice that calves properly bred and raised on the farm have a far greater intrinsic value for that farm, other things being equal, than any that can be procured elsewhere, while on the manner in which they are raised will depend much of their future usefulness and profit. These considerations should have their proper weight in the decision as to whether a promising calf from a good cow and bull shall be kept or sold to the butcher. But, rather than raise a calf at hap-hazarcl, and simply because its dam was celebrated as a milker, the judicious farmer will judge of the peculiar characteristics of the animal itself. This will often save a great and useless outlay which has sometimes been incurred in raising calves for dairy purposes, that a more careful examination would have rejected as unpromising. The method of judging stock developed in a former chapter is of practical use here, and it is safer to rely upon it, to some extent, particularly when other appear- ances concur, than to go on blindly. The milk-mirror on the calf is small, but no smaller in proportion to its size than that of the cow; while its shape and form can generally be distinctly seen, particularly at the end of ten or twelve weeks. The development of the udder, and other peculiarities, will give some indication of the 156 EAISING CALVES.' — LOCAL PRACTICES. future capacities of the animal, and these should be studied. If we except the manure of young stock, the calf is the first product of the cow, and as such demands our attention, whether it is to be raised or hurried off to the shambles. The practice adopted in raising calves differs widely in different sections of the country, being- governed very much by local circumstances, as the vicinity of a milk-market, the value of milk for the dairy, the object of breeding, whether mainly for beef, for work, or for the dairy, etc. ; but, in general, it may be said that, within the range of thirty or forty miles of good veal-markets, which large towns furnish, com- paratively few are raised at all. Most of them are fatted and sold at ages varying from three to eight or ten weeks ; and in milk-dairies still nearer large towns and cities they are often hurried off at one or two days, or, at most, a week old. In both of these cases, as long as the calf is kept it is generally allowed to suckle the cow, and, as the treatment is very simple, there is nothing which particularly calls for remark, unless it be to condemn the practice entirely, on the ground that there is a more profitable way even for fattening calves for the butcher, and to say that allowing the calf to suck the cow at all is objectionable on the score of economy, except in cases where it is rendered neces- sary by the hard and swollen condition of the udder. If the calf is so soon to be taken away, I should pre- fer not to suffer the cow to become attached to it at all, since she is apt to withhold her milk when it is removed, and a loss is sustained. The farmer will be governed by the question of profit, whatever course it is proposed to adopt. In raising blood stock, however, or in raising beef cattle, without any regard to economy of milk, the system of suckling the calves, or Jetting BRINGING UP BY HAND. 157 them run with the cow, may and will be adopted, since it is usually attended with somewhat less labor. The other course, which is regarded as the best where the calf is to be raised for the dairy, is to bring it up by hand. This is clone almost universally in all coun- tries where the raising of dairy cows is best understood, — in Switzerland, Holland, some parts of Germany, and England. It requires rather more care, on the whole ; but it is decidedly preferable, since the calves cost less, as the food can be easily modified, and the growth is not checked, as it is apt to be when the calf is finally taken off from the cow. I speak, of course, of sections where the milk of the cow is of some account for the dairy, and where it is too valuable to be devoted entirely to nourishing the calf. In this case, as soon as the calf is dropped the cow is allowed to lick off the slimy moist- ure till it is dry, which she will usually do from instinct, or, if not, a slight sprinkling of salt over the body of the calf will immediately tempt her. The calf is left to suck once or twice, which it will do as soon as it is able to stand. It should, in all cases, be permitted to have the first milk that comes from the cow, which is of a turbid, yellowish color, unfit for any of the purposes of the dairy, but somewhat purgative or medicinal, and admir- ably and wisely designed by nature to free the bowels and intestines of the new-born animal from the mucous, excrementitious matter always existing in them after birth. Too much of this new milk may, however, be hurtful even to the new-born calf, while it should never be given at all to older calves. The best course, it seems to me, — and I speak from considerable experi- ence, and much observation and inquiry of others, — is to milk the cow dry immediately after the calf has sucked once, especially if the udder is painfully distended, which is often the case, and to leave the calf with the 14 158 A THRIFTY START. cow during one day, and after that to feed it by putting the fingers into its mouth, and gently bringing its muzzle down to the milk in a pail or trough, when it will imbibe in sucking the fingers. I have never found much difficulty in teaching the calf to drink when taken so young, though some take to it much more readily than others. What the calf does not need should be given to the cow. Some, however, prefer to milk immediately after calving ; and if the udder is over- loaded this may be the best course, though the better practice seems to be to leave the cow as quietly to her- self as possible for a few hours. The less she is dis- turbed, as a general thing, the better. The after-birth should be taken from her immediately after it is dropped. It is customary to give the cow, as soon as convenient, after calving, some warm and stimulating drink, — a little meal stirred into warm water, with a part of the first milk that comes from her, seasoned with a little salt. In many cases the calf is taken from the cow imme- diately, and before she has seen it, to a warm, dry pen out of her sight, and there rubbed till thoroughly dry ; and then, when able to stand, fed with the new milk from the cow, which it should have three or four times a day, regularly, for the first fortnight, whatever course it is proposed to adopt afterwards. It is of the great- est importance to give the young calf a thrifty start. The milk, unless coming directly from the cow, should be warmed. Some object to removing the calf from the cow in this way, on the ground of its apparent cruelty. But the objection to letting the calf suckle the coav for several days, as they do, or indeed of leaving it with the cow for any length of time, is, that she invariably becomes attached to it, and frets and withholds her milk when HOW THEY DO IN HOLLAND. 159 it is at last taken from her. She probably suffers a great deal more, after this attachment is once formed, at the removal of the object of it, than she does at its being taken at once out of her sight. The cow's mem- ory is far greater than many suppose ; and the. loss and injury sustained by removing the calf after it has been allowed to suck her for a longer or shorter period is never known exactly, because it is not usually known how much milk the calf takes ; but it is, without doubt, very considerable. If the udder is all right, there seems to be no good reason for leaving the calf with the cow two or three days, if it is then to be taken away. The practice in Holland is to remove the calf from the mother even before it has been licked, and to take it into one corner of the barn, or into another building, out of the cow's sight and hearing, put it upon soft dry straw, and rub it dry with some hay or straw, when its tongue and gums are slightly rubbed with salt, and the mucus and saliva removed from the nostrils and lips. After this has been clone, the calf is made to drink the milk first taken as it comes from the mother. It is slightly diluted with water, if taken last from the udder ; but, if the first of the milking, it is given just as it is. The calf is taught to drink in the same manner as in this country, by putting the fingers in its mouth and bringing it down to the milk, and it soon gets so as to drink alone. It is fed at first from four to six times a day, or even oftener; but soon only three times, at regular intervals. Its food for two or three weeks is clear milk, as it comes warm and fresh from the cow. This is never omitted, as the milk during the most of that time possesses certain qualities which are necessary to the calf, and which cannot be effectually supplied by any other food. In the third or fourth week the milk is skimmed, but warmed to the degree 160 BEGINNING TO EAT. of fresh milk ; though, as the calf grows a little older, the milk is given cold, while less care is taken to give it the milk of its own mother, that of other cows now answering equally well. In some places calves are fed on butter-milk at the age of two weeks and after ; but the change from new milk, fresh from the cow, is made gradually, some sweet skim-milk and warm water being at first added to it. At three weeks old, or thereabouts, the calf will begin to eat a little sweet, fine hay, and potatoes cut fine, and it very soon becomes accustomed to this food. Many now begin to give linseed-meal mixed into hot water, to which is added some skim-milk or butter-milk; and others use a little bran cooked in hay-tea, made by chopping the hay fine, and pouring on boiling hot water, which is allowed to stand a while on it. An egg is fre- quently broken into such a mixture. Others still at this age take pains to have fresh linseed-cake, broken into pieces of the size of a pigeon 7 s-egg ; putting one of these into the mouth after the meal of milk has been finished, and when it is eager to suck at anything in its way. It will very soon learn to eat linseed-meal. A little sweet clover is put in its way at about the age of three weeks, and it will soon eat that also. In this manner the feeding is continued from the fourth to the seventh week, the quantity of solid food being gradually increased. In the sixth or seventh week the milk is by degrees withheld, and water or butter-milk used instead ; and soon after this, green food may be safely given, increasing it gradually with the hay to the age of ten or twelve weeks, when it will do to put them upon grass alone, if the season is favor- able for it. A lot as near the house as possible, where they can be easily looked after and frequently visited, is best. Calves should be gradually accustomed to all A CEUEL PRACTICE. 161 changes ; and even after being turned to pasture they ought to be taken in if the weather is not dry and warm. The want of care and attention to these little details will be apparent sooner or later ; while, if the farmer give his own time to these matters, he will be fully paid in the rapid growth of his calves. It is espe- cially necessary to see that the troughs from which they are fed, if troughs are used, are kept clean and sweet. But there are some even among intelligent farmers who make a practice of turning their calves out to pasture at the tender age of two and three weeks, and that, too, when they have sucked the cow up to that time, and allow them nothing in the shape of milk or tender care. I cannot but think that this is the poorest possible economy, to say nothing of the cruelty of such treatment. The growth of the calf is checked, and the system receives a shock from so sudden a change, from which it cannot soon recover. The care- ful Dutch breeders bring the calves either skimmed milk or butter-milk to drink several times a day after they are turned to grass, which is not till the age of ten or twelve weeks ; and, if the weather is chilly, the milk is warmed for them. They put a trough generally under a covering, where the calves may come and drink at regular times. Thus they are kept tame and docile. In the raising of calves, through all stages of their growth, great care should be taken neither to starve nor to over-feed. A calf should never be surfeited, and never be fed so highly that it cannot be fed more highly as it advances. The most important point is to keep it growing thriftily without getting too fat, if it is to be raised for the dairy. Mr. Aiton, in describing the mode of rearing calves in the dairy districts of Scotland, says : " They are fed on 14* 11 162 HOW THEY DO IN SCOTLAND. milk, with seldom any admixture ; and they are not per- mitted to suckle their dams, but are taught to drink milk by the hand from a dish. They are generally fed on milk only for the first four, five, or six weeks, and are then allowed from two to two and a half quarts of new milk each meal, twice in the twenty-four hours. Some never give them any other food when young except milk, lessening the quantity when the calf begins to eat grass or other food, which it generally does when about five weeks old, if grass can be had ; and withdrawing it entirely about the seventh or eighth week of the calf's age. But, if the calf is reared in winter, or early in spring, before the grass rises, it must be supplied with at least some milk till it is eight or nine weeks old ; as a calf will not so soon learn to eat hay or straw, nor fare so well on them alone as it will do on pasture. Some feed their calves reared for stock partly with meal mixed in the milk after the third or fourth week. Others introduce gradually some new whey among the milk, first mixed with meal ; and, when the calf gets older, they withdraw the milk, and feed it on whey and porridge. Hay-tea, juices of peas and beans, or pea or bean straw, linseed beaten into powder, treacle, &c, have all been sometimes used to advantage in feeding calves ; but milk, when it can be spared, is by far their most natural food. " In Galloway, and other pastoral districts, where the calves are allowed to suckle, the people are so much wedded to their own customs as to argue that suckling is much more nutritive to the calves than any other mode of feeding. That suckling induces a greater secretion of saliva, which, by promoting digestion, accelerates the growth and fattening of the young animal, cannot be doubted ; but the secretion of that fluid may likewise be promoted by placing an artificial teat in the mouth FEEDING BY HAND. 163 of the calf, and giving it the milk slowly, and at the natural temperature. In the dairy districts of Scot- land, the dairy-maid puts one of her fingers into the mouth of the calf, when it is fed, which serves the purpose of a teat, and will have nearly the same effect as the natural teat, in inducing the secretion of saliva. If that, or an artificial teat of leather, be used, and the milk given slowly before it is cold, the secretion of sal- iva may be promoted to all the extent that can be neces- sary; besides, that secretion is not confined to the mere period of eating, but, as in the human body, the saliva is formed and part of it swallowed at all times. As part of the saliva is sometimes seen dropping from the mouths of the calves, it might be advisable to give them not only an artificial teat, when fed, but to place, as is frequently done, a lump of chalk before them to lick, thus leading them to swallow the saliva. The chalk would so far supply the want of salt, of which cattle are so improperly deprived, and it would also promote the formation of saliva. Indeed, calves are much dis- posed to lick and suckle everything that comes within their reach, which seems to be the way that nature teaches them to supply their stomachs with saliva. " But, though suckling their dams may be most advan- tageous in that respect, yet it has also some disadvan- tages. The cow is always more injured than the calf is benefited, by that mode of feeding. She becomes so fond of the calf that she does not, for a long time after, yield her milk freely to the dairy-maid. The calf does not when young draw off the milk completely, and when it is taken off by the hand the cow withholds part of her milk ; and, whenever a cow's udder is not completely emptied every time she is milked, the lactic secretion is thereby diminished. " Feeding of calves by the hand is in various other 164 PATIENCE AND KINDNESS. respects advantageous. Instead of depending on the uncertain or perhaps precarious supply of the dam, which may be more at first than the young animal can consume or digest, and at other times too little for its supply, its food can, by hand-feeding, be regulated to suit the age, appetite, and purposes for which the calf is intended ; other admixtures or substitutes can be introduced into the milk, and the quantity gradually increased or withdrawn at pleasure. This is highly necessary when the calves are reared for stock. The milk is in that case diminished, and other food intro- duced so gradually that the stomach of the young ani- mal is not injured as it is when the food is too suddenly changed. And, in the case of feeding of calves for the butcher, the quantity of milk is not limited to that of the dam (for no cow will allow a stranger calf to suckle her), but it can be increased, or the richest or poorest parts of the milk given, at pleasure.'' In these districts, where, probably, the feeding and management of calves is as well and judiciously con- ducted as in any other part of Britain, the farmers' wives and daughters, or female domestics, have the principal charge of young calves ; and they are, no doubt, much better calculated for this duty than men, since they are more inclined to be gentle and patient. The utmost gentleness should always be observed in the treatment of all stock; but especially of milch cows, and calves designed for the dairy. Persevering kind- ness and patience will, almost invariably, overcome the most obstinate natures; while rough and ungentle hand- ling will be repaid in a quiet kind of way, perhaps, by withholding the milk, which will always have a tendency to dry a cow up ; or, what is nearly as bad, by kicking, and other modes of revenge, which often contribute to the personal discomfort of the milker. The disposition GENTLE TREATMENT. — HAY-TEA. 165 of the cow is greatly modified, if not, indeed, wholly formed, by her treatment while young ; and therefore it is best to handle calves as much as possible, and make pets of them, lead them with a halter, and caress them in various ways. Calves managed in this way will always be docile, and suffer themselves to be approached and handled both in the pasture and the barn. With respect to the use of hay-tea, often used in this country, but more common abroad, where greater care and attention is usually given to the details of breeding, Youatt says : " At the end of three or four days, or per- haps a loeek, or even a fortnight, after a calf has been dropped, and the first passages have been cleansed by allowing it to drink as much of the coiv's milk as it feels inclined for, let the quantity usually allotted for a meal be mixed, consisting, for the first week, of three parts milk and one part hay-tea. The only nourishing infu- sion of hay is that which is made from the best and siveet- est hay, cut by a chaff-cutter into pieces about two inches long, ancl put into an earthen vessel ; over this boiling water should be poured, and the whole allowed to stand for two hours, during which time it ought to be 'kept carefully closed. After the first week, the proportions of milk and hay-tea may be equal ; then composed of two thirds of hay-tea and one of milk ; and at length one fourth part of milk will be sufficient. This food should be given to the calf in a lukewarm state at least three, if not four times a day, in quantities averaging three quarts at each meal, but gradually increasing to four quarts as the calf grovjs older. Toioards the end of the second month, beside the usual quantity given at each meal (composed of three parts of the infusion and one of milk), a small wisp or bundle of hay is to be laid before the calf, which will gradually come to eat it; but, 166 FIEST CALVES. — RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS. if the weather is favorable, as in the month of May, the beast may be turned out to graze in a fine, sweet pas- ture, well sheltered from the wind and sun. This diet may be continued until towards the latter end of the third month, when, if the calf grazes heartily, each meal may be reduced to less than a quart of milk, with hay- water ; or skimmed milk or fresh butter-milk may be substituted for new milk. At the expiration of the third month the animal will hardly require to be fed by hand, though, if this should still be necessary, one quart of the infusion given daily, and which during the sum- mer need not be warmed, will be sufficient." The hay- tea should be made fresh every two days, as it soon loses its nutritious quality. This and other preparations are given not because they are better than milk, than which nothing is better adapted to fatten a calf, or promote its growth, but sim- ply to economize by providing the most suitable and cheaper substitutes. Experience shows that the first two or three calves are smaller than those that follow \ and hence, unless they are pure-bred, and to be *kept for the blood, they are not generally thought to be so desir- able to raise for the dairy as the third or fourth, and those that come after, up to the age of nine or ten years. On this point opinions differ. According to the comparative experiments of a Ger- man agriculturist, cows which as calves had been allowed to suckle their dams from two to four weeks brought calves which weighed only from thirty-five to forty-eight pounds ; while others, which, as calves, had been allowed to suckle from five to eight weeks, brought calves weighing from sixty to eighty pounds. It is difficult to see how there can be so great a differ- ence, if, indeed, there is any ; but it may be worthy of careful observation and experiment, and as such it is AFTER-FEEDING. 167 stated in this connection. The increased size of the calf would be due to the larger size to which the cow would attain ; and if as a calf she were allowed to run with her dam in the pasture four or five months, taking all the milk she wanted, she would doubtless be kept growing on in a thriving condition. But taking a calf from the cow at four or even eight weeks must check its growth to some extent, and this may be avoided by feeding liberally, and bringing up by hand. After the calf is fully weaned, there is nothing very peculiar in the general management. A young animal "will require for the first few months — say up to the age of six months — an average of five or six pounds daily of good hay, or its equivalent. At the age of six months it will require from four and a half to five pounds, and at the end of the year from three and a half to four pounds of good hay, or its equivalent, for every one hundred pounds of its live weight; or, in other words, about three and a half or four per cent, of its live weight. At two years old it will require three and a half, and some months later three per cent, of its live weight daily in good hay or its equivalent. In- dian-corn fodder, either green or cured, forms an excel- lent and wholesome food at this age. The heifer should not be pampered, nor yet poorly fed or half starved, so as to receive a check in her growth. An abundant supply of good healthy dairy food and drink will do all that is necessary up to the time of having her first calf, which should not ordinarily be till the age of three years, though some choose to allow them to come in at two or a little over, on the ground that it early stimulates the secretion of milk, and that this will increase the milking propensity through life. This is undoubtedly the case, as a gen- eral rule; but I think greater injury is done by checking 168 A SUEPEISE. — SUCCULENT FOOD. the growth, unless the heifer has been fed up to large size and full development from the start, in which case she may perhaps take the bull at fifteen or eighteen months without injury. I have had several come in as early as two years, and one at less than twenty months. This last was not by design, however, and I would rather have given a considerable sum than had it hap- pen, as she was an exceedingly beautiful pure-bred Jer- sey, and I was desirous to have her attain to good size and growth. Even if a heifer comes in at two years, it is generally thought desirable to let her run farrow for the following year, which will promote her growth and more perfect development. The feeding which young stock often get is not such as is calculated to make good-sized or valuable cattle of them. They are often fed on the poorest of hay or straw through the winter, not unfrequently left exposed to cold, unprotected and unhoused, and thus stinted in their growth. This seems to me to be the very worst economy, or rather no economy at all. Properly viewed, it is an extravagant wastefulness which no farmer can afford. No animal develops its good points under such treatment ; and if the starving system is to be followed at all, it had better be after the age of two or three years, when the animal's constitution has attained strength and vigor to resist ill treatment. To raise up first-rate milkers, it is absolutely neces- sary to feed on dairy food even while young. No matter how fine the breed is, if the calf is raised on poor, short feed, it will never be so good a milker as if raised on better keeping; and hence, in dairy dis- tricts, where calves are raised at all, they ought to be allowed the best pasture during the summer, and good sweet and wholesome food during the winter. CHAPTER VI. CULTUEE OP GEASSES AND OTHEE PLANTS REC- OMMENDED FOE FODDEE. As already stated, the grasses in summer, and hay in winter, form the most natural and important food for milch cows ; and, whatever other crops come in as ad- ditional, these will form the basis of all systems of feeding. The nutritive qualities of the grasses differ widely ; and their value as feed for cows will depend, to a con- siderable extent, on the management of pastures and mowing-lands. If the turf of an old pasture is carefully examined, it will be found to contain a large variety of grasses and plants adapted for forage ; some of them valuable for one purpose, and some for another. Some of them, though possessing a lower percentage of nutritive constituents than others, are particularly esteemed for an early and luxuriant growth, furnishing a sweet feed in early spring, before other grasses appear ; some of them, for starting more rapidly than others, after being eaten off by cattle, and consequently of great value as pasture grasses. Most grasses will be found to be of a social character, and to do best in a large mixture with other varieties. In forming a mixture for pasture grasses, the pecu- liarities of each species should, therefore, be regarded : 15 170 CULTIVATED GRASSES. — TIMOTHY. as the time of flowering, the habits of growth, the soil and location on which it grows best, and other charac- teristics. Among the grasses found on cultivated lands, in this country, the following are considered as among the most valuable for ordinary farm cultivation; some of them adapted to pastures, and others almost exclusively to mowing and the hay crop : Timothy (Phleum pratense). Meadow Foxtail (Alopecurus pra- tensis). June, or Kentucky Blue Grass (Poa pratensis). Fowl meadow (Poa serotina). Rough-stalked Meadow (Poa trivialis). Orchard Grass (Dactylis glomerata). Perennial Rye Grass (Lolium pere?me). Italian Rye Grass (Lolium italicum). Recltop (Agrostis vulgaris). English Bent (Agrostis alba). Meadow Fescue (Fes- tuca pratensis). Tall Oat Grass ( Arrlienatherum aven- aceum). Sweet-scented Yernal (Anthoxanthemum odor- atum). Hungarian Grass (Panicum Germanicum). Red Clover (Trifolium pratense). White or Dutch Clover (Trifolium repens), and some others. Of these, the most valuable, all things considered, is the first, or Timothy (Fig. 5G). It forms a large proportion of what is commonly called English, or in some sections meadow hay, though it originated and was first culti- vated in this country. It contains a large percentage of nutritive matter, in comparison with other agricul- tural grasses. It thrives best on moist, peaty, or loamy soils, of medium tenacity, and is not well suited to very light, sandy lands. On very moist soils its root is almost always fibrous ; while on dry and loamy ones it is bulbous. On soils of the former description, which it especially affects, its growth is rapid, and its yield of hay large, sometimes amounting to three and four tons to the acre, depending much, of course, on cultivation. But, though very valuable for hay, it is not adapted to pastures, as it will neither endure severe grazing, nor TIMOTHY. — JUNE GRASS. 171 Kg. 56. Timothy grass. Fig. 57. June grass. is its aftermath to be compared with meadow foxtail, and some of the other grasses. 172 JUNE GRASS. — MEADOW FOXTAIL. June grass (Fig. 57), better known in some sections as Kentucky Blue grass, is very common in most sections of the country, especially on limestone lands, forming a large part of the turf, wherever it flourishes, and being universally esteemed as a pasture grass. It starts early, but varies much in size and appearance, according to the soil; growing in some places with the utmost luxuri- ance, and forming the predominant grass ; in others, yielding to the other species. If cut at the time of flowering, or a few days after, it makes a good and nutritive hay, though it is surpassed in nutritive quali- ties by several of the other grasses. It starts slowly after being cut, especially if not cut very early. But its herbage is fine and uniform, and admirably adapted to lawns, growing well in almost all soils, though it does not endure very severe droughts. It withstands, how- ever, the frosts of winter better than most other grasses. In Kentucky, a section where it attains its high- est perfection and luxuriance, ripening its seed about the 10th of June, and in latitudes south of that, it some- times continues green through the mild winters. It requires three or four years to become well set, after sowing, and it does not attain its highest yield as a pas- ture grass till the sod is even older than that. It is not, therefore, suited to alternate husbandry, where land usually remains in grass but two or three years before being ploughed up. In Kentucky it is sown any time in winter when the shoav is on the ground, three or four quarts of seed being used to the acre. In spring the seeds germinate, when the sprouts are exceedingly fine and delicate. Stock is not allowed on it the first year. The MeadowFoxtail (Fig. 58) is also an excellent pas- ture grass. It somewhat resembles Timothy, but is ear- lier, has a softer spike, and thrives on all soils except the PASTUEE GRASSES. 173 Fig. 59. Orchard grass. Fig. 58. Meadow Foxtail. diyest. Its growth is rapid, and it is greatly relished by stock of all kinds. Its stalk and leaves are too few and light for a field crop, and it shrinks too much in curing to 15* 174 OECHAED GEASS. — QUALITIES. be valuable for hay. It flourishes best in a rich, moist, and rather strong soil, sending up a luxuriant aftermath when, cut or grazed off, which is much more valuable, both in quantity and nutritive value, than the first crop. In all lands designed for permanent pasture, therefore, it should form a considerable part of a mixture. It will endure almost any amount of forcing, by liquid manures, or irrigation. It requires three or four years, after sowing, to gain a firm footing in the soil. The seed is covered with the soft and woolly husks of the flower, and is consequently light ; weighing but five pounds to the bushel, and containing seventy-six thousand seeds to the ounce. The Oechaed geass, or Rough Cocksfoot (Fig.59),for pastures, stands preeminent. This is a native of this coun- try, and was introduced into England, from Virginia, in 1764, since which time its cultivation has extended into every country of Europe, where it is universally held in very high estimation. The fact of its being very palata- ble to stock of all kinds, its rapidity of growth, and the luxuriance of its aftermath, with its power of enduring the cropping of cattle, have given it a very high reputa- tion, especially as a pasture grass. It blossoms earlier than Timothy ; when green is equally relished by milch cows ; requires to be fed closer, to prevent its forming tufts and growing up to seed, when it becomes hard and wiry, and loses much of its nutritive quality. As it blossoms about the same time, it forms an admirable mixture with red clover, either for permanent pasture or mowing. It resists drought, and is less exhausting to the soil than either rye grass or Timothy. The seed weighs twelve pounds to the bushel, and when sown alone requires about two bushels to the acre. The Rough-stalked Meadow geass (Fig. 60) is some- what less common than June grass, but is considered as ROUGH-STALKED MEADOW GRASS. 175 Fig. 60. Bough-stalked Meadow grass. Tig. 61. Bye grass. equally valuable. It grows best on moist, sheltered mead- ows, where it flowers in June and July. It is easily dis- 176 FOWL MEADOW. tinguished from June grass, by having a rough sheath, while the latter has a smooth one, and by having a fibrous root, while the root of June grass is creeping. It possesses very considerable nutritive qualities, and comes to perfection at a desirable time ; is exceed- ingly relished by cattle, horses, and sheep. For suitable soils it should form a portion of a mixture of seeds, pro- ducing, in mixture with other grasses which serve to shelter it, a large yield of hay, far above the average of grass usually grown on a similar soil. It should be cut when the seed is formed. Seven pounds of seed to the acre will produce a good sward. The grass loses about seventy per cent, of its weight in drying. The nutritive qualities of its aftermath exceed very consid- erably those of the crop cut in the flower or in the seed. Fowl Meadow grass is another indigenous species, of great value for low and marshy grounds, where it flourishes best ; and, if. cut and properly cured, makes a sweet and nutritious hay, which, from its fineness, is eaten by cows without Avaste. According to Sinclair, who experimented, with the aid of Sir Humphrey Davy, to ascertain its comparative nutritive properties, it is superior, in this respect, to either meadow foxtail, orchard grass, or tall meadow oat grass ; but it is probable that he somewhat overrates it. If allowed to stand till nearly ripe, it falls down, but sends up innu- merable flowering stems from the joints, so that it con- tinues green and luxuriant till late in the season. It thrives best in mixture with other grasses, and deserves a prominent place in all mixtures for rich, moist pastures, and low mowing-lands. Rye geass (Fig. 61) has a far higher reputation abroad than in this country, and probably with reason ; for it is better adapted to a wet and uncertain climate than to a ITALIAN RYE GRASS. — REDTOP. 177 dry and hot one. It varies exceedingly, depending much on soil and culture ; but, when cut in the blossom to make into hay, it possesses very considerable nutritive power. If allowed to get too ripe, it is hard and wiry, and not relished by cows. The change from a juicy and nutritious plant to woody fibre, possessing but little soluble matter, is very rapid. Properly managed, however, it is a tolerably good grass, though not to be compared to Timothy, or orchard grass. Italian Rye grass (Fig. 62) has also been cultivated to considerable extent in this country, but with less satisfac- tory results than are obtained from it in Europe, where it endures all climates, giving better crops, both in quan- tity and quality, than the perennial rye grass. It is one of the greatest gluttons of all the grasses, and luxu- riates in frequent irrigation with liquid manure, though it is said to stand the drought very well. The soils best adapted to it are rich, moist, and fertile, of medium tenacity; and it is admirably adapted to the purposes of soiling, as it endures repeated cutting, rapidly sending up luxuriant crops. For rich soils near the barn, used for the growth of crops for soiling, therefore, it may be confidently used as a profitable addition to our list of cultivated grasses. Redtop (Fig. 63) is a grass familiar to every farmer in the country. It is the Herd's grass of Pennsylvania, while in New York and New England it is known by a great variety of names, and assumes a great variety of forms, according to the soil in which it grows. It is well adapted to almost every soil, though it seems to prefer a moist loam. It makes a profitable crop for spending, in the form of hay, though its yield is less than that of Timothy. It is well suited to our permanent pastures, where it should be fed close, otherwise it becomes wiry and innutritions, and cattle refuse it. It stands 12 178 ITALIAN RYE GRASS. — s_^* Fig. 62. Italian llye grass. Pig. 63. Redtop. the climate of the country as well as any other grass, and so forms a valuable part of any mixture for ENGLISH BENT. — MEADOW FESCUE. 179 Fig. 64. English Bent. Fig. 65. Meadow Fescue. pastures and permanent mowing-lands ; but it is prob- ably rather overrated by us. 180 TALL OAT GRASS. English Bent (Pig. 64), known also by a great variety of other names, is also largely cultivated in some sec- tions. It closely resembles redtop, but may be dis- tinguished from it by the roughness of the sheaths when the hand is drawn from above downwards. It possesses much the same qualities as redtop. Meadow Fescue (Fig. 65) is one of the most common of the fescue grasses, and is said to be the Randall grass of Virginia. It is an excellent pasture grass, forming a very considerable portion of the turf of old pastures and fields ; and is more extensively propagated and diffused by the fact that it ripens its seeds before most other grasses are cut, and sheds them to spring up and cover the ground. Its long and tender leaves are much relished by cattle. It is rarely sown in this country, notwithstanding its great and acknowledged value as a pasture grass. If sown at all, it should be in mixture with other grasses, as orchard grass, rye grass, or June grass. It is of much greater value at the time of flowering than when the seed is ripe. The Tall Oat grass (Fig. 6Q) is the Ray grass of France. It furnishes a luxuriant supply of foliage, is valuable either for hay or for pasture, and has been especially recommended for soiling purposes, on ac- count of its early and luxuriant growth. It is often found on the borders of fields and hedges, woods and pastures, and is sometimes very plenty in mowing-lands. After being mown it shoots up a very thick aftermath, and on this account, partly, is regarded as nearly equal for excellence to the common foxtail. It grows spontaneously on deep, sandy soils, when once naturalized. It has been cultivated to a consider- able extent in this country, and is esteemed by those who know it mainly for its early, rapid, and late growth, TALL OAT. — SWEET VERNAL. 181 f*,.,. Ftg. 66. Tall Oat grass. Fig. 67. Sweet-scented Vernal. making it very well calculated as a permanent pasture grass. It will succeed on tenacious clover soils. 16 182 HUNGARIAN GRASS. The Sweet-scented Vernal grass (Fig. 67) is one of the earliest in spring and one of the latest in autumn ; and this habit of growth is one of its chief excellences, as it is neither a nutritious grass nor very palatable to stock of any kind, nor does it yield a very good crop. It is very common all over New England and the Middle States, coming into old worn-out fields and moist pastures spontaneously, and along every roadside. It derives its name from its sweetness of smell when par- tially wilted, or crushed in the hand, and it is this chiefly that gives the delicious fragrance to all neAv-mown hay. It is almost the only grass that possesses a strongly- marked aromatic odor, which is imparted to other grasses with which it is cured. Its seed weighs eight pounds to the bushel. In mixtures for permanent pas- tures it may be of some value. Hungarian grass, or Millet (Fig. 68), is an annual forage plant, introduced into France in 1815, and more recently into this country. It germinates readily and with stands the drought remarkably, remaining green when other grasses are parched and dried up. It has numerous succulent leaves, which furnish an abundance of sweet fodder, greatly relished by stock of all kinds. It attains its greatest luxuriance on soils of medium con- sistency and richness, but does very well on light and dry plains. Red Clover (Fig. 69) is an artificial grass of the legu- minous family, and one of the most valuable of culti- vated plants for feeding to dairy cows. It flourishes best on tenacious soils and stiff loams. Its growth is rapid, and a few months after sowing are sufficient to supply an abundant sweet and nutritious food. In the climate of New England clover should be sown in the spring of the year, while most of the natural grasses do far better sown in the fall. It is often sown with per- CLOVER. — HUNGARIAN GRASS, 18' Fig. 63. Red Clover. Fig. 68. Hungarian grass. feet success on the late snows of March or April, and soon finds its way down into the soil and takes a vigor- 184 MIXTURE OF GRASS-SEEDS. cms root. It is valuable not only as a forage plant, but as shading the ground, and thereby increasing its fertility. The introduction of clover among the cultivated plants of the farm has done more, perhaps, for modern agriculture than that of any other single plant. It has now come to be considered indispensable in all good dairy districts. Fig. 70. White Clover. White Clover (Fig. 70), often called Honeysuckle, is also widely diffused over this country, to which it is undoubtedly indigenous. As a mixture in all pasture grasses it holds a very high rank, as it is exceedingly sweet and nutritious, and relished by stock of all kinds. It grows most luxuriantly in moist grounds and moist seasons, but easily accommodates itself to a great variety of circumstances. With respect to the mixtures of grass-seeds most profitable for the dairy farmer, no universal rule can be given, as they depend very much upon the nature of the soil and the locality. The most important point to be observed, and one in which we, as a body, are perhaps most deficient, is to use a large number of species, with smaller quantities of each than those most commonly used. This is nature's rule ; for, in examin- nature's rule. 185 ing the turf of a rich old pasture, we shall find a large number of different species growing together, while, if we examine the turf of a field sown with only one or two different species, we find a far less number of plants to the square foot, even after the sod is fairly set. No improvement in grass culture is more important, it seems to me. I have suggested, in another place, a large number of mixtures adapted to the different varieties of soil and circumstance, together with the reasons for the mixture in many instances. (See A Practical Treatise on Grasses and Forage Plants, com- prising their Natural History, Comparative Nutritive Value, Methods of Cultivating, Cutting, and Curing, and the Management of Grass Lands, &c. 236 pp. 8vo., with illustrations.) As an instance of what I should consider an improvement on our ordinary mixtures for permanent pastures, I would suggest the following as likely to give satisfactory results, dependent, of course, to a con- siderable extent, on the nature and preparation of the soil: Meadow Foxtail, flowering in May and June Orchard Grass, " " " " " Sweet-scented Vernal, " Meadow Fescue, " Redtop, " June Grass, " Italian Rye Grass, " Perennial Rye Grass, " Timothy, " " April and May, " May and June, " June and July, .... 2 " May and June, .... 4 " June, 4 " June, 6 " June and July, Rough-stalked Meadow Grass, flowering in June and July, 2 ' Perennial Clover, flowering in June, 3 ' White Clover, " " May to September, . . 5-40 2 pounds. 6 " For mowing-lands the mixture would, of course, be eomeAvhat changed. The meadow foxtail and sweet- scented vernal would be left out entirely, and some six or eight pounds added to the Timothy and red clover. 16* 186 WHEN TO CUT GBASS FOE COWS. The proper time to lay down lands to grass in the lati- tude of New England is August or September, and no grain crop should be sown with the seed. Stiff or clayey pastures should never be over- stocked, but when fed pretty close the grasses are far sweeter and more nutritious than when they are allowed to grow up rank and coarse ; and if, by a want of sufficient feeding, they get the start of the stock, and grow into rank tufts, they should be cut and removed, when a fresh grass will start up, similar to the after- math of mowing-lands, which will be greedily eaten. Grasses for curing into hay should be cut either at the time of flowering or just before, especially if designed for milch cows. They are then more succulent and juicy, and, if properly cured, form the sweetest food. Grass cut in the blossom will make more milk than if allowed to stand later. Cut a little before the blossom- ing, it will make more than when in the blossom; and the cows prefer it, which is by no means an unimportant consideration, since their tastes should always be con- sulted. Grass cut somewhat green, and properly cured, is next to fresh, green grass in palatable and nutritive qualities. And so a sensible practical farmer writes me : " The time of cutting grass depends very much upon the use you wish to make of it. If for working oxen and horses, I would let it stand till a little out of the blossom ; but if to feed out to new milch cows in the winter, I would prefer to cut it very green. It is then Avorth for the making of milk in the winter almost double that cut later." Every farmer knoAvs the milk- producing properties of roAven, Avhich is generally cut before it blossoms. No operation on the farm is of greater importance to the dairyman than the cutting of his grass and the manner of curing hay, and in this respect the HAY OVER-CUEED. — CUEING CLOVEE. 187 practice over the country generally is susceptible of very great improvement. The chief object is to pre- serve the sweetness and succulence of grass in its natural state, so far as it is possible ; and this object cannot be gained by exposing it too long to the scorch- ing suns and the drenching rains to which we are liable in this climate. We generally try to make our hay too much. As to the best modes of curing clover, my own experience and observation accord with that of several practical farmers, who write me as follows : " My method of curing clover is this : What is mown in the morning I leave in the swath, to be turned over early in the afternoon. At about four o'clock, or while it is still warm, I put it into small cocks with a fork, and, if the weather ' is favorable, it may be housed on the fourth or fifth day, the cocks being turned over on the morning of the day it is to be carted. By so doing all the heads and leaves are saved, and these are worth more than the stems. This has been my method for the last ten years. For new milch cows in the winter I think there is nothing better. It will make them give as great a flow of milk as any hay, unless it be good rowen." Another says : " When the weather bids fair to be good, I mow it after the dew is off, and cock it up after being wilted, using the fork instead of rolling with the rake, and let it remain several days, when it is fit to put into the barn." And another : " I mow my clover in the forenoon, and towards night of the same day I take forks and pitch it into cocks and let it stand till it cures. The day I cart it, I turn the cocks over, so as to air the lower part. I then put it into the mow with all the leaves and heads on, and it is as nice and green as green tea. I think it worth for milch cows and sheep as much per ton as English hay." And still 188 INDIAN-CORN FODDER. another : " I have found no better hay for farm stock than good clover, cut in season. For milch coavs it is much better than Timothy. The rowen crop is better than any other for calves." Indian Corn makes an exceedingly valuable fodder, both as a means of carrying a herd of milch cows through our severe droughts of summer, and as an article for soiling cows kept in the stall. No dairy farmer will neglect to sow an extent in proportion to the number of cows he keeps. The most common practice is to sow in drills from two and a half to three feet apart, on land well tilled and thoroughly manured, making the drills from six to ten inches wide with the plough, manuring in the furrow, dropping the corn about two inches apart, and covering with the hoe. In this mode of culture the cultivator may be used between the rows when the corn is from six to twelve inches high, and unless the ground is very weedy no other after culture is generally needed. The first sowing usually takes place about the 20th of May, and this is succeeded by other sowings at intervals of a week or ten days, till July, in order to have a succession of green fodder. But, if it is designed to cut it up to cure for winter use, an early sowing is generally preferred, in order to be able to cure it in warm weather, in August or early in September. Sown in this way, about three or four bushels of corn are required for an acre, since, if sown thickly, the fodder is better, the stalks smaller, and the waste less. The chief difficulty in curing corn cultivated for this purpose, and after the methods spoken of, arises mainly from the fact that it comes at a season when the weather is often colder, the days shorter, and the clews heavier, than when the curing of hay takes place. Nor is the curing of corn cut up green so easy and simple STOOKING. — MILLET CULTURE. 189 as that of drying the stalks of Indian corn cut above the ear, as in our common practice of topping. The plant is then riper, less juicy, and cures more readily. The method sometimes adopted is to cut and tie into small bundles, after it is somewhat wilted, and stook upon the ground, where it is allowed to stand, subject to all the changes of the weather, with only the protection of the stook itself. The stooks consist of bunches of stalks first bound in small bundles, and are made sufficiently large to prevent the wind from blow- ing them over. The arms are thrown around the tops to bring them together as closely as possible, when the tops are broken over or twisted together, or otherwise fastened, in order to make the stook " shed the rain " as well as possible. In this condition they stand out till sufficiently dried to put into the barn. Corn fodder is very excellent for young dairy stock. Common Millet (Panicum miliaceum) is another very valuable crop for fodder in soiling, or to cure for winter use, but especially to feed out during our usual periods of drought. Many varieties of millet are culti- vated in this country, the ground being prepared and treated as for oats. If designed to cut for green fodder, half a bushel of seed to the acre should be used; if to ripen seed, twelve quarts, sown broad-cast, about the last of May or early in June. A moist loam or muck is the best adapted to millet ; but I have seen very great crops grown on dry upland. It is very palatable and nutritious for milch cows, both green and when properly cured. The curing should be very much like clover, care being taken not to over-dry it. For fodder, either green or cured, it is cut before ripening. In this state all cattle eat it as readily as green corn, and a less extent will feed them. Millet is worthy of a widely-extended cultivation, particularly on 190 EYE. — OATS. — EOOT CEOPS. dairy farms. Indian millet [Sorghum vulgar e) is another cultivated variety. Eye, as a fodder plant, is chiefly valuable for its early growth in spring. It is usually sown in Septem- ber or October, from the middle to the end of Sep- tember being, perhaps, the most desirable time, on land previously cultivated and in good condition. If designed to ripen only, a bushel of seed is required to the acre, evenly sown ; but, if intended for early fodder in spring, two or two and a half bushels per acre of seed should be used. On warm land the rye can be cut green the last of April or first of May ; and care should be taken to cut early, as, if allowed to advance too far towards maturity, the stalk becomes hard and un- palatable to cows. Oats are also sometimes used for soiling, or for feed- ing green, to eke out a scanty supply of pasture feed ; and for this purpose they are valuable. They should be sown on well-tilled and well-manured land, about four bushels to the acre, towards the last of April or first of May. If the whole crop is to be used as green fodder, five bushels of seed will not be too much on strong, good soil. They will be sufficiently grown to cut by the first of July, or in some sections earlier, depending on location. The Chinese Sugar-Cane also may deserve atten- tion as a fodder plant. Experiments hitherto made seem to show that when properly cultivated, and cut at the right time, it is a palatable and nutritious plant, while many of the failures have been the result of too early cutting. For a fodder crop the drill culture is preferable, both on account of the larger yield obtained and to prevent it from becoming too hard and stalky. The Potato (Solatium tuberosum) is the first of the root crops to be mentioned. This produces a large CULTURE OF THE POTATO. 191 quantity of milk, though the quality is inferior. The market value of this root is, at the present time, too great to allow of feeding extensively with it, even in milk-dairies, where it is most valuable as food for cows; still, there are locations where it may be judicious to cultivate this root for dairy feed, and in all circum- stances there is a certain portion of the crop of un- marketable size, which will be of value fed to milch cows or swine. It should be planted in April or May, but in many sections in June, on good mellow soil, first thoroughly ploughed and harrowed, then furrowed three feet apart, and manured in the furrows with a mixture of ashes, plaster of Paris, and salt. The seed may be dropped in the furrows, one foot apart, after the drill system, or in hills, two and a half or three feet apart, to be covered with the plough by simply turning the furrows back, after which the whole should be rolled with the field roller, where it can be done. If the land is not already in good heart from continued cultivation, a few loads of barn-yard manure may be spread, and ploughed under by the first ploughing. Used in this way, it is far less liable to cause the rot than when put in the hill. If a sufficient quantity of wood-ashes is not at hand, sifted coal- ashes will answer the purpose, and are said to be valuable as a preventive of the rot. In this way one man, two boys, and a horse, can plant from three to four acres a day on mellow land. I have planted two acres a day on the sod, the manure being first spread on the grass, a furrow made by a yoke of oxen and one man, another following after and dropping, a foot apart, along the outer edge of the furrow on the grass. By quick work, one hand can nearly keep up with the plough in dropping. When arrived at the end of the piece, a back furrow is turned up to the 192 CULTUKE OF THE CARBOT. potatoes, and a good ploughman will cover nearly all without difficulty. On the return-furrow the man or boy who dropped follows after, covering up any that may be left or displaced, and smoothing off the top of the back-furrows where necessary. Potatoes thus planted came out as fine as I ever saw any. The cost of cultivation in this mode, it must be evident, is but trifling compared with the slower method of hand-planting. The plan will require a skil- ful ploughman, a quick, active lad, and a good yoke of oxen, and the extent of the work will depend somewhat on the state of the turf. The nutritive equivalent in potatoes for one hundred pounds of good hay is 3.19 pounds ; that is, it will take 3.19 pounds of potatoes to afford the same amount of nourishment as one pound of hay. The great value of roots is as a change or condiment, calculated to keep the animal in a healthy condition. The Caerot (Daucus carota) is somewhat exten- sively fed, and is a valuable root for milch cows. This, like the potato, has been cultivated and improved from a wild plant. Carrots require a deep, warm, mellow soil, thoroughly cultivated, but clean and free from weed-seed. The difference between a very good profit and a loss on the crop depends much on the use of land and manures perfectly free from foul seeds of any kind. Ashes, guano, sea-weed, ground bone, and other similar substances, or thoroughly-rotted and fermented compost, will answer the purpose. After ploughing deep, and harrowing carefully, the seed should be sown with a seed-sower, in drills about eighteen inches apart, at the rate of four pounds to the acre, about the middle or twentieth of May. The difference between sowing the fifteenth of May and the tenth of June in New England is said to be nearly one ECONOMIZE LABOR. — HARVESTING. 193 third in the crop on an average of years. In weeding, a little wheel-hoe is invaluable, as with it a large part of the labor of cultivation is saved. A skilful hand can run this hoe within half an inch of the young plants without injury, and go over a large space in the course of a day, if the land was properly prepared in the first place. The American farmer should always plan to economize labor. That is the great item of expense on the farm. I do not mean that he should try to shirk or avoid work, but that he should make the least amount of work accomplish the largest and most profitable results. Labor-saving machinery on the farm is applied not to reduce the number of hours' labor, or to make the owner a man of leisure, — who is, generally, the unhap- piest man in the world, — but to enable him to accom- plish the greatest results in the same time that he would be compelled to labor to obtain smaller ones. Carrots will continue to grow and increase in size late into the fall. When ready to dig, plough around as near to the outside rows as possible, turning the fur- row away from the row. Then take out the carrots, pulling off the tops, and throw the carrots and tops into separate heaps on the ploughed furrows. In this way a man and two boys can harvest and put into the cellar over a hundred bushels a day. The Turnip (Brassica rapa) and the Swedish tur- nip or ruta baga (Brassica cam/pestris) are also largely cultivated as a field crop to feed to stock ; and for this purpose numberless varieties are used, furnishing a great amount of succulent and nutritious food, late into winter, and, if well kept, late into spring. The chief objection to the turnip is that it taints the milk. This may be remedied, to a considerable extent, if not wholly, by the use of salt, or salt hay, and by feeding at the 17 13 194 CULTUKE OF TURNIPS. time of milking, or immediately after, or by steaming before feeding, or putting a small quantity of the solu- tion of nitre into the pail, and milking upon it. Turnips may be sown any time in June, in rich land, well mellowed by cultivation. Very large crops are often obtained sown as late as the middle of July, or first of August, on an inverted sod. The Michigan or double- mould-board plough leaves the land light, and in admira- ble condition to harrow, and drill in turnips. A success- ful root-grower last year cut two tons of hay to the acre, on the 23d of June, and after it was removed from the land spread eight cords of rotten kelp to the acre, and ploughed in ; after which about three cords of fine old compost manure were used to the acre, which was sown with ruta baga seed, in drills, three feet apart, plants thinned to eight or ten inches in the drill. No after cultivation was required. On the 15th of Novem- ber he harvested three hundred and seventy bushels of splendid roots to the acre, carefully measured off. The nutritive equivalent of Swedish turnips as com- pared with good meadow hay is 676, taking hay as a standard at 100 ; that is, it would require 6.76 lbs. of turnips to furnish the same nutriment as one pound of good hay ; but, fed in connection with other food, as hay, for instance, perhaps five pounds of turnips would be about equal to one pound of hay. The English or round turnip is usually sown broad- cast after some other crop, and large and valuable re- turns are often obtained. The Swede is sown in drills. Both these varieties are used for the production of milk. The chief objection to the turnip crop is that it leaves many kinds of soil unfit for a succession of some other crops, like Indian corn, for instance. In some sections no amount of manuring appears to make corn do well after turnips or ruta bagas. MANGOLDS. — PARSNIPS. 195 The Mangold Wurzel, a variety of the Beta vul- garis, is often cultivated with great success in this country, and fed to cows with advantage, furnishing a succulent and nutritive food in winter and spring. The crop is somewhat uncertain. When it does well an enormous yield is often obtained ; but it often proves a failure, and is not, on the whole, quite as reliable as the ruta baga, though a more valuable crop when the yield is good. It is cultivated like the common beet, in moist, rich soils, three pounds of seed to the acre. The leaves may be stripped off, towards fall, and fed out, without injury to the growth of the root. Both mangolds and turnips should be cut with a root-cutter, before being- fed out. The Parsnip {Pastinaca sativa) is a very sweet and nutritive article of fodder, and adds richness and flavor to the milk. It is worthy of extended culture in all parts of this country where dairy husbandry is pur- sued. It is a biennial, easily raised on deep, rich, well- cultivated and well-manured soils, often yielding enor- mous crops, and possessing the advantage of withstand- ing the severest winters. As an article of spring feed- ing, therefore, it is exceedingly valuable. Sown in April or May, it attains a large growth before winter. Then, if desirable, a part of the crop may be harvested for winter use, and the remainder left in the ground till the frost is out, in March or April, when they can be dug as wanted, and are exceedingly relished by milch cows, and stock of all kinds. They make an admirable feed at the time of milking, and produce the richest cream, and the yellowest and finest-flavored butter, of any root with which I am acquainted. The good dairy farmers on the island of Jersey often feed to their cows from thirty to thirty-five pounds of parsnips a day, in addition to hay or grass. 196 THE PAESNIP. — KOHL EABI. Both practical experiment and scientific analysis prove this root to be eminently adapted to dairy stock, where the richness of milk or fine-flavored butter is any object. For mere milk-dairies, it is not quite so valua- ble, probably, as the Swedish turnip. The culture is similar to that of carrots, a rich, mellow, and deep loam being best; while it has a great advantage over the carrot in being more hardy, and rather less liable to injury from insects, and more nutritive. For feeding and fattening stock it is eminently adapted. To be sure of a crop, fresh seed must be had, as it cannot be depended on more than one year. For this reason, the largest and straightest roots should be allowed to stand for seed, .which, as soon as nearly ripe, should be taken off and spread out to dry, and carefully kept for use. For field culture the hollow-crowned parsnip is the best and most profitable ; but on thin, shallow soils the turnip-rooted variety should be used. Parsnips may be harvested like carrots, by ploughing along the rows. Let butter or cheese dairymen give this crop a fair and full trial, and watch its effect on the quality of the milk and butter. The Kohl Eabi (Brassica oleracea, var. caidorapa) is also cultivated to a considerable extent in this country, to feed to stock. It is supposed to be a hybrid between the cabbage and the turnip, and is often called the cab- bage-turnip, having the root of the former, with a tur- nip-like or bulbous stem. The special reason for its more extensive cultivation among us is its wonderful indifference to droughts, in which it seems to flourish best, and to bring forth the most luxuriant crops. It also withstands the frosts remarkably, being a hardy plant. It yields a somewhat richer quality of milk than the ordinary turnip, and the crop is generally admitted to be as abundant and profitable. I have seen very LINSEED AND COTTON-SEED MEAL. 197 large crops of it produced by the ordinary turnip or cabbage cultivation. As in cabbage culture, it is best to sow the seed in March or April, in a warm and well- enriched seed-bed ; from which it is transplanted in May, and set out after the manner of cabbages in gar- den culture. It bears transplanting better than most other roots. Insects injure it less than the turnip, dry weather favors it, and it keeps well through the winter. For these reasons, it must be regarded as a valuable addition to our list of forage plants adapted to dairy farming. It grows well on stronger soils than the turnip. Linseed Meal is the ground cake of flax-seed, after the oil is pressed out. It is very rich in fat-forming principles, and given to milch cows it increases the quality of butter, and keeps them in condition. Four or five pounds a day are sufficient for cows in milk, and this amount will effect a great saving in the cost of other food, and at the same time make a very rich milk. It is extensively manufactured in this country, and largely exported, but is worthy of more general use here. It must not be fed in too large quantities to milch cows, for it would be liable to give too great a tendency to fat, and thus affect the quantity of milk. Rape-Cake possesses much the same qualities. It is the residuum after pressing the oil from rape-seed. Cotton-seed Meal is an article of comparatively reCent introduction. It is obtained by pressing the seed of the cotton-plant, which extracts the oil, when the cake is crushed or ground into meal, which has been found to be a very valuable article for feeding stock. An analysis has been given on a preceding page, which shows it to be equal or superior to linseed meal. Prac- tical experiments are needed to establish it. It is pre- 17* 198 MANURES ON THE FARM. pared chiefly in Providence, E. I., and is for sale in the market at a very reasonable price. The Manures used in this country in the culture of the plants mentioned above are mostly such as are made on the farm, consisting chiefly of barn-yard com- posts of various kinds, with often a large admixture of peat-mud. There are few farms that do not contain substances which, if properly husbanded., would add very greatly to the amount of manure ordinarily made. The best of the concentrated manures, which it is some- times necessary to use, for want of time and labor to prepare enough on the farm, is, unquestionably, Peru- vian guano. The results of this, when properly ap- plied, are well known and reliable, which can hardly be said of any other artificial manure offered for the farm- er's notice. The chief objection to depending on man- ures made off the farm is, in the first place, their great expense ; and in the second, which is equally important, the fact that, though they may be made valuable, and produce at one time the best results, a want of care in the manufacture, or designed fraud, may make them almost worthless, with the impossibility of detecting the imposition, without a chemical analysis, till it be- comes too late, and the crop is lost. It is, therefore, safest to rely mainly upon the home manufacture of manure. The extra expense of soiling cattle, saving and applying the liquid manure, and thus bringing the land to a higher state of cultivation, when it will be capable of keeping more stock, and of furnishing more manure, would offer a surer road to suc- cess than a constant outlay for concentrated fertilizers. The various articles used for top-dressing grass lands, and the management of grass and pasture lands, have been treated of in detail in the work already alluded to, on the Culture of Grasses and Forage Plants. CHAPTER VII. MILK. Milk, as the first and natural food of man, has been used from the remotest antiquity of the human race. It is produced by the females of that class of ani- mals known as the mammalia, and was designed by nature as the nourishment of their young ; but the richest and most abundant secretions in common use are those of the cow, the camel, the mare, and the goat. The use of camel's milk is confined chiefly to Africa and to China, that of mares to Tartary and Siberia, and that of goats to Italy and Spain. The milk of the cow is universally esteemed. Milk is an opaque fluid, generally white in color, having a sweet and agreeable taste, and is composed of a fatty substance, which forms butter, a caseous sub- stance, which forms cheese, and a watery residuum, .known as serum, or whey, in cheese-making. The fatty or butyraceous matter in pure milk varies usually from two and a half to six and a half per cent. ; the caseous or cheesy matter, from three to ten per cent. ; and the serous matter, or whey, from eighty to ninety per cent. To the naked eye milk appears to be of the same character and consistence throughout; but under the microscope a myriad of little globules of varied forms, but mostly round or ovoid, and of very unequal sizes, 200 COMPOSITION OP MILK. appear to float in the watery matter. On more minute examination, these butter-globules are seen to be enclosed in a thin film of caseous matter. They are so minute that they filter through the finest paper. Milk readily assimilates with water and other sweet and unfermented liquids, though it weighs four per cent, more than water. Cold condenses, heat liquefies it. The elements of which it is composed, not being similar in character or specific gravity, undergo rapid changes when at rest. The oily particles, being lighter than the rest, soon begin to separate from them, and rise to the surface in the form of a yellowish semi-liquid cream, while the greater specific gravity of the serous matter, or whey, carries it to the bottom. A high temperature very soon develops acidity, and hastens the separation of the cheesy matter, or curd, from the whey. And so the three principal elements are easily distinguished. But the oily or butyraceous matter, in rising to the surface, brings up along with it many cheesy particles, which mechanically adhere to it, and give it more or less of a white instead of a yellow color ; and many watery or serous particles, which make it thinner, or more liquid, than it otherwise would be. If it rose up free from the adhesion of the other elements, it would appear in the form of pure butter, and would not need to undergo the process of churning to separate it from other substances. The time may come when some means will be devised, either mechanical or chemical, to separate the butter particles from the rest instan- taneously and completely, and thus avoid the often long and tedious process of churning. The coagulation, or collecting together of the cheesy particles, by which the curd becomes separated from the whey, sometimes takes place so rapidly, from the CAUGHT IN THE CURD. — FERMENTATION. 201 effect of great heat, or sudden changes in the atmos- phere, that there is not time for the butter particles t'o rise to the surface, and they remain mixed up with the curd. Nor does the serous or watery matter remain dis- clinct or free from the mixture of particles of the cheesy and buttery matters. It also holds in suspension some alkaline salts and sugar of milk, to the extent of from three to four per cent, of its weight. "We have, then, m f Butter. i _ L fCream. |Butter-milk.j Water - Milk, j (Curd f Buttei 7 ancl cheesy residuum. 1 p ure ISkimmed milk. j Whey> jSugar of milk. j water _ It may be stated, in other words, that milk is com- posed chiefly of caseine, or curd, which gives it its strength, and from which cheese is made ; a butyra- ceous or oily substance, which gives it its richness ; a sugar of milk, to which it owes its sweetness, and a watery substance, which makes it refreshing as a beve- rage ; together with traces of alkaline salts, from whence are derived its flavor and medicinal properties ; and that these constituents appear in. proportions which vary in different specimens, according to the breed of the animal, the food, the length of time after parturi- tion, etc. Milk becomes sour, on standing exposed to a warm atmosphere, by the change of its sugar of milk into an acid known as lactic acid ; and it is owing to this sugar, and the chemical changes to which it gives rise, that milk is susceptible of undergoing all degrees of fermenta- tion, and of being made into a fermented and palatable but intoxicating liquor, which, by distillation, produces pure alcohol. This liquor is extensively used in some 202 MILK-WINE. — THE UDDER. countries. The arrack of the Arabs is sometimes made from camel's milk. The Tartars make most of their spirituous liquors from milk ; and for this purpose they prefer mare's milk, on account of its larger percentage of sugar, which causes a greater and more active fermentation. The liquor made from it is termed milk-wine, or khoumese. It resembles beer, and has intoxicating qualities. The process of manufacture is very simple. The milk, being allowed first to turn sour, is then heated to the proper temperature, when it begins to ferment ; and in a day in summer, or two or three clays in winter, the process is completed, and the liquor may be kept several weeks without losing its good qualities. The admirable though complicated organization of the udder and teats of the cow has already been explained, in speaking of the manner of milking. But it may be said, in general, that the number of stomachs or powerful digestive organs of the ruminants is won- derfully adapted to promote the largest secretions of every kind. The udder of the cow, the more immediate and important receptacle of milk, and in which other milk- vessels terminate, is. divided into two sections, and each of these sections is subdivided into two others, mak- ing four divisions, each constituting in itself, to some extent, an organ of secretion. But it is well knoAvn that, as a general thing, the lateral section, comprising the two hind teats, usually secretes larger quantities of milk than the front section, and that its development, both external and internal, is usually the greatest. Milk is exceedingly sensitive to numerous influences, many of which are not well understood. It is probably true that the milk of each of the divisions of the udder differs to some extent from that of the others in the FEEDING. — WINTEE MILK. 203 same animal ; and it is well known that the milk of dif- ferent cows, fed on the same food, has marked differ- ences in quality and composition. But food, no doubt, has a more powerful and immediate effect than any- thing else, as we should naturally suppose from the fact that it goes directly to supply all the secretions of the body. Feeding exclusively on dry food, for instance, produces a thicker, more buttery and cheesy milk, though less abundant in quantity, than feeding on moist and succulent food. The former will be more nutritive than the latter. Cows in winter will usually give a milk much richer in butter and less cheesy than in summer, for the same reason ; while in summer their milk is richer in cheese and less buttery than in winter. As already intimated, the frequency of milking has its effect on the quality. Milking but once a day would give a more condensed and buttery milk than milking twice or three times. The separation of the different constitu- ents of milk begins, undoubtedly, before it leaves the udder ; and hence we find that the milk first drawn from the cow at a milking is far more watery than that drawn later, the last drawn, commonly called the strip- pings, being the richest of all, and containing from six to twelve times as much butter as the first. Many other influences affect the milk of cows, both in quantity and quality, as the length of time after calving, the age and health of the cow, the season of the year, etc. Milk is whiter in color in winter than in summer, even when the feeding is precisely the same. At certain seasons the milk of the same Cow is bluer than at others. This is often observable in dog-days. The specific gravity of milk is greater than that of water, that of the latter being one thousand, and that of the former one thousand and thirty-one on an average, 204 PEECENTAGE OF CREAM. though it varies greatly as it comes from different cows, and even at different times from the same cow. A feed- ing of salt given to the cow will, in a few hours, cause the specific gravity of her milk to vary from one to three per cent. Milk will ordinarily produce from ten to fifteen per cent, of its own volume in cream ; or, on an average, not far from twelve and a half per cent. Eight quarts of milk will, therefore, make about one quart of cream. But the milk of cows that are fed so as to produce the richest milk and butter will often very far exceed this, sometimes giving over twenty per cent, of cream, and in very rare instances twenty-five or twenty-six per cent. The product of milk in cream is more regular than the product of cream in butter. A very rich milk is lighter than milk of a poor quality, for the reason that cream is lighter than skim-milk. Of the different constituents of milk, caseine is that which most resembles animal matter, and hence the intrinsic value of cheese as a nutritive article of food. Hence, also, the nutritive qualities of skimmed milk, or milk from which the cream only has been removed, while the milk is still sweet. The oily or fatty parts of milk furnish heat to the animal system ; but this is easily supplied by other substances. From the peculiar nature of milk, and its extreme sensitiveness to external influences, the importance of the utmost care in its management must be apparent ; and this care must begin from the moment when it leaves the udder, especially if it is to be made into butter. In this case it would be better, if it were con- venient, to keep the different kinds of milk of the same milking by itself — that which comes first from the udder, and that which is drawn last ; and if the first third could be set by itself, and the second and the third parts DIFFEEENT QUALITIES AS THEY EISE. 205 by themselves, the time required to raise the cream of each part would doubtless be considerably less than it is where the different elements of the milk are so inti- mately mixed together in the process of milking, after being once partially separated, as they are before they leave the udcler. After milking, as little time as possible should elapse before the milk is brought to rest in the pan. The remarks of Dr. Anderson on the treatment of milk are pertinent in this connection. " If milk," says he, " be put into a dish and allowed to stand until it throws up cream, the portion of cream rising first to the surface is richer in quality and equal in quantity to that which rises in a second equal space of time ; and the cream which rises in a second interval of time is greater in quantity and richer in quality than that which rises in a third equal space of time. That of the third is greater than that of the fourth, and so of the rest; the cream that rises continuing progressively to decrease in quantity and quality, so long as any rises to the surface. " Thick milk always throws up a much smaller pro- portion of the cream which it actually contains than milk that is thinner, but the cream is of a richer qual- ity ; and if water be added to that thick milk, it will afford a considerably greater quantity of cream, and consequently more butter, than it would have done if allowed to remain pure ; but its quality at the same time is greatly deteriorated. " Milk which is put into a bucket or other proper vessel, and carried in it to a considerable distance, so as to be much agitated and in part cooled before it be put into the milk-pans to settle for cream, never throws up so much or so rich a cream as if the same milk had been put into the milk-pans, without agitation, directly after it was milked." 18 206 TEMPERATURE OF THE BEST DAIRIES. Milk as it comes from the cow is about blood-heat, or 98° Fah. It should be cooled off as little as possible before coming to rest. With this object in view, the pails may be rinsed with hot water before milking, and the distance from the place of milking to the milk-room should be as short as possible ; but, even with all these precautions, the fall in temperature will be considerable. From what has already been said with regard to the manner in which the cream or oily particles of the milk rise to the surface, and the difficulty of rising through a great space, on account of their intimate entanglement with the cheesy and other matters, the importance of using shallow pans must be sufficiently obvious. To facilitate and hasten the rising of the butter or oily particles, the importance of keeping the milk- room at a uniform and pretty high temperature will be equally obvious. The greatest density of milk is at or near the temperature of 41° Fah. ; and at this point the butter particles will, of course, rise with the great- est difficulty and slowness, and bring up a far greater amount of cheese particles than under more favorable circumstances. These caseous and watery matters, as has been already stated, cause the cream or the butter to look white, and to ferment and become rancid. To avoid this, the temperature is generally kept, in the best butter-dairies, as high as from 58° to 62°. Some recom- mend keeping the milk at over 70°, and from that to 80°, at which temperature the cream, they say, rises very rap- idly, especially if the depth through which it has to rise is but slight. But that, in the opinion of most practical dairymen, is too high. To obtain the greatest amount of cream from a given quantity of milk, the depth in the pan should, it seems to me, never exceed two inches. A high temperature and shallow depth, as they liquefy the milk and facilitate MOIST CLIMATES. CLEANLINESS. 207 the rising of the particles, tend to secure a cream free from the cheesy matter, and such cream Avill make a quality of butter both more delicate to the taste, and less likely to become rancid, than any other. It has already been intimated, in another connection, that neither the largest quantity nor the best quality of milk is given by the cow till after she has had two or three calves, or has arrived at the age of five or six years. It may also be said, what cannot fail to have attracted the attention of observing dairymen, that in very dry seasons the quantity of milk yielded will gen- erally be less, though the quality will be richer, than in moist and mild seasons. Hence it may be inferred that moist climates are much more favorable to the production of milk than dry ones ; and this also has been frequently observed and admitted to be a well-known fact. From these facts it may be stated that dry and warm weather increases the quantity of butter, but it is also true that cooler weather produces a greater amount of cheese. A state of pregnancy, it is obvious, must reduce the quality of the milk, and cause it to yield less cream than before. In the treatment of milk the utmost cleanliness is es- pecially requisite. The pails, the strainers, the pans, the milk-room, and, in short, everything connected Math the dairy, must be kept neat and clean to an extent which few but the very best dairy-women can appreciate. The smallest portion of old milk left to sour in the strainers or pans will be sure to taint them, and impart their bad flavor to the new milk put into them. Every one i.s familiar with the fact that an exceedingly small quantity of yeast causes an active fermentation. The process is a chemical one, and another familiar instance of it is in the distillation of liquors and the brewing of beer, where the malt creates a very active fermentation. In 208 ADULTERATIONS. — SWILL MILK. a similar manner the smallest particle of sour milk will taint a large quantity of sweet. The milk-room should be removed from dampness, and all gases which might be injurious to the milk by infecting the atmosphere. If the state of the atmos- phere and the temperature, as has been stated, affect it, all contact with foreign substances to which it is liable in careless and slovenly milking, and all air rendered impure by vegetables and innumerable other things kept in a house-cellar, will be much more liable to taint and injure it. Milk appears to absorb odors from ob- jects near it, to such an extent that a piece of catnip lying near the pan has been known to impart its flavor to it. Milk, as sold in most large cities, is often adulterated to a great extent, but most frequently with water. Not unfrequently, too, a part of the cream is first taken off, and water afterwards added ; in which case the use of burnt sugar is very common for coloring the milk, the blueness of which would otherwise lead to detection. The adulteration of pure milk from the healthy cow by water, though dishonest, and objectionable in the high- est degree, is far less iniquitous in its consequences than the nefarious traffic in " swill-milk," or milk pro- duced from cows fed entirely on " still-slops," from which they soon become diseased, after which the milk contains a subtle poison, which is as difficult of detec- tion by any known process of chemistry as the miasma of an atmosphere tainted with yellow fever or the chol- era. The simple fact is sufficiently palpable, that no pure and healthy milk can be produced by an unhealthy and diseased animal ; and that no animal can long remain healthy that is fed on an unnatural food, and treated in the manner too common around the distilleries of many large cities. THE SPECIFIC-GKAVITY TEST. 209 It is evident, from the well-known influence which " still-slops " and other exceedingly succulent food have in increasing the amount of water in the milk, that adul- teration may be effected by means of the food, as well as by addition of water to the milk itself. It is evident, too, on a moment's reflection, that the specific gravity of pure milk must vary exceedingly, as it comes from different cows, or from the same cow at different times. This variation reached to the extent of twenty-three degrees in the milk of forty-two different cows, or from one thousand and eight to one thousand and thirty-one ; but so great a variation is very rare, and not to be expected. No reliable conclusion, as to whether a particular specimen of milk has been adulterated or not, can there- fore be drawn from the differences in specific gravity alone. A radical difficulty attending this test arises from the fact that the specific gravity both of water and cream is less than that of pure milk. If, therefore, the hydrometer sinks deeper into the fluid than would be -i expected in ordinary pure milk, how is it possible, unless the variation is very large, to tell whether it is due to the richness of the milk in cream, or to the water ? I have, for instance, two instruments, each labelled " Lactometer," but both of which are simple hydrometers (Fig. 71), or specific gravity testers, one of which is graduated with the water-mark and that of pure milk 20°; the water-mark of the other being 0, like the first, and that of pure milk 100°. Both are the same in principle, the only difference being in the graduation. On the former, graduated for pure milk at 20°, it is difficult to tell with accuracy the small variations in 18* 14 50 100 210 VARIATION IN SPECIFIC GRAVITY. the percentage of water or cream, the divisions on the scale are so minute, while the latter marks them so that they can be read off with greater ease and pre- cision. For the purpose of showing the difference in the spe- cific gravity in different specimens of pure milk, taken from the cows in the morning, and allowed to cool down to about 60°, I used the latter instrument with the fol- lowing results : The first pint drawn from a native cow stood at 101°, the scale being graduated at 100° for pure milk. The last pint of the same milking, being the strip- pings of the same cow, stood at 86°. The mixture of the two pints stood at about 93^-°. The milk of a pure-bred Jersey stood at 95°, that of an Ayrshire at 100°, that of a Hereford at 10G°, that of a Devon at 111°, while a thin cream stood at 66°. All these specimens of milk were pure, and milked at the same time in the morning, carefully labelled in separate vessels, and set upon the same shelf to cool off; and yet the variations of specific gravity amounted to 25°, or, taking the average quality of the native cows' milk at 935-°, the variations amounted to 17_ 10 . But, knowing the specific gravity, at the outset, of any specimen of milk, the hydrometer would show the amount of water added. This cheap and simple instru- ment is therefore of frequent service. The lactometer is a very different instrument, and measures the comparative richness of different speci- mens of milk. It is of very great service both in the butter and cheese dairy, for testing the comparative value of different cows for the purposes for which they are kept. This instrument is very simple and cheap and the practical dairyman can tell by it what cows he can best part with without detriment to his business. THE LACTOMETER. 211 No cow should be admitted to a herd kept for butter- making without knowing her qualities in this respect. Many would find, on examination, that some of their cows, though giving a good quantity, were compara- tively worthless to them. Such was the experience of John Holbert, of Chemung, New York, who, in his statement to the state agricultural society, says : " I find, by churning the milk of each cow separately, that one of my best cows will make as much butter as three of my poorest, giving the same quantity of milk. I have kept a dairy for twenty years, but I never until the past season knew that there was so much difference in cows.' 7 Fig. 72. Lactometer. The simplest form of the lactometer is a series of graduated glass tubes (Fig. 72), or vials, of equal diam- eter ; generally a third of an inch inside, and about eleven inches long. The tubes are filled to an equal height, each one with the milk of a different cow, and allowed to stand for the cream to rise. The difference in thickness of the column of cream will be very per- ceptible, and it will be greater than most people imag- ine. The effect of different kinds of food for the pro- duction of butter may be studied in the same way. 212 MODES OF PRESERVING MILK. This form of the lactometer was invented by Sir Joseph Banks. Various means are used for the preservation of milk. One of these is by concentrating it by boiling. Where this is followed, as it is by some dairymen, as a regular business, the milk is poured, as it comes from the dairy, into long, shallow, copper pans, and heated to a temper- ature of a hundred and ten degrees, Fahrenheit. A lit- tle sugar is then mixed in, and the whole body of milk is kept in motion by stirring for some three or four hours. The water is evaporated, leaving the milk about one fourth of its original bulk. It is now put into tin cans, the covers of which are soldered on, when the cans are lowered into boiling water. After remaining a while, they are taken out and hermetically sealed, in which condition the milk will keep for months. Con- centrated milk may thus be taken to sea or elsewhere. Another form is that of solidified milk, in which state it is easily and perfectly soluble in water ; and when so dissolved with a proper proportion of water, it assumes its original form of milk, and may be made into butter. A statement by Dr. Doremus, in the New York Medical Journal, explains the process, as follows : To one hundred and twelve pounds of milk twenty- eight pounds of Stuart's white sugar were added, and a trivial portion of bicarbonate of soda, — a teaspoonful, — merely enough to insure the neutralizing of any acid- ity, which, in the summer season, is exhibited even a lew minutes after milking, although inappreciable to the organs of taste. The sweet milk was poured into evaporating pans of enamelled iron, imbedded in warm water heated by steam. A thermometer was immersed in each of these water-baths, that, by frequent inspec- tion, the temperature might not rise above the point which years of experience have shown advisable. To SOLIDIFIED MILK. 213 facilitate the evaporation, by means of blowers and other ingenious apparatus a current of air is established between the covers of the pans and the solidifying milk. Connected with the steam-engine is an arrange- ment of stirrers, for agitating the milk slightly, while evaporating, and so gently as not to churn it. In about three hours the milk and sugar assumed a pasty con- sistency, and delighted the palates of all present. By constant manipulation and warming, it was reduced to a rich, creamy-looking powder, then exposed to the air to cool, weighed into parcels of a pound each, and by a press, with the force of a ton or two, made to assume the compact form of a tablet (the size of a small brick), in which shape, covered with tin-foil, it is presented to the public. " Some of the solidified milk which had been grated and dissolved in water the previous evening was found covered with a rich cream ; this, skimmed off, was soon converted into excellent butter. Another solution was speedily converted into wine-whey by a treatment pre- cisely similar to that employed in using ordinary milk. It fully equalled the expectations of all ; so that solidi- fied milk will hereafter rank among the necessary appendages to the sick room. In fine, this article makes paps, custards, puddings, and cakes, equal to the best milk; and one maybe sure it is an unadulterated article, obtained from well-pastured cattle, and not the produce of distillery slops ; neither can it be watered. For our steamships, our packets, for those travelling by land or by sea, for hotel purposes, or use in private families, for young or old, we recommend it cordially as a sub- stitute for fresh milk." A pound of this solidified milk, it is said, will make five pints when dissolved in water. Another favorite form in which milk is used is that 214 HOW TO MAKE ICE-CREAM. known as ice-cream, a cheap and healthy luxury during the summer months. It is frozen in a simple machine made for the purpose, in the best form of which the time of the operation is from six to ten minutes. The richest quality of ice-cream is made from cream, in the following- manner: To one quart of cream use the yolks of three eggs. Put the cream over the fire till it boils, during which time the eggs are beaten up with half a pound of white sugar, powdered fine ; and when the cream boils stir it upon the eggs and sugar, then let it stand till quite cold, then add the juice of three or four lemons. It is then ready to put into the freezer. The heat of the cream partially cooks the eggs, and the stirring must be continued to prevent their cooking too much. A somewhat simpler receipt, given by the confec- tioners, is the following: To half a pound of powdered sugar add the juice of three lemons. Mix the sugar and lemon together, and then add one quart of cream. This is less rich and delicate than the preceding, but is quite rich enough for common use, and some trouble is saved. The following receipt makes a very good ice-cream. Two quarts of good rich milk ; four fresh eggs ; three quarters of a pound of white sugar; six teaspoons of Bermuda arrow-root. Rub the arrow-root smooth in a little cold milk, beat the eggs and sugar together, bring the milk to the boiling point, then stir in the arrow-root; remove it then from the fire, and immedi- ately add the eggs and sugar, stirring briskly, to keep the eggs from cooking, then set aside to cool. If flavored with extracts, let it be done just before putting it in the freezer. If the vanilla bean is used, it must be boiled in the milk. The preparation must be thoroughly cooled before the freezing is proceeded with. The ice-cream by this receipt may be produced at a MILK OF SPAYED COWS. 215 cost not exceeding twenty-five cents a quart, calling the milk five cents a quart, and the eggs a cent apiece, and including the cost of labor. It is quite equal to that commonly furnished by the confectioners at seventy- five cents a quart. The arrow-root may be dispensed with. The freezer is a cheap and simple machine. After the cream has frozen in the machine, it should stand an hour or two to harden before it is used. To secure a more uniform flow and a richer quality of milk, cows are sometimes spayed, or castrated. The milk of spayed cows is pretty uniform in quantity, and this quantity will be, on an average, a little more than before the operation was performed. But few instances have come under my observation, and those few have resulted satisfactorily, the quality of the milk having been greatly improved, the yield becoming regular for some years, and varying only by the differ- ence in the succulence of the food. The proper time for spaying is about five or six weeks after calving, or at the time when the largest quantity of milk is given. There seem to be some advantages in spaying for milk and butter dairies, where the raising of stock is not attended to. The cows are more quiet, never being liable to returns of seasons of heat, which always more or less affect the milk both in quantity and quality. They give milk nearly uniform in these respects, for several years, provided the food is uniformly succulent and nutritious. Their milk is influenced like that of other cows, though to less extent, by the quality and quantity of food: so that in winter, unless the animal is properly attended to, the yield will decrease somewhat, but will rise again as good feed returns. This uniform- ity for the milk-dairy is of immense advantage. Besides, the cow, when old, and inclined to dry up, takes on fat 216 ANALYSES OF MILK. with greater rapidity, and produces a juicy and tender beef, superior, at the same age, to that of the ox. The operation of spaying is simple, and may be performed by any veterinary surgeon, without much risk of injury. The milk of the cow has often been analyzed. It was found by Haidlen to consist of Water, ...... 873. Butter, 30. Caseine, 48.2 Sugar of milk, ... 43.9 Phosphate of lime, . . 2.31 Magnesia, 42 Iron, 47 Chloride of Potassium, . . 1.44 Sodium and Soda, . . . .G6 1000. But its composition, as already intimated, varies exceedingly with the food of the animal, and is influenced by an infinite variety of circumstances. Skim-milk is much more watery than whole milk. It was found by one analysis to contain about 97 per cent, of water and 3 per cent, of caseine. Swill-milk, or milk from cows fed on " still-slops," in New York, was found by analysis to contain less than 1.5 per cent, of butter, some specimens having even less than one per cent. The colostrum, or milk of the cow just after calving, contains a large proportion of cheesy matter. Its amount of caseine was found by careful analysis to be 15.1 per cent., of butter 2.6, mucous matter 2, and water 80.3, there being only a trace of sugar of milk. The measures for milk in common use in this country are those used for wine and beer. The wine quart is about one fifth less than the beer quart, and is that most commonly used in England. It is to be regretted that no uniform standard has been adopted throughout the country. CHAPTER VIII. BUTTER AND THE BUTTER-DAIRY. " Slow rolls the churn — its load of clogging cream At once foregoes its quality and name. From knotty particles first floating wide, Congealing butter 's dashed from side to side." Butter, as we have seen, is the oily or fatty con- stituent of all good milk, mechanically united or held in suspension by the solution of caseine or cheesy matter in water. It is already formed in the udder of the cow, and the operations required after it leaves the udder, to produce it, effect merely the separation, more or less complete, of the butter from the cheese and the whey. This being the case, it is natural to suppose that butter was known at an early date. The wandering- tribes, accustomed to take on their journeys a supply of milk in skins, would find it formed by the agitation of travelling, and thus would be suggested the first rude and simple process of churning. But it is not probable that the Jews possessed a knowledge of it ; and it is pretty well settled, at the present time, that the passages in our English version of the Old Testament in which it is used are errone- ously translated, and that wherever the word butter occurs the word milk, or sour, thick milk, or cream, should be substituted. And so in Isaiah, " Milk and honey shall he eat," instead of "butter;" and in Job (29: 6), " When I washed my foot in milk," instead of 19 218 HISTORY. — CREAM THAT RISES FIRST. " butter." And the expression in Prov. (30 : 33), " Surely the churning of milk bringeth forth butter," would be better translated, according to the best critics, " the pressing of the milker bringeth forth milk," or the "pressing of milk bringeth forth cheese." In the oldest Greek writers milk and cheese are spoken of, but there is no evidence that butter was known to them. The Greeks obtained their knowledge of it from the Scythians or the Thracians, and the Romans obtained theirs from the Germans. In the time of Christ it was used chiefly as an oint- ment in the baths, and as a medicine. In warm lati- tudes, as in the southern part of Europe, even at the present day, its use is comparatively limited, the deli- cious oil of the olive supplying its place. I have already stated that all good milk of the cow contained butter enclosed in little round globules held in suspension, or floating in the other substances. As soon as the milk comes to rest after leaving the udder, these round particles, being lighter than the mass of cheesy and watery materials by which they are sur- rounded, begin to rise and work their way to the sur- face. The largest globules, being comparatively the lightest, rise first, and form the first layer of cream, which is the best, since it is less filled with caseine. The next smaller, rising a little slower, are more entangled with other substances, and bring more of them to the surface ; and the smallest rise the slowest and the last, and come up loaded with foreign sub- stances, and produce an inferior quality of cream and butter. The most delicate cream, as well as the sweet- est and most fragrant butter, is that obtained by a first skimming, only a few hours after the milk is set. Of three skimmings, at six, twelve, and eighteen hours after the milk is strained into the pan, that first obtained MILK AND WATEE. 219 will make more and richer butter than the second, and that next obtained richer than the third, and so on. The last quart of milk drawn at a milking, for reasons already stated, will make a more delicious and savory butter than the first ; and if the last quart or two of a milking is set by itself, and the first cream that rises taken from it after standing only five or six hours, it will produce the richest and highest-flavored butter the cow is capable of giving, under like circumstances as to season and feed. The separation of the butter particles from the others is slower and more difficult in proportion to the thick- ness and richness of the milk. Hence in winter, on dry feeding, the milk being richer and more buttery, the cream or particles of butter are slower and longer in rising. But, as heat liquefies milk, the difficulty is over- come in part by elevating the temperature. The same effect is produced by mixing a little water into the milk when it is set. It aids the separation, and consequently more cream will rise in the same space of time, from the same amount of rich milk, with a little water in it, than without. Water slightly warm, if in cold weather, will produce the most perceptible effect. The quantity of butter will be greater from milk treated in this way; the quality, slightly deteriorated. It must be apparent, from what has been said, that butter may be produced by agitating the whole body of the milk, and thus breaking up the filmy coatings of the globules, as well as by letting it stand for the cream to rise. This course is preferred by many practical dairymen, and is the general practice in some of the countries most celebrated for superior butter. The general treatment of milk and the management of cream have been already alluded to in a former chap- ter. It has been seen that the first requisites to sue- 220 CLEANLINESS. — GOOD BUTTER. cessful dairy husbandry are good cows, and abundant and good feeding, adapted to the special object of the dairy, whether it be milk, butter, or cheese ; and that, with both these conditions, an absolute cleanliness in every process, from the milking of the cow to bringing the butter upon the table, is indispensably necessary. Cleanliness may, indeed, with propriety be regarded as the chief requisite in the manufacture of good but- ter; for the least suspicion of a want of it turns the appetite at once, while both milk and cream are so ex- ceedingly sensitive to the slightest taint in the air, in everything with which they come in contact, as to impart the unmistakable evidence of any negligence, in the taste and flavor of the butter. It is safe to say, therefore, that good butter depends more upon the manufacture than upon any other one thing, and perhaps than all others put together. So im- portant is this point, that a judicious writer remarks that " in every district where good butter is made it is univer- sally attributed to the richness of the pastures, though it is a well-known fact that, take a skilful dairymaid from that district into another, where good butter is not usually made, and where, of course, the pastures are deemed very unfavorable, she will make butter as good as she used to do. And bring one from this last district into the other, and she will find that she cannot make better butter there than she did before, unless she takes lessons from the servants, or others whom she finds there ; " and a French writer very justly observes that " the particular nature of Bretagne butter, whose color, flavor, and consistence, are so much prized, depends neither on the pasture nor on the particular species of cow, but on the mode of making;" and this will hold, to a considerable extent, in every country where but- ter is made. THE DAIEY-EOOM. 221 Many things, indeed, concur to produce the best re- sults, and it would be useless to underrate the import- ance of any ; but, with the best of cows to impart the proper color and consistency to butter, the sweetest feed and the purest water to secure a delicate flavor, the utmost care must still be bestowed by the dairymaid upon every process of manufacture, or else the best of milk and cream will be spoiled, or produce an article which will bring only a low price in the market, when, with greater skill, it might have obtained the highest. From what has been said of the care requisite to pre- serve the milk from taint, it may be inferred that atten- tion to the milk and dairy room is of no small importance. In very large butter-dairies, a building is devoted ex- clusively to this department. This should be at a short distance from the yard, or place of milking, but no further than is necessary to be removed from all impur- ities in the air arising from it, and from all low, damp places, subject to disagreeable exhalations. This is of the utmost importance. It should be well ventilated, and kept constantly clean and sweet, by the use of pure water ; and especially, if milk is spilled, it should be washed up immediately, with fresh water. No matter if it is but a single drop ; if allowed to soak into the floor and sour, it cannot easily be removed, and it is sufficient to taint the air and the milk in the room, though' it may not be perceptible to the senses. In smaller dairies, economy dictates the use of a room in the house ; and this, in warm climates, should be on the north side, and used exclusively for this purpose. I have known many to use a room in the cellar as a milk-room ; but very few cellars are at all suitable. Most are filled with a great variety of articles which never fail to infect the air. But, if a house-cellar is so built as to make it a suita- 19* 222 PUEE AIR. — THE MILK-STAND. ble place to set the milk, as where a large dry and airy room, sufficiently isolated from the rest, can be used, a greater uniformity of temperature can usually be se- cured than on the floor above. The room, in this case, should have a gravel or loamy bottom, uncemented, but dry and porous. The soil is a powerful absorbent of the noxious gases which are apt to infect the atmos- phere near the bottom of the cellar. Milk should never be set on the bottom of a cellar, if the object is to raise the cream. The cream will rise in time, but rarely or never so quickly or so- completely as on shelves from five to eight feet from the bottom, around which a free circulation of pure air can be had from the latticed windows. It is, perhaps, safe to say that as great an amount of better cream will rise from the same milk in twelve hours on suitable shelves, six 73. Milk-stand. feet from the bottom, as would be obtained directly on the bottom of the same cellar in twenty-four hours. THE PANS. — THE SKIMMER. 223 One of the most convenient forms for shelves in a dairy-room designed for butter-making is- represented in Fig. 73 ; made of light and seasoned wood, in an oc- tagonal form, and capable of holding one hundred and seventy-six pans of the ordinary form and size. It is so simple and easily constructed, and so economizes space, that it may readily be adapted to other and smaller rooms for a similar purpose. If the dairy-house is near a spring of pure and running water, a small stream can be led in by one channel and taken out by another, and thus keep a constant circulation under the milk-stand, which may be so constructed as to turn easily on the central post, so as often to save many footsteps. The pans designed for milk are generally made of tin. That is found, after long experience, to be, on the whole, the best and most economical, and subject to fewer objections than most other materials. Glazed earthen ware is often used, the chief objection to it being its liability to break, and its weight. It is easily kept clean, however, and is next in value to tin, if not, indeed, equal to it. A tin skimmer is commonly used, some- what in the form of the bowl of a spoon, and pierced with holes, to remove the cream. In some sections of the country, a large white clam-shell is very commonly used instead of a skimmer made for the purpose, the chief objection to it being that the cream is not quite so carefully separated from the milk. A mode of avoiding the necessity of skimming has long been used to some extent in England, by which the milk is drawn off through a hole in the bottom of the pan. This plan is recommended by Unwerth, a German agriculturist, who proposes a pan represented in Fig. 74, made of block tin, oblong in shape, and hav- ing the inside corners carefully rounded. The pan is only two inches in depth, and is made large enough to 224 THE SHALLOW DEPTH IN THE PAN. hold six or eight quarts of milk at the depth of one and a half inches. This shallowness greatly facilitates b the rapid separation of the cream, especially at a tem- perature somewhat elevated. A. strainer is shown in Pig. 75, pierced with holes, the centre half an inch lower than the rim, to which hooks are fixed to hold it to the top of the pan. On this a coarse linen cloth is laid, the milk being strained through both the cloth and the strainer, thus serving to separate all foreign substances in a thorough manner. In the bottom of the milk-pan, near one end, is an opening, a, through which the milk is drawn, after the cream is all risen or separated from it, by raising a brass pin, b. The opening is lined with brass, and is three fourths of an inch in diameter. Fig. 76 represents the tin cylinder magnified. This is pierced, to the height of an inch, with many small holes, diminishing in size towards the top. The cream is all risen in twenty- CHURNING BY HORSE POWER. 225 four hours. The pin is then drawn from the cylinder, and the milk flows out, leaving the thick cream 7 which is prevented from flowing out by the smallness of the holes in the cylinder. With the form of pans in most common use in this country, which are circular, three or four inches deep, this shallow depth of milk causes a little more trouble in skimming ; but, if the principle is correct, the form and depth of the pan will be easily adapted to it. After the cream is removed, it is put into stone or earthen jars, and kept in a cool place till a sufficient quantity is accumulated to make it convenient to churn. If a sufficient number of cows is kept, it is far better to churn every day ; but in ordinary circumstances that may be oftener than is practicable. The more frequently the better ; and the advantages of frequent churning are so great that cream should never be kept longer than three or four days, where it is possible to churn so often. The mode of churning in one of the many good dairies in Pennsylvania, — that of Mr. J. Comfort, of Montgomery county, — is as follows : He uses a large barrel-shaped churn, of the size of about two hogsheads, hung on journals supported by a framework in an adjoin- ing building. It is worked by machinery in a rotatory motion, by a horse travelling around in a circle. The churning commences about four o'clock in the morn- ing in summer, the cream being poured into the churn and the horse started. When the butter has come, a part of the butter-milk is removed by a vent-hole in the churn. Then, without beating the mass together, as is usual, a portion of the butter and its butter-milk is taken out by the spatula and placed in the bottom of a tub covered with fine salt, and spread out equally to a proper depth ; then the surface of this butter is cov- 15 226 FORMS OF THE CHURN ered with salt, and another portion of butter and butter-rnilk taken from the churn and spread over the salted surface in the same manner, and salted as before, thus making a succession of layers, till the tub is full. The whole is then covered with a white cloth, and allowed to stand a while. A part of this butter, say eight or ten pounds, is then taken from the tub and laid on a marble table (Fig. 80), grooved around the edges, and slightly inclined, with a place in the groove for the butter-milk and whey to escape. It is then worked by a butter-worker or brake, turning on a swivel-joint, which perfectly and completely removes the butter-milk, and flattens out the butter into a thin mass ; then the surface is wiped by a cloth laid over it, and the working and wiping repeated till the cloth adheres to the butter, which indicates that the butter is dry enough, when it is separated into pound lumps, weighed and stamped, ready for market. The rest of the butter in the tub is treated in the same way. It will be seen that this method avoids the ordinary washing with water, not a drop of water being used, from beginning to the end. It avoids also the working by hand, which in warm weather has a tendency to soften the butter. In the space of about an hour a hundred pounds are thus made, and its beautiful color and fragrance preserved. If it happens to come from the churn soft, it hardens by standing a little longer in the brine. The most common form of the churn in small dairies is the upright or dash- churn, Fig. 77 ; but many other forms MODE OF CHUENING, 227 are iu extensive use, each possessing, doubtless, more or less merit peculiar to itself. The cylinder churn, Fig. 78, is very simply constructed, and capable of being easily cleaned. Some prefer the thermometer churn, Fig. 79, having an attachment for the temperature cream. As already stated, there are two modes of practice with regard to the pro- cess of churning, each of which has its advantages. The milk itself may be churned, or it may be set in the milk-room for the cream to rise, which is to be indicating of the Fig. 19. churned by itself. The former is the practice of a successful dairyman of New York, who, in his state- ment, says: " I take care to have my cellar thoroughly cleansed and whitewashed early every spring. I keep 228 CHURNING MILK. — SQUARE BOX CHURN. milk in one cellar, and butter in another. Too much care cannot be taken by dairymen to observe the time of churning. I usually churn from one hour to one hour and a half, putting from one to two pails of cold water in each churn. When the butter has come, I take it out, wash it through one water, set it in the cellar and salt it, then work it from three to five times before packing. Butter should not be made quite salt enough until the last working. Then add a little salt, which makes a brine that keeps the butter sweet. One ounce of salt to a pound of butter is about the quantity I use. I pack the first clay, if the weather is cool ; if warm, the second. If the milk is too warm when churned, the quantity of butter will be less, and the quality and flavor not so good as when it is at a a proper temperature, which, for churning milk, is from 60° to 65°." But, whichever course it is thought best to adopt, whether the milk or cream is churned, it is the concus- sion, rather than the motion, which serves to bring the butter. This may be produced in the simple square box as well as by the dasher churn ; and it is the opinion of a scientific gentleman with whom I have conversed on the subject, that the perfect square is the best form of the churn ever invented. The cream or milk in this churn has a peculiar compound motion, and the concus- sion on the corners and right-angled sides is very great, and causes the butter to come as rapidly as it is judi- cious to have it. This churn consists of a simple square box, which any one who can handle a saw and plane can make, hung on axles turned by a crank somewhat like the barrel churn. No dasher is required. If any one is inclined to doubt the superiority of this form over all others, he can easily try it and satisfy himself. It costs but little. CHURNING THE CREAM. 229 In some sections the milk is churned soon after milk- ing ; in others, the night's and morning's milk are mixed together, and churned at noon ; in others, the cream is allowed to rise, when the milk is curdled, and cream, curd, and whey, are all churned together. A successful instance of churning only the cream is found in the statement of Mr. Lincoln, who received the first dairy premium of the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture. He says : " The cream, as it is skimmed, is poured into stone pots, which in warm weather are kept in a refrigerator, and during the winter stand in the milk-room. The times of churning depend upon the quantity of cream. " The time usually occupied in churning is from fifty minutes upwards. This is deemed a matter of import- ance. "We consider it much better to bring the cream to the degree of temperature necessary to the forma- tion of butter by a steady, moderate agitation, than to use artificial heat to take it to that point before com- mencing to churn. By such moderate, long-continued agitations, we think the butter has a firmer, more waxy consistence than it can have by more rapid churning. The churn used is ' Gait's.' Numerous trials have been made with many of the other kinds of churns in com- parison with this, and the result has been uniformly favorable to this patent. " When the butter has come, the butter-milk is drawn off, and the butter, after being thoroughly worked, is salted with from one half to three fourths ounces of salt to the pound. It is now set away for twenty-four hours, when it is again worked over thoroughly, and made into pound lumps with wooden l spatters.' After standing another twenty-four hours, it is sent into market. In ' working ' butter we use a table over which a fluted roller is made to pass (Fig. 80), rolling 20 230 PHILADELPHIA BUTTEE. out the butter into a thin sheet, and completely and entirely depriving it of butter-milk. " From many years' experience, the observation is warranted, that by no other process of manufacture can the butter-milk be so completely extracted. I am aware of the truth of the objection made that the shrinkage occasioned by its use is too great : yet there is, in fact, a difference in the worth of the butter made upon it, over that manufactured in the ordinary way, quite equal to the loss in weight occasioned by it." The high reputation of Philadelphia butter being so well known, I was desirous of ascertaining the opinions of practical men as to what this was due, — whether to any peculiar richness of the pasturage, or to the careful mode of manufacture. In reply to my inquiries, I have received satisfactory statements from several sources, and among them the following communication from one of the most successful of the butter-makers who supply that market. " The high reputation of Philadelphia but- ter," he says, "is owing to the manner of its manufacture, though I would not say that the sweet-scented vernal and other natural grasses do not add to the fine quality of well-made butter. "In proof of what I say, I would refer to the experi- ence of my brother, who is the owner of two farms. His tenant, an excellent butter-maker, lived on one farm, and made a very fine article, which brought the highest prices. He moved to the other farm, where the former tenant had never made good butter, and had ascribed his want of success to the spring-house. On this farm he succeeded in establishing a higher repu- tation than he ever had before. The tenant who fol- lowed him on the first farm never succeeded in gaining a reputation for good butter, his inability arising from his ignorance of the proper mode of manufacture, and MODE OP MAKING. 231 his unwillingness to improve by the experience of others. " Only a part of the information as to the best mode of manufacture can be given, so much depends on the judgment and experience of the operator. The first thing required is to provide a suitable place. This should be, for the summer months, a well-ventilated house, over a good spring of water. The second requisite will be proper vessels to hold the milk and cream, and for churning. A table is needed which shall not be used for any other purpose than for working and printing the butter on. I have always used a lever in connection with the table (Fig. 80). A large sponge, with a linen cloth to cover it, with which the milk can be removed from the butter, is another important article ; and then a skimmer, either of wood or tin, or both, as may be necessary in the different states of the milk ; a thermometer, and a boiler convenient for heating water for cleansing the vessels. No person can expect to make good butter without the greatest attention to the cleanliness of the vessels used for the milk and cream, and care in exposing them to the sun and air. " After the milk has been brought from the yard or stable, strain it immediately into the pans, in which has been put a little sour milk from which the cream has been removed, the quantity varying from a tablespoon- ful to half a common teacupful, according to the state of the weather. In very warm weather the smaller quantity is sufficient. But the rule for warm weather will not always hold good ; for, from the electrical state of the atmosphere, the milk may sour either too slow or too fast. " The pans containing the milk should then be set into the water, if the weather be hot: and here is a point where the operator should exercise his or her judgment ; for 232 USE OF THE SPONGE. even in warm weather it may be necessary to draw off the water from the milk, if the spring be cold. The milk should remain there, under no circumstances, longer than the fourth meal, or forty-eight hours ; but thirty- six hours is much to be preferred, if the milk has become thick, or the cream sufficiently raised, when it should be taken off carefully, so as not to take any sour milk with it, and put in the cream-pot. When the cream-pot is full, sprinkle a small handful of fine salt over the top of the cream, and let it remain. Our custom has been, when making butter but once a week, to pour the cream into a clean vessel at the end of three days, keeping back any milk that might have been taken up with the cream, which is found at the bottom of the jar. "I would mention that it is essential, in making a fine article, to keep the cream clear of milk. The next ope- ration will be preparatory to churning, by straining the cream, and reducing the temperature of the churn by the use of the cold spring-water. The operation of churning should neither be protracted nor hastened too much. After the butter has made its appearance of the size of a small pea, draw off the milk, and throw in a small amount of cold water, and gather it. After the butter has been taken from the churn, it is placed upon the table, worked over by the lever, and salted ; then worked again with the lever, in connection with the sponge and cloth, a pan of cold water being at hand, with a piece of ice in it in summer, into which you throw the cloth and sponge frequentty, and wring out dry before again using it. These, as well as every other article which will come into contact with the butter, must be scalded, and afterward, as well as the hands, placed in cold water. I would here add that the use of the sponge is one of the important points in mak- THE WINTER DAIRY. 233 ing butter to keep well; for by it you can remove almost every particle of butter-milk, which is the great agent in the destruction of its sweetness and solidity. For the winter dairy a room in which is placed a stove should be provided, which can be made warm, and also well ventilated. I prefer the use of coal, on account of keeping the fire through the night. My dairy-room is adjoining the spring-house, and connects with it, which I consider important. This room should be used for no other purpose, as cream and butter are the greatest absorbents of effluvia with which I am acquainted. I have known good butter to be spoiled by being placed over night in a close closet. " The thermometer should always accompany the winter dairy. There is one thing very important in the winter dairy, which, perhaps, I should have placed first, and that is the food of the cows; for, without something else than hay, you will not make very fine butter. Mill-feed and corn-meal I consider about the best for yield and quality, although there are many other articles of food which will be useful, and con- tribute to the appetite and health of the cattle. " The process for the winter dairy is similar to that of the summer, with the exception of the regulation as to the temperature of room, etc., which is as follows : " Particular care should be taken not to let the milk get cold before placing it in the dairy-room; for, should it be completely chilled, the cream will not rise well. Add about a gill of warm water to the sour milk for each pan, before straining into it, which will greatly facilitate the rising of the cream. Keep the tempera- ture of the room as near fifty-eight degrees, Fahrenheit, as possible, and guard against the air being dry by having a small vessel of water upon the stove, or else a dry coat will form on the surface of the cream. The 20* 234 THE GEEAT SECEET. cream should be kept in a colder place than the dairy- room until the night before churning, when it might be placed in the warm room, so that its temperature shall be about 58°. "The churn may be prepared by scalding it, and then reduced to the same temperature as the cream by cold water, using the thermometer as a test. " This regulation of temperature is of the greatest importance : for, should it be too low, you will be a long time churning, and have poor, tasteless butter ; if too high, the butter will be soft and white." What is especially noticeable in the above statement is the use of the sponge, and the thorough and complete removal of all the butter-milk. Here is probably the secret of success, after all. I have given the statement in full, notwithstanding its length, on account of the well-known excellence of the butter produced by the process, as well as for the suggestions with regard to the dairy-rooms, and not because I can recommend all its details for the imitation of others. The use of sour milk in the pans is based, I suppose, on the idea that the cream does not begin to rise till acidity commences in the milk, — an idea which was once pretty generally entertained ; but the process of souring undoubtedly commences, though imperceptible to the senses, very soon after the milk comes to rest in the pan. At any rate, there is no doubt that the separation of the butter from the other substances commences at once, and without the addition of any foreign substance to the milk. Nor do I believe there is any necessity for the milk to stand over twenty-four hours in any case ; for I have no doubt that all the best of the cream rises within the first twelve hours, under favorable circumstances, and I am inclined to think that whatever is added to the THE TIME TO EISE. 235 quantity of cream after twenty-four hours, detracts from the quality of the butter to an extent which more than counterbalances the whole of the quantity. Many good dairy-women make an exceedingly fine article, in spite of the defects of some parts of the pro- cess of manufacture. This does not show that they would not make still better butter if they remedied these defects. The more we can retard the development of acidity in the milk, within certain limits, the more cream may we expect to get ; and hence some use artificial means for this purpose, mixing in the milk a little crystallized soda, dissolved in twice its volume of water, which corrects the acidity as soon as it forms. It is a perfectly harmless addition, and increases the product of the butter, and improves its quality. But under ordinarily favorable circumstances, from twelve to eighteen hours will be sufficient to raise all the cream in summer, and from twenty to thirty houra in winter. 80. Butter-worker. The butter-worker, Fig. 80, with its marble top, used by the writer of the statement above, is an im- 236 CREAM IN A WELL. portant addition to the implements of the dairy. It effects the complete removal of the butter- milk, without the ne- cessity of bringing the hands in contact with it. Another form of the lever butter-worker is seen in Fig. 81. To keep the cream properly after it is placed away in pots or jars, it should stand in a cool place, and whenever additions of fresh cream are made, they should be stirred in. Many keep the cream, as well as the butter, in the well, in hot weather. This is the practice of Mr. Horsfall, whose experiments have been alluded to. Finding his butter inclined to be soft, he lowered a thermometer twenty-eight feet into the well, and found it indicated 43°, the temperature of the sur- face being 70°. He then let down the butter, and found it somewhat improved ; and soon after began to lower down the cream, by means of a movable windlass and a rope, the cream-jar being placed in a basket hung on the rope. The cream was let down on the evening previous to churning, and drawn up in the morning and immediately churned. The time of churning the cream at this temperature would be as long as in winter, and the butter was found to have the same consistency. The same object is effected in this country by the use of ice in many sections ; but, if the butter remains too long on ice, or in an ice-house, it is apt to become bleached, and lose its natural and delicate straw-color. The time of churning is by no means an unimportant matter. Various contrivances have been made to short- en this operation ; but the opinions of the best and most successful dairymen concur that it cannot be too MODE OF PACKING. 237 much hastened without injuring the fine quality and consistency of the butter. The time required depends much on the temperature of the cream; and this can be regulated at convenience, as indicated above. The temperature of the dairy-room should be as uniform as possible. The practice of the best and most successful dairymen differs in respect to the degree to which it should be kept ; but the range is from 52° to 62° Fahr., and I am inclined to think from 58° to 60° the best. At 60°, with a current of fresh, pure air passing over it, the cream will rise very rapidly and abundantly. The greatest density of milk is at about 41°, and cream rises with great difficulty and slowness as the temperature falls below 50° towards that point. A practical butter dealer of New York gives the fol- lowing as the best mode of packing butter, or putting it up for a distant market. The greatest care, he says, should be taken to free the butter entirely from milk, by working it and washing it after churning at a tem- perature so low as to prevent it from losing its granular character and becoming greasy. The character of the product depends in a great measure on the temperature of churning and working, which should be between sixty and seventy degrees Fahr. If free from milk, eight ounces of Ashton salt is sufficient for ten pounds. "Western salt should never be used, as it injures the flavor. While packing, the contents of the firkin should be kept from the air by being covered with saturated brine. No undissolved salt should be put in the bottom of the firkin. Goshen butter is reputed best, though much is put up in imitation of it, and sold at the same price. Great care should be taken to have the firkins neat and clean. They should be of white oak, with hickory hoops, and should hold about eighty pounds. Wood excludes air 238 FIRKINS. LUMP BUTTER. better than stone, and consequently keeps butter bet- ter. Tubs are better than pots. Western butter comes in coarse, ugly packages; even flour and pork barrels are sometimes used. Much of it must be worked over and re-packed here before it will sell. It generally contains a good deal of milk, and if not re-worked soon becomes rancid. Improper pack- ing, in kegs too large and soiled on the outside, makes at least three cents a pound difference. Whatever the size of the firkin, it must be perfectly tight and quite full of butter, so that when opened the brine, though present, will not be found on the top. Until the middle of May, dairymen should pack in quarter firkins or tubs, with white oak covers, and send directly to market as fresh butter. From this time until the fall frost there is but little change in color and flavor with the same dairy, and it may be packed in whole firkins, and kept in a cool place. The fall butter should also be packed separately in tubs. In the vicinity of good markets, it is most frequently done up in pound lumps, neatly stamped and tastefully prepared, so as to please the eye as well as the taste. No artificial coloring matter is needed with butter from rich milk and summer pastures. In winter the color will depend somewhat on the richness of food given to the cows, but will not be so yellow and rich as at other times. Grains and carrots produce a richer straw- color than dry hay alone. As already seen, in the statements of practical dairy- men, the greatest care is required in the salting or sea- soning. Over-salted butter is not only less palatable to the taste, but less healthy than fresh, sweet butter. The same degree of care is needed with respect to the box in which it is packed. I have often seen the best and richest-flavored butter spoilt by sending it to the exhibi- A NEW PROCESS. 239 tion or to market in new and improper boxes. A new pine-wood box should always be avoided. Butter that has been thoroughly worked, and per- fectly freed from butter-milk, is of a firm and waxy con- sistence, so as scarcely to dim the polish of the blade of a knife thrust into it, leaving upon it only a slight dew as it is withdrawn. If it is soft in texture, and leaves greasy streaks of butter-milk upon the knife that cuts it, or upon the cut surface after the blade is with- drawn, it shows an imperfect and defective process of manufacture, and is of poor quality, and will be liable to become rancid. An exceedingly delicate and fine-flavored butter may be made by wrapping the cream in a napkin or clean cloth, and burying it, a foot deep or more, in the earth, from twelve to twenty hours. This experiment I have repeatedly tried with complete success, and have never tasted butter superior to that produced by this method. It requires to be salted to the taste as much as butter made by any other process. A tenacious subsoil loam would seem to be best. After putting the cream into a clean cloth, the whole should be surrounded by a coarse towel. The butter thus produced is white instead of yellow or straw-color. Butter has been analyzed by Prof. "Way, with the fol- lowing result : Pure fat, or oil, 82.70 Caseine, or curd, 2.45 Water, with a little salt, 14.85 = 100 The fat or oil peculiar to butter is in winter more solid than in summer, and known as margarine fat, while that of summer is known as liquid or oleine fat. The proportions in which these are found in ordinary 240 THE FAT OF BUTTER. — ICE. butter have been stated by Prof. Thomson, as follows: Summer, 'Winter. Solid or margarine fat, 40 65 Liquid or oleine fat, 60 35 100 100 Winter butter appears to be rich and fine in propor- tion as the oleine fat increases. The proportion is undoubtedly dependent on the food. A more general attention to the details of butter- making, and to the best modes of preserving its good qualities, would add many thousands of dollars to the aggregate profits of our American dairies. In the management of the dairy, an ice-house and a good quantity of ice for summer use are not only very convenient for regulating the temperature of the dairy- room, and for keeping butter at the proper consistence, and preserving it,but are also profitable in other respects. And now, when ice-houses are so easily constructed, and ice is so readily procured, no well-ordered dairy should be without a liberal supply of it. It is housed at a time when other farm-work is not pressing, and ponds are so distributed over the country that it may be generally pro- cured without difficulty ; but where ponds or streams are at too great a distance from the dairy-house, an artificial pond can be easily made, by damming up the outlet of some spring in the neighborhood. Where this is done, the utmost care should be taken to keep the water per- fectly clean when the ice is forming. The ice-house should be above ground, and in a dry, airy place. The top of a dry knoll is better than a low, damp shade. The ice may be packed in tan, sawdust, shavings, or other non-conductors, and when wanted for use it should be taken off the top. CHAPTER IX. THE CHEESE-DAIRY. " Streams of new milk through flowing coolers stray, And snow-white curds abound, and wholesome whey." Milk, if allowed to become sour, will eventually curdle, when the whey is easily separated : and this simple mode was probably the universal method of making cheese in ancient times. Cheese, as already explained, is made from caseine, an ingredient of milk held in solution by means of an alkali, which it re- quires the presence of an acid to neutralize. This, in modern manufacture, is artificially added to form the curd ; but the acidity of milk, after standing, acts in the same manner to produce coagulation. This is due to the change of the milk-sugar into lactic acid. Cheese has been made and used as an article of food from a very early date. It was well known to the early Jewish patriarchs, and is frequently mentioned in the earliest Hebrew records. " Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?" says Job ; and David was sent to " carry ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand in the camp." Most of the ancient nations, indeed, barbarous as well as civilized, made it a prominent article of food. But cheese, as made by the ancients, was found to be hard and brittle, and not well flavored, and means were devised to produce the same effect while the milk still remained sweet. It was 21 16 242 CHEESE. — ITS EICHNESS. observed that acids of various kinds would answer, and vinegar was used ; and cream of tartar, muriatic acid, and sour milk, added to sweet, produced a rapid coagulation. In Sweden, Norway, and other countries, a handful of the plant known as butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris)'^ some- times mixed with the food of the cow, to cause the milk to coagulate readily. A few hours after milking, the curd is formed without the addition of an acid. Milk taken into the stomach of the calf was found to curdle rapidly, even while sweet ; and hence the use of rennet, which is simply the stomach of the calf, prepared by washing, salting, and drying, for preservation. This acts the most surely, and, if properly prepared and preserved, is the least objectionable, of any article now known ; and is, in fact, the natural mode of curdling the milk as it enters the stomach, preparatory to the process of diges- tion. Besides this, it is generally the cheapest and most available for the farmer. The richness of cheese depends very much upon the amount of butter or oily matter it contains. It may be made entirely of cream, or from whole or unskimmed milk, to which the cream of other milk is added, or from milk from which a part of its cream has been taken, or from ordinary skim-milk, or from milk that has been skimmed three or four times, so as to remove nearly every particle of cream, or from butter-milk. The acid used in curdling milk acts upon the caseine alone, and not upon the butter particles, which are imbedded in the curd as it hardens, and thus increase its richness and flavor without adding to its con- sistency, which is due to the caseine. It is evident, therefore, that cheese made entirely of cream cannot have the firmness and consistence of ordinary cheese. It is only made for immediate use, and cannot be long kept. It is, in fact, little more than PROCESS OF MAKING. 243 thick, dried, sweet cream, from which all the milk has been pressed. On the other hand, skim-milk cheese has the opposite fault of being too hard and tough, and destitute of flavor and richness. The best quality of cheese is made from full milk, or from milk to which some extra cream is added, as in the English Stilton, renowned for its richness and flavor. The Gloucester, Cheshire, Cheddar, Dunlop, and the Dutch G-oucla, are made of whole milk, as are the best qualities made in this country. The process of making cheese is both chemical and mechanical. The heating of the milk at the time of adding the acid or rennet hastens the chemical action, and facilitates the separation of the whey ; at the same time great nicety is required, for, if over-heated, the oily particles will run off with the whey. On the complete separation of the whey from the curd, and the amount of butter particles retained in the latter, the taste or flavor and keeping qualities of the cheese depend. If properly made, the taste improves by keeping, but the chemical changes effected by age are not very well understood. The practical process of manufacture most common in the best dairies of this country will appear in the fol- lowing statements of successful competitors at agricul- tural exhibitions. The first was made, by request, to the New York State Agricultural Society, and appeared in its transactions, by A. L. Fish, of Herkimer county, one of the finest dairy regions of that state. The value of his statement is enhanced by the fact that his cows averaged seven hundred pounds of the first quality of cheese each in 1844, and seven hundred and seventy-five pounds each in 1845. In his mode of manufacture, " the evening's and morning's milk is com- monly used to make one cheese. The evening's is 244 AMERICAN CHEESE. strained into a tub or pans, and cooled to prevent souring. The proper mode of cooling is to strain the milk into the tin tub set in a wooden vat, described in the dairy-house, and cool by filling the wooden vat with ice-water from the ice-house, or ice in small lumps, and water from the pump. The little cream that rises over night is taken off in the morning, and kept till the morning and evening milk are put together, and the cream is warmed to receive the rennet. It is mixed with about twice its quantity of new milk, and warm water added to raise its temperature to ninety-eight degrees : stir it till perfectly limpid, put in rennet enough to curdle the milk in forty minutes, and mix it with the mass of milk by thorough stirring ; the milk having been previously raised to eighty-eight or ninety degrees, by passing steam from the steam generator to the water in the wooden'vat. In case no double vat is to be had, the milk may be safely heated to the right temperature, by setting a tin pail of hot water into the milk in the tubs. It may be cooled in like manner by filling the pail with ice-water, or cold spring-water where ice is not to be had. It is not safe to heat milk in a kettle exposed directly to the fire, as a slight scorching will communicate its taint to the whole cheese and spoil it. If milk is curdled below eighty- four degrees, the cream is more liable to work off with the whey. An extreme of heat will have a like effect. The curdling heat is varied with the temperature of the air, or the liability of the milk to cool after adding rennet. The thermometer is the only safe guide in determining the temperature ; for, if the dairyman depends upon the sensation of the hand, a great liability to error will render the operation uncertain. If, for instance, the hands have previously been immersed in cold water, the milk will feel warmer than it really is ; PRACTICAL DETAILS. 245 if, on the contrary, they have recently been in warm water, the milk will feel colder than it really is. To satisfy the reader how much this circumstance alone will affect the sensation of the hand, let him immerse one hand in warm water, and at the same time keep the other in a vessel of cold water, for a few moments ; then pour the water in the two dishes together, and immerse both hands in the mixture. The hand that was previously in the warm water will feel cold, and the other quite warm, showing that the sense of feeling is not a test of temperature worthy of being relied upon. A fine cloth spread over the tub while the milk is curd- ling will prevent the surface from being cooled by cir- culation of air. No jarring of the milk, by walking upon a springy floor, or otherwise, should be allowed while it is curdling, as it will prevent a perfect cohesion of the particles. " When milk is curdled so as to appear like a solid, it is divided into small particles to aid the separation of the whey from the curd. This is often too speedily done to facilitate the work, but at a sacrifice of quality and quantity." To effect the fine division of the curd for the easy separation of the whey, Mr. Fish uses a wire network, made to fit into the tub, the meshes of fine wire being about a half-inch square, and the outer rim of coarse and stronger material. A cheese-knife is also used, about half as long as the diameter of the tub, and firmly fastened to the lower end of a long screw which passes through one end of the blade as it lies horizontally, leaving the blade at right angles with the screw, which has a coarse thread, and passes through a piece of wood on the top of the tub, held firm by notches at the ends laid on the edges of the tub. By turning a crank, the knife passes down through the curd in revolutions, 21* 246 HOW TO MAKE SAGE CHEESE. cutting it into layers of the thickness of the threads of the screw. The following is the statement of Mrs. Williams, of Windsor, Massachusetts, who received the first premium at the Franklin County Fair, in 1857, for exceedingly rich, fine, and delicately-flavored cheeses of seventy-five pounds each. Her method, which is the result of her own experience and observation, corresponds almost exactly, as the committee remark, with the English mode of making the famous Cheddar cheese, which is much the same as the Cheshire. Mrs. Williams says : " My cheese is made from one day's milk of twenty- nine cows. I strain the night's milk into a tub, skim it in the morning, and melt the cream in the morning's milk : I warm the night's milk, so that with the morn- ing's milk, when mixed together, it will be at the tem- perature of ninety-six degrees ; then add rennet suffi- cient to turn it in thirty minutes. Let it stand about half or three quarters of an hour; then cross it off and let it stand about thirty minutes, working upon it very care- fully with a skimmer. When the curd begins to settle, dip off the whey, and heat it up and pour it on again at the temperature of one hundred and two degrees. After draining off and cutting up, add a teacup of salt to four- teen pounds. " The process of making sage cheese is the same as the other, except adding the juice of the sage in a small quantity of milk." Another successful competitor in the same state says : " We usually make but one curd in a day. The night's milk is strained into pans till morning, when the cream that will have risen is taken off, and the milk warmed to blood heat, when the cream is again returned to the milk and thoroughly mixed. This prevents the melt- ing; of the cream that would otherwise run off with PEACTICAL STATEMENT. — RENNET. 247 the whey. The whole is then immediately laded into a tub with the morning's milk, and set for the cheese, with rennet sufficient to form the curd in about thirty min- utes ; and here much care is thought to be necessary in cutting and crossing the curd, and much moderation in dipping and draining the whey from it, that the white whey (so called) may not exude from it. "When sufficiently drained, it is taken and cut with a sharp knife to about the size and form of dice, when it is salted with about one pound of fine salt to twenty- five of curd. It is then subjected to a moderate press- ure at first, gradually increasing it for two days, in the mean time turning it twice a day, and substituting dry cloths. It is then taken from the press and dressed all over with hot melted butter, and covered with thin cot- ton cloth, and this saturated with the melted butter. It is then placed upon the shelf, and turned and rubbed daily with the dressing until ripe for use." One of the most important processes in the manufac- ture of good cheese is the preparation of the rennet. This is made of the inner lining or mucous membrane of the stomach of the young sucking calf, sometimes called the bag or maw; and the use of it was undoubt- edly suggested, originally, by observing the complete and rapid coagulation or curdling of milk in the stom- ach of a calf newly killed. "Coagulation is the first pro- cess of digestion in the fourth stomach of the calf. There are numerous glands scattered in and about the stomach that secrete a fluid which readily and almost immedi- ately accomplishes this coagulation. They are always full of it ; even after the animal is dead they remain filled with it ; and if the stomach is preserved from putrefaction, this fluid retains its coagulating quality for a considerable period; therefore dairy-women usually take care of the maw or stomach of the calf, and pre- 248 KENNET IN THE SCOTCH DAISIES. serve it by salting it, and then, by steeping it, or por- tions of it, in warm water, they prepare what they call a rennet. After the maw has been salted a certain time, it may be taken out and dried, and then it will retain the same property for an indefinite period. A small piece of the maw thus dried is steeped over night in a few teaspoonfuls of warm water, and this water will turn the milk of three or four cows." It is important that rennet enough should be pre- pared at once for the whole season, in order to secure as great a uniformity in strength as possible. The object should be to produce a prompt, complete, and firm or compact coagulation of all the cheesy matter. Mr. Aiton, in his admirable treatise on the Dairy Hus- bandry of Scotland, gives the simple method of prepar- ing the rennet in the dairy districts, as follows : " When the stomach or bag — usually termed the yirning — is taken from the calf's body, its contents are examined, and if any straw or other food is found among the curdled milk, such impurity is carefully removed ; but all the curdled milk found in the bag is carefully pre- served, and no part of the chyle is washed out. A considerable quantity of salt — at least two handfuls — is put into and outside the bag, which is then rolled up and hung near a fire to dry. It is always allowed to hang until it is well dried, and is understood to be improved by hanging a year or longer before being infused. " When rennet is wanted, the yirning with its contents is cut small, and put into a jar with a handful or two of salt ; and a quantity of soft water that has been boiled and cooled to sixty -five degrees, or of new whey taken off the curd, is poured into it. The quantity of water or whey necessary is more or less, according to the quality of the yirning: if it is that of a new-dropped RENNET IN AMERICAN DAIRIES. 249 calf, a Scotch chop pin, or at most three English pints, will be enough ; but if the calf has been fed four or five weeks, two quarts or more may be used : the yirn- ing of a calf four weeks old yields more rennet than that of one twice that age. When the infusion has remained in the jar from one to three days, the liquid is drawn off and strained, after which it is bottled for use; and if a dram-glass of any ardent spirit is put into each bottle, the infusion may either be used immediately, or kept as long as may be convenient." The mode of preparing rennet in the dairy districts of this country is various ; but that adopted by Mr. Fish, of Herkimer, New York, already quoted, is simple and easy of application. He says : " Various opinions exist as to the best mode of saving rennet, and that is generally adopted which, it is supposed, will curdle the most milk. I have no objection to any mode that will preserve its strength and flavor so that it will be smelled and tasted with good relish when put into the milk. Any composition not thus kept I deem unfit for use, as the coagulator is an essential agent in cheesing the curd, and sure to impart its own flavor. " The rennet never should be taken from the calf till the excrement shows the animal to be in perfect health. It should be emptied of its contents, salted, and dried, without any scraping or rinsing, and kept dry for one 3 r ear, when it will be fit for use. It should not be allowed to gather dampness, or its strength will evap- orate. To prepare it for use, into ten gallons of water, blood warm, put ten rennets ; churn or rub them often for twenty-four hours ; then rub and press them to get the strength ; stretch, salt, and dry them, as before. They will gain strength for a second use. Make the liquor as salt as it can be made, strain and settle it, sep- arate it from the sediment, if any, and it is fit for use. 250 ANNATTO FOE COLORING.' Six lemons, two ounces of cloves, two ounces of cinna- mon, and two ounces of common sage, are sometimes added to the liquor, to preserve its flavor and quicken its action. If kept cool in a stone jar, it will keep sweet any length of time desired, and a uniform strength is secured while it lasts. Stir it before clipping off. To set milk, take of it enough to curdle milk firm in forty minutes ; squeeze or rub through a rag annatto enough to make the curd a cream color, and stir it in with the rennet." It will be seen that he adopts the practice of removing the contents of the stomach. This, it appears to me, is the best calculated to promote cleanliness and purity, so important in making a good-flavored cheese. But in Cheshire, so celebrated for its superior cheese, the contents of the stomach are frequently salted by themselves, and after being a short time exposed to the air are fit for use ; while the well-known and highly- esteemed Limburg cheese is mostly made with rennet prepared as in Ayrshire, the curd being left in the stomach, and both dried together. The general opinion is that rennet, as usually prepared, is not fit to use till nearly a year old. Perhaps the plan of making a liquid rennet from new and fresh stomachs, and keeping it in bottles corked tight till wanted for use, would tend still further to secure this end. The use of annatto to color the cheese artificially is somewhat common in this country, though probably not so much so as in many other countries. Annatto, or annotto, is made from the red pulp of the seeds of an evergreen tree of the same name, found in the West Indies and in Brazil, by bruising and obtaining a precip- itate. A variety is made in Cayenne, which comes into the market in cakes of two or three pounds. It is bright yellow, rather soft to the touch, but of considerable THE CHEESE-PEESS. 251 solidity. The quantity used is rarely more than an ounce to one hundred pounds, and the effect is simply to give the high coloring so common to the Gloucester and Cheshire cheeses, and to many made in this coun- try. This artificial coloring is continued from an idle prejudice, somewhat troublesome to the dairyman, expensive to the consumer, and adding nothing to the taste or flavor of the article. The annatto itself is so universally and so largely adulterated, often by poison- ous substances, such as lead and mercury, that the prac- tice of using it by the cheese-maker, and of requiring the high coloring by the consumer, might well be discon- tinued. The common mode of application is to dissolve it Fig. 82. Cheese-press. in hot milk, and add at the time of putting in the rennet, or to put it upon the outside, in the manner of paint. The cheese-presses in most common use are very dif- 252 THERMOMETER. TEMPERATURE. ferent in construction, and each possesses, doubtless, some peculiar merits. The self-acting press, Fig. 82, is the favorite of some. Another form of this is seen in Fig. 83. Fig. 83. Self-acting cheese-press. One of the most extensive and experienced dealers in cheese, in one of the largest dairy districts of New York, — Mr. Harry Burrill, of Little Falls, — has placed in my hands the following simple directions for cheese- making. The cheese-tub should be so graduated that it may be correctly known what quantity of milk is used. This is requisite, in order that the proper proportions, both of coloring matter and rennet, may be used. The tem- perature should be ascertained by the thermometer. Experience proves that when the dairy has been at PEACTICAL DIEECTIONS. 253 seventy degrees the best temperature at which to run the milk will be eighty-four degrees; but, as the temperature of the dairy at different times of the year will be found to varj^ above or below seventy degrees, the temperature of the milk must be proportionally regulated by the simple addition of cold water^ to lower it ; but, to in- crease the temperature, heat the milk in the usual man- ner, although it is absolutely necessary to avoid heating it beyond one hundred and twenty degrees. After having brought the milk to the required tempera- ture, and added the coloring, for every quarter hundred weight of cheese mix one pint of new sour whey with the requisite proportion of rennet ; and, having arrived at the formation of a good curd, which will be the invari- able result of a strict adhesion to the foregoing rules, let it be carefully cut up with three-bladed knives, as fine as possible ; then dip off half the whey, and heat a portion of it to the temperature of ninety-five degrees, and return it to the whey and curds; then, after stirring- it for five minutes, allow the curd to sink, and as quickly as possible dip off the whey. Having done this, press the curd by placing on it a board weighted with from three to five fifty-pound weights, which will gradually and effectually press the remainder of the whey out. When the whey is dipped off, put the curd into white twig basket-vats, made the shape and size of a turned vat, which would contain the sixth of a hundred weight (about three inches deep, and two feet in diameter). It will be necessaiy to have boards about one inch thick, and two feet four inches in diameter, to go between each of these twig vats, to prevent the whey running from one vat into the other. When it has been pressed, return it again into the cheese-tub, cut it into small pieces, put it into the vats again in dry cloths, press it and return it to the tub again, cutting it into small 22 254 FINE COAT. — VARIETIES. pieces, and to every hundred weight of curd add one and one quarter pounds of salt ; grind it twice, and stir it so that it shall be properly mixed with the salt ; then put it into well-perforated turned vats, taking care to press it thoroughly whilst the vats are filling, to prevent the accumulation of air, to the presence of which is to be attributed the honeycomb appearance so often ob- served in cheese when cut. When the cheese is put into the press let the press- ure gradually upon it. After it has been in press one and a half hours, take it out and examine it, and, should there be any curd pressed over, cut it round and put it into the middle of the cheese, carefully break- ing it up in the middle. Wash the ends of the cloths out in a bowl of warm water, squeeze them, and cover the cheese up, and, if there should be any not sufficiently full, it will be necessary either to put a follower upon it, or to put it into a smaller vat ; in the evening let them be dry clothed. The following morning salt them all over and dry cloth them, and repeat this three suc- cessive mornings ; after which, put them in vats, placed one on the other, and allow them to stand, if possible, a fortnight, occasionally wiping them. The cheese will get matured much sooner by these means, and the tendency to cracking and bulging be prevented. The way to get a fine coat upon cheese, after the first coat has been washed and scraped off, is to put the cheese on shelves, nail thick sheeting to the ceiling from one of the shelves to the other, and let it drop closely to the floor. If put over the floor, cover them over with thick sheeting, or rugs. The varieties of cheese are almost infinite in num- ber, and are often dependent on very minute details of practice. The general principles involved are the same in all ; but it would be next to impossible to find any TO WHAT VAKIETIES ARE OWIKG. 255 one variety of cheese possessing uniformity through- out, in point of texture, consistency, taste, flavor, and keeping qualities ; and it is rare, with the present guess- work in many of the operations of cheese-making, to find a lot of cheese made in the same dairy, from the same cows, on the same pastures, and by the same hands, which can be considered a fair sample of what is generally produced. These great differences are due to feeding and treatment of the cows in part, but especially to the temperature of the milk at the time of curding, which is again in part dependent on the quality and strength of the rennet employed. Nothing is more susceptible to external influences, as has been remarked elsewhere, than milk and cream, both of which are liable to taint from the food of the cows, from impurities derived from careless milking, from exposure to foul or impure air in the cellar or milk-room, and from sudden changes in the atmosphere. The most scrupulous cleanliness is, therefore, required to produce a first quality of cheese, even under favor- able circumstances. And when it is considered that it is necessary to observe minutely the temperature of the milk, and that slight differences at the time of forming the curd may make the difference of mellow- ness or toughness in the ripened cheese, and that the proper temperature is affected by the time taken to bring the curd, which depends on the strength and quality of the rennet, some of which will act in fifteen or twenty minutes, while the same quantity of others requires even two or three hours to produce the same effect, the infinite variety in the qualities of cheese will scarcely be a matter of surprise. A brief statement of the mode of making some of the more important and well-known varieties will be suf- ficient in this connection. The details of cheese-making 256 CHESHIEE CHEESE. in some of the best of the dairies of New England and New York correspond in a remarkable degree with the mode of making Cheddar and Cheshire cheese, both celebrated for their richness and popularity in the mar- ket. Of the latter there are made, it is said, over twelve thousand tons annually ; Cheshire taking the lead in cheese-making, and keeping about forty thousand cows. Cheshiee Cheese is remarkable for its uniformity, being, in dairies of the best repute, made by fixed rules, and usually by the same persons. If the number of cows is sufficient to make a cheese from one meal, that amount is used; if not, two meals are united. The cows are milked at six o'clock, morning and evening ; are kept on rich pastures, and never driven far, great care being taken that nothing shall interfere with the regularity with which every operation connected with this chief source of the wealth and prosperity of the Cheshire farmer is conducted. The milk is brought in large wooden pails into the milk-house, which it is gen- erally contrived shall have a cool north aspect, and immediately strained into pans, and placed upon the floor of the dairy. Each pan is about six inches in depth, and usually made of block-tin. This substance is objected to by some because it is liable, like every other metal, although, perhaps, in a less degree than either zinc or lead, to be acted upon by the lactic acid, and so produce compounds of a deleterious char- acter. At six o'clock in the morning the cheese-ladder is put on the cheese-tub, the whole of the night's milk is again passed through the sieve, and the morning's milk is then poured upon it, and well agitated to equal- ize the temperature ; in cold weather a pan of hot water is previously put into the tub, to increase the temper- ature of the previous night's meal. DETAILS OF MAKING. 257 The rennet is next applied, care being taken that the heat of the whole quantity of the milk is about seventy-four degrees ; and, almost simultaneously with the rennet, the annatto, — about a quarter of an ounce is sufficient for a cheese of sixty-four pounds, — both of which, in all well-regulated dairies, are strained through a piece of silk or fine cloth. The rennet is generally made on the previous evening, by a piece of the dried skin about the size of a crown-piece being- immersed in hot water, and allowed to stand all night. After the rennet and coloring matter have been thor- oughly mixed with the milk, it is covered with the lid of the cheese-tub, and in cold weather with a cloth in addition, to preserve the temperature of the mass until the curd has formed. It is then left undisturbed for about an hour, and frequently longer, to allow the coag- ulation of the milk. After that time a curd-breaker is passed up and down it for about five minutes, and again it is allowed to settle for another half-hour. The whey is then taken out by means of a dish or bowl, the curd being gathered to one side of the tub, and gently pressed by the hand, to allow the whey to separate from it more easily. It is then pressed by a weight of about fifty pounds ; afterwards the curd is taken out of the tub and put into a basket, the inside of which is cov- ered with a coarse square cheese-cloth. The four ends of the cloth are then folded over the curd, a tin hoop being put around the upper edge of the cheese, and within the sides of the vat, upon which a board is placed bearing a weight of about one hundred pounds, varying, of course, with the size of the cheese. This process is repeated two or three times, the curd being slightly broken at each operation. It is next taken out of the basket for salting or curing, and either broken down small by hand or in a curd-mill. A certain quantity of 22* 17 258 CHESHIEE CHEESE. salt is then carefully and intimately mixed with the curd, according to the experience, taste, and custom, of the dairymaid. It is then put into the cheese-vat in a coarse cloth, pressed lightly at first for an hour ; then taken out and turned, and the pressure increased until the proper degree of consistence is attained. After- wards it is turned every twelve hours for three or four days, remaining in the vat until the curd becomes so dry as not to moisten the cloth. During this time skewers are passed through holes made in the sides of the vat into the body of the cheese, the more effect- ually to aid the expression of the whey, the pressure being still continued. When they are withdrawn, the whey flows through these miniature tunnels, which are in a few moments obliterated by the superincumbent weight. It is the practice of some dairymaids in this county to take the cheese to a cool salting-house, leaving it there for a week or ten days, turning it daily, and rub- bing salt on the upper surface. Others immerse the cheese in a brine almost sufficiently strong to float it, with occasional turning ; others, again, after taking the cheese from the press, place it in a furnace at a mod- erate heat, and keep it closed therein for a night ; while some run a hot iron over the whole, or over the edges. The binder — a cloth of three or four inches in breadth — is then passed tightly round the cheese, and secured by pins, when it is removed to the cheese-room, and placed on a kind of grass, which in Cheshire is called sniggle, the newest or latest-made cheese being put in the warmest situation. Here it remains, being turned over three times a week while it is new, and less often as it becomes matured, care being taken to keep each one of the cheeses separate from all the others. The room selected for a store is always that which can be STILTON CHEESE. 259 best protected from the light, and any sudden changes of temperature. The best Cheshire cheese is seldom ripe for the market under one or two years. The Stilton Cheese is by far the richest of the English dairies. This originated in a small town of that name, in Leicestershire. It possesses " a peculiar deli- cacy of flavor, a delicious mellowness, and a great apt- ness to acquire a species of artificial decay ; without which, to the somewhat vitiated taste of lovers of Stilton cheese, as now eaten, it is not considered of prime account. To be in good order, according to the present standard of taste, it must be decayed, blue, and moist." To suit this taste, an artificial mode is adoptee], old and decayed cheese being introduced into the new, or port wine or ale added by means of tasters, or caulking-pins are stuck into them, and left till they rust and produce an appearance of decay in the cheese. " It is commonly made by putting the night's cream to the milk of the following morning with the rennet, great care being taken that the milk and the cream are thoroughly mixed together, and that they both have the proper temperature. The rennet should also be very pure and sweet. As soon as the milk is curdled, the whole of it is taken out, put into a sieve gradually to drain, and moderately pressed. It is then put into a case or box, of the form that it is intended to be ; for, on account of its richness, it would separate and fall to pieces were not this precaution adopted. Afterwards it is turned every day on dry boards, cloth-binders being- tied around it, which are gradually tightened as occasion requires. After it is removed from the box or hoop, the cheese must be closely bound with cloths and changed daily, until it becomes sufficiently compact to support itself. When these cloths are taken away, each cheese has to be rubbed over with a brush once every day. It 260 ACORN FORM. — GLOUCESTER CHEESE. the weather is moist or damp, this is clone twice a day during two or three months. It is occasionally pow- dered with flour, and plunged into hot water. This hardens the outer coat and favors the internal ferment- ation, and thus produces what is called the ripening of the cheese. Sometimes it is made in a net like a cabbage-net, which gives it the form of an acorn." The maturity of Stilton cheeses is sometimes has tened by putting them in a bucket, and covering them over with horse-dung. Gloucester Cheese is likewise quite celebrated for its richness, piquancy, and delicacy of flavor, and justly commands a high price in the market. The manage- ment of the milk up to the time of curding is similar to that of Cheshire ; a cheese, often being made of one meal, requires no additional heat to raise it to a proper temperature. After the curd is cut into small squares, the whey is carefully drained off through a hair strainer. The cutting is repeated every thirty minutes till the whey is removed, when it is put into vats and covered with dry cloths, and placed in the press. After remain- ing a sufficient length of time, it is put into a curd-mill and cut or ground into small pieces, when it is again packed in fine canvas cloth, and put in the cheese-vat. Hot water or whey is poured over the cloth, to harden the rind and prevent its cracking. " The curd is nest turned out of the vat into the cloth, and, the inside of the vat being washed with whey, the inverted curd with the cloth is returned to the vat. The cloth is then folded over, and the vat put into the press for two hours, when it is taken out, and dry cloths applied dur- ing the course of the day. It is then replaced in the press until salted, which operation is generally performed about twenty -four hours after it is made. In salting the cheese, it is rubbed with finely-powdered salt, and this CHEDDAE AND DUNLOP CHEESE. 261 is thought to make the cheese more smooth and solid than when the salting process is performed upon the curd. The cheese is after this returned to the vat, and put under the press, in which several are placed, the newest at the bottom and the oldest on the top. The salting is repeated three times, twenty-four hours being allowed to intervene between each ; and the cheese is finally taken from the press to the cheese-room in the course of five days. In the cheese-room it is turned over every day for a month, when it is cleaned of all scurf, and rubbed over with a woollen cloth dipped in a paint made of Indian red or Spanish brown and small beer. As soon as the paint is dry, the cheese is rubbed once a week with a cloth. The quantity of salt employed is about three and a half pounds ; and one pound of annatto is sufficient to color half a ton of cheese." Cheddae Cheese is another variety in high repute for its richness, and commands a high price in the mar- ket. It is made of new milk only, and contains more fat than the egg. It is, indeed, too rich for ordinary consumption. The milk is set with rennet while yet warm, and allowed to stand still about two hours. The whey first taken off is heated and poured back upon the curd, and, after turning off the remainder, that is also heated and poured back in the same manner, where it stands about half an hour. The curd is then put into the press, and treated very much as the Cheshire up to the time of ripeness. The Dunlop Cheese, the most celebrated of Scot- land, had its origin in Ayrshire, from which it was sent to the Glasgow market, and from which the manufacture soon spread to Lanark, Renfrew, and other adjoining- counties. It is manufactured, according to Aiton, in the following manner : When the cows on a farm are not 262 MODE OP MAKING DUNLOP CHEESE. so numerous as to yield milk sufficient to make a cheese every time they are milked, the milk is stored about six or eight inches deep in the coolers, and placed in the milk-house until as much is collected as will form a cheese of a proper size. When the cheese is to be made, the cream is skimmed from the milk in the cool- ers, and, without being heated, is, with the milk that is drawn from the cows at the time, passed through the sieve into the curd-vat. The cold milk from which the cream has been taken is heated so as to raise the temperature of the whole mass to near blood heat; and the whole is coagulated by the means of rennet care- fully mixed with the milk. The cream is put into the curd-vat, that its oily parts may not be melted, and the skimmed milk is heated sufficient to raise the whole to near animal heat. It may be said that the utmost care is always taken to keep the milk, in all stages of the operation, free not only from every admixture or impurity, but also from being hurt by foul air arising from acidity in any milky substance, putrid water, the stench of the barn, dunghill, or any other substance ; and likewise to prevent the milk from becoming sour, which, when it happens, greatly injures the cheese. Great care is taken to prevent any of the butyraceous or oily matter in the cream from being melted in any stage of the process. To cool the milk, and to facilitate the separation or rising of the cream, a small quantity of clean cold water is generally mixed with the milk in each cooler. The coagulum is formed in from ten to fifteen minutes, and nobody would use rennet twice that required more than twenty minutes or half an hour to form a curd. Whenever the milk is completely coagulated the curd is broken, in order to let the serum or whey be sep- arated and taken off. Some break the curd slightly at MR. aiton's statement. 263 first, by making cross-scores with a knife or a thin piece of wood, at about one or two inches distant, and inter- secting each other at right angles ; and these are renewed still more closely after some of the whey has been discharged. Others break the whole curd more minutely at once with the hand or the skimmer. After the curd has been broken, the whey ought to be taken off as speedily as it can be done, and with as little further breaking or handling the curd as possible. It is necessary, however, to turn the curd, cut it with a knife, or break it gently with the hand. When the curd has consolidated a little, it is cut with the cheese-knife, slightly at first, and more mi- nutely as it hardens, so as to bring off the whey. When the greater part of the whey has been extracted, the curd is taken up from the curd-boyn, and, being cut into pieces of about two inches in thickness, it is placed in a sort of vat or sieve with many holes. A lid is placed upon it, and a slight pressure, say from three to four stone avoirdupois ; and the curd is turned up and cut small every ten or fifteen minutes, and occasionally pressed with the hand so long as it continues to dis- charge serum. When no more whey can be drawn off by these means, the curd is cut as small as possible with the knife, the proper quantity of salt minutely mixed into it in the curd-boyn, and placed in the chessart within a shift of thin canvas, and put under the press. All these operations ought to be carried on and com- pleted with the least possible delay, and yet without precipitation. The sooner the whey is removed after the coagulation of the milk, so much the better. But, if the curd is soft, from being set too cold, it requires more time, and to be more gently dealt with, as other- wise much of the curd and of the fat would go off with the whey ; and when the curd has been formed too hot, 264 CHEESE IN THE SCOTCH DAIRIES. the same caution is necessary. Precipitation, or hand- ling the curd too roughly, would add to its toughness, and expel still more of the oily matter ; and, as has been already mentioned, hot water or whey should be put on the curd when it is soft and cold, and cold water when the curd is set too hot. Undue delay, however, in any of these operations, from the time the milk is taken out of the coolers until the curd is under the press in the shape of a cheese, is most improper, as the curd in all these stages is, when neglected for even a few minutes, very apt to become ill-flavored. If it is allowed to remain too long in the curd-vat, or in the dripper over it, before the whey is completely extracted, the curd becomes too cold, and acquires a pungent or acrid taste ; or, it softens so much that the cheese is not sufficiently adhe- sive, and does not easily part with the serum. Whenever the curd is completely set, the whey should be taken off without delay; and the dairymaid should never leave the curd-boyn until the curd is ready for the dripper or cheese-vat. The salt is mixed into the curd. After the cheese is put into the press, it remains for the first time about an hour, or less than two hours, until it is taken out, turned upside down in the cheese- vat, and a new cloth put around it every four or six hours until the cheese is completed, which is generally in the course of a day and a half, two, or at most in three days after it was first put under the press. Some have shortened the process of pressing by placing the cheese — after it has been under the press for two hours or so for the first time — into water heated to about one hundred or one hundred and ten degrees, and allowing the cheese to remain in the water about the space of half an hour, and thereafter drying it with a cloth, and putting it again under the press. THE STOEE-EOOM. 265 When taken from the press, generally after two or three days from the time they were first placed under it, they are exposed for a week or so to the warmth and heat of the farmer's kitchen, — not to excite sweating, but merely to dry them a little before they are placed in the store, where a small proportion of heat is admitted. While they remain in the kitchen they are turned over three or four times every day ; and, when- ever they begin to harden a little on the outside, they are laid up on the shelves of the store, where they are turned over once a day or once in two days for a week or so, until they are dry, and twice every week afterwards. The store-houses for cheese in Scotland are in pro- portion to the size of the dairy, — generally a small place adjoining the milk-house, or in the end of the barn or other buildings, where racks are placed, with as many shelves as can hold the cheeses made in the season. When no particular place is prepared, the racks are placed in the barn, which is generally empty during summer ; or some lay the cheeses on the floor of a garret over some part of their dwelling-house. Wherever the cheeses are stored, they are not sweated or put into a warm place, but kept cool, in a place in a medium state, between damp and dry, with- out the sun being allowed to shine on them, or yet a great current of air admitted. Too much air, or the rays of the sun, would dry the cheeses too fast, diminish their weight, and make them crack ; and heat would make them sweat or perspire, which extracts the fat, and tends to induce hooving. But when they are kept in a temperature nearly similar to that of a barn, the doors of which are not much open, and but a moderate current of air admitted, the cheeses are kept in a proper shape, — neither so dry as to rend the skin, nor so 23 266 DUTCH AND PARMESAN CHEESE. damp as to render them mouldy on the outside ; and no partial fermentation is excited, but the cheese is pre- served sound and good. Dutch Cheese. — The most celebrated of the Dutch cheeses is the Edam, of North Holland, and the G-ouda. The manufacture of these and other varieties will be described in a subsequent chapter, on Dairy Husbandry in Holland. The Parmesan is an Italian cheese, made of one meal of milk, allowed to stand sixteen hours, to which is added another which has stood eight hours. The cream being taken from both, the skim-milk is heated an hour over a slow fire, and constantly stirred till it reaches about eighty-two degrees, when the rennet is put in and an hour allowed to form the curd. The curd is thoroughly broken or cut, after which a part of the whey is removed, and the curd is then heated nearly up to the boiling point, when a little saffron is added to color it. It then stands over the fire about half an hour, when it is taken off, and nearly all the rest of the whey removed, cold water being added, till the curd is cool enough to handle. It is then surrounded with a cloth, and, after being partially dried, is put into a hoop and remains there two days. It is then sprinkled with salt for thirty clays in summer, or about forty in winter. One cheese is then laid above another to allow them to take the salt ; after which they are scraped and cleansed every day, and rubbed with lin- seed-oil to preserve them from the attack of insects, and they are ready for sale at the age of six months. American Cheese, as it is called in the English markets, whither large quantities are shipped for sale, is made of almost every conceivable variety and quality, from the richest Cheddar or Cheshire to the poorest skim-milk cheese. The statements of some of the best AMERICAN CHEESE. 267 dairymen have already been given. As a further illus- tration of the mode pursued in other sections of the country, the statement of C. G. Taylor, a successful competitor for the premiums offered by the Illinois State Agricultural Society, may be given as follows : " As the milk is drawn from the cows, it is immedi- ately strained into a vat. This vat is a new patent, and is better than any I have ever seen for cheese-making. It is double, a space being left between the two parts. Into the upper vat the milk is strained, and cold water is applied between it and the lower one. Thus the ani- mal heat is soon expelled, and the milk is prevented from souring before morning. The morning milk is added. Under the lower vat a copper boiler is arranged. The water in the boiler is in perfect con- nection with that remaining all around the upper or milk vat, connected with three copper pipes. With a little wood the water is wanned. Thus the tempera- ture of the milk is soon brought to the desired point to receive the rennet, which is about ninety to ninety- five degrees. Sufficient rennet is applied to the milk to cause it to curdle or coagulate in from thirty to forty minutes. Then the curd is carefully cut, each way, into slices of about one inch square. Soon the temperature is slowly increased. In about twenty minutes the curd is carefully broken up with the hand, — increasing the heat, and stirring often. When the curd is sufficiently hard, so as to "squeal" when you bite it, it is scalded. By this time the temperature is up to about one hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty. " There are hinges placed in the legs of one end of the vat, which is easily tipped, and through the curd- strainer and whey-gate the whey is soon run off. The curd is then dipped into a sink, over which is placed a 268 COMPOSITION OF CHEESE. coarse strainer, and allowed to drain quite dry. It is then broken up fine, and one teacup of ground solar salt added to curd to make twenty pounds of cheese, and well worked in. After the curd is quite cool, it is placed in the hoop, and a light pressure is applied. In a few minutes more power is needed. After remaining in press about six hours, it is taken out of the hoop, wholly covered with strong muslin, finely sewed on, and then reversed and replaced in the hoop and press. It is allowed to remain until the next day, when it has to give place for another. " After pressing thus twenty-four hours, the cheese is placed upon the shelf, and allowed to stand until the cloth is dry. Then a preparation, made from annatto and butter-oil, is applied sufficiently to fill all the interstices of the cloth. It must be turned and thor- oughly rubbed three times a week, until ripe for use. " I use the self-acting press. I know of none in use that is better, — the weight of the cheese being the power." The statements of skilful and practical dairymen, in different parts of the country, are sufficient to show that good cheese ( can be produced ; but it is believed that a more general attention to all the details of the dairy would add many thousand dollars a year to the wealth of the people, and enable us to compete suc- cessfully with the best dairy countries in the world. The composition of cheese will, of course, differ widely in nutritive value, according to the mode of manufacture, age, etc. A specimen of good cheese was found to contain about 31.02 per cent, of flesh-forming substances, 25.30 per cent, of heat-producing sub- stances, 4.90 per cent, of mineral matter, and 38.78 per cent, of water. The analyses of several varieties will serve as a com- CHEESE AS FOOD. 269 parison of cheese with other kinds of food. The Ched- dar was a rich cheese two years old, the double Glou- cester one year old, the Dunlop one year old, the skirn- roilk one year. Cheddar. Dbl. Glo'ster. Dunlop. 38.46 25.87 31.86 8.81 Skim-inilk. Water, .... Caseine, .... Fat, 30.04 28.98 30.40 4.58 35.81 37.96 21.97 4.25 43.82 45.04 5.98 5.18 Professor Johnston gives a table of comparison of Cheddar and skim-milk cheese in a dried state, and milk, beef, and eggs, also in a dried state, as follows : Milk. Cheddar cheese, dried. Skim-milk cheese, dried. Beef. Eggs. Caseine (curd), . Fat (butter) , . . Sugar, .... Mineral matter, . 35 24 37 4 45 48 7 80 11 9 89 7 4 55 40 5 100 100 100 100 100 A full-milk cheese differs but little from pure milk, except in the absence of sugar, which, as already seen, is held in solution, and goes off in the whey. The dif- ference becomes greater in proportion as the cream is removed from the milk before curding, and the nutritive qualities thereby diminished. Cheese is used both as a regular article of food, for which the ordinary kinds of full-milk cheeses are admirably fitted, and as a condiment or digester, in con- nection with other articles of food; and for this purpose the stronger varieties, such as are partially decayed and mouldy, are best. " When the curd of milk is exposed to the air in a moist state, for a few days, at a moderate temperature, it begins gradually to decay, to emit a disagreeable odor, and to ferment. When in 23* 270 DIGESTIVE QUALITY OF CHEESE. this state, it possesses the property, in certain circum- stances, of inducing a species of chemical change and fermentation in other moist substances with which it is mixed, or is brought into contact. It acts after the same manner as sour leaven does when mixed with sweet dough. Now, old and partially decayed cheese acts in a similar way when introduced into the stomach. It causes chemical changes gradually to commence among the particles of the food which has previously been eaten, and thus facilitates the dissolution which necessarily precedes digestion. It is only some kinds of cheese, however, which will effect this purpose. Those are generally considered the best in which some kind of cheese-mould has established itself. Hence, the mere eating of a morsel of cheese after dinner does not necessarily promote digestion. If too new, or of improper quality, it will only add to the quantity of food with which the stomach is probably already over- loaded, and will have to await its turn for digestion by the ordinary processes." This mouldiness and tendency to decay, with its flavor and digestive quality, are often communicated to new cheese by inoculation, or insertion of a small portion of the old into the interior of the new by means of the cheese-taster. In studying attentively the practice of the most suc- cessful cheese-makers, I think it will be observed that they are particularly careful about the preparation of the rennet, and equally so about the details of pressing. In my opinion, the point in which many American cheese-makers fail of success is in hurrying the press- ing. I think it will be found that the best cheese is pressed two days, at least, and in many cases still longer. CHAPTER X. THE DISEASES OP DAIRY STOCK. Dairy stock, properly feci and managed, is liable to few diseases in this country, notwithstanding the sudden changes to which our climate is subject. If pure air, pure water, a dry barn or pasture, and a fre- quent but gradual change of diet, when kept in the stall, are provided for milch cows, nature will generally remedy any derangements of the system which may occur, far better than art. Common sense is especially requisite in the treatment of stock, and that will very rarely dictate a resort to bleeding, boring the horns, cutting off the tail, and a thousand other equally absurd practices, too common even within the memory of men still living. The diseases most to be dreaded are garget, puer- peral or milk fever, and idiopathic or common fever, commonly called " horn ail," and often " tail ail." Garget is an inflammation of the internal substance of the udder. One or more of the teats, or whole sec- tions of the udder, become enlarged and thickened, hot, tender, and painful. The milk coagulates in the bag, and causes inflammation where it is deposited, which is accompanied by fever. It most commonly occurs in young cows after calving, especially when in too high condition. The secretion of milk is very much lessened, and, in very bad cases, stopped altogether. Sometimes 272 GAEGET. — SYMPTOMS. — TREATMENT. the milk is thick, and mixed with blood. Often, also, in severe cases, the hind extremities, as the hip-joint, hock, or fetlock, are swollen and inflamed to such an extent that the animal cannot rise. The simplest remedy, in mild cases, is to put the calf to its mother several times a day. This will remove the flow of milk, and often dispel the congestion. Sometimes the udder is so much swollen that the cow will not permit the calf to suck. If the fever increases, the appetite declines, and rumination ceases. In this stage of the complaint, the advice of a scientific veter- inary practitioner is required. A dose of purging medicine and frequent washing of the udder, in mild cases, are usually successful. The physic should con- sist of Epsom salts one pound, ginger half an ounce, nitrate of potassa half an ounce ; dissolved in a quart of boiling water ; then add a gill of molasses, and give to the cow lukewarm. Diet moderate ; that is, on bran, or if in summer green food. There are various medicines for the different forms and stages of garget, which, if the above medicine fails, can be properly prescribed only by a skilful veterinary practitioner. It is important that the udder should be frequently examined, as matter may be forming, which should be immediately released. Various causes are assigned for this disease, such as exposure to cold and wet, or the want of proper care or attention in parturition. An able writer, Mr. Youatt, says that hasty drying up a cow often gives rise to inflammation and indura- tions of the udder, difficult of removal. Sometimes a cow lies down upon and bruises the udder, and this is another cause. But a very frequent source, and one for which there can be no excuse, is the failure to milk a cow clean. The calf should be allowed to suck often, and the cow should be milked at least twice a day PREVENTION CHEAPER THAN CURE. 273 as clean as possible, while suffering from this com- plaint. If the udder is hot and feverish, a wash may be used, consisting of eight ounces of vinegar and two ounces of camphoretted spirit ; the whole well and thoroughly mixed, and applied, just after milking, to be washed off in warm water before milking again. In very bad cases, iodine has often been found most effectual. An iodine ointment may be prepared by taking one drachm of hyclriodate of potash and an ounce of lard, and mixing them well together. A small portion of the mixture, from the size of a pigeon's egg, in limited inflammations, to twice that amount, is to be well rubbed into the swollen part, morning and night. When milk forms in the bag before parturition, so as to cause a swelling of the udder, it should be milked away ; and a neglect of this precaution often leads to violent attacks of garget. Prevention is always better than cure. The reason most commonly given for letting the cow run dry for a month or two before calving is that after a long period of milking her system requires rest, and that she will give more milk and do better the coming season than if milked up to the time of calving. This is all true, and a reason sufficient in itself for drying off the cow some weeks before parturition; but there is another important reason for the practice, which is that the mixture of the old milk with the new secre- tion is liable to end in an obstinate case of garget. To prevent any ill effects from calving, the cow should not be suffered to get too fat, which high feed- ing after drying off might induce. The period of gestation is about two hundred and eighty-four or two hundred and eighty-five days. But cows sometimes overrun their time, and have been 18 274 GESTATION. — SLINKING. — CALVING. known to go three hundred and thirteen days, and even more ; while they now and then fall short of it ; and have been known to calve in two hundred and twenty clays. If they go much over the average time, the calf will generally be a male. But cows are sometimes liable to slink their calves; and this usually takes place about the middle of their pregnancy. To avoid the evil con- sequences,, so far as possible, they should be watched ; and, if a cow is found to be uneasy and feverish, or wandering about away from the rest of the herd, and apparently longing for something she cannot get, she ought to be taken away from the others. If a cow slinks her calf while in the pasture with others, they will be liable to be affected in the same way. In many cases, physicking will quiet the cow's excite- ment in the condition above described, and prove of es- sential benefit. A dose of one pound of Epsom or Glau- ber's salts, and one ounce of ginger, mixed in a pint of thick gruel, should be given first, to be immediately followed by the salts, in a little thinner gruel. When a cow once slinks her calf, there is great risk in breeding from her. She is liable to do the same again. But when the slinking is caused by sudden fright or over-exertion, or any offensive matter, such as blood or the dead carcasses of animals, this result is not so much to be feared. But the cow, when about to calve, ought not to be disturbed by too constant watching. The natural pre- sentation of the fcetus is with the head lying upon the fore legs. If in this position, nature will generally do all. But, if the presentation is unnatural, and the labor has been long and ineffectual, some assistance is required. The hand, well greased, may be introduced, and the position of the calf changed ; and, when in a proper position, a cord should be tied round the fore FALSE PRESENTATIONS — MILK FEVER. 275 legs, just above the hoofs ; but no effort should be made to draw out the calf till the natural throes are re- peated. If the nostril of the calf has protruded, and the position is then found to be unnatural, the head cannot be thrust back without destroying the life of the calf. The false position most usually presented is that of the head first, with the legs doubled under the belly. A cord is then fixed around the lower jaw, when it is pushed back, to give an opportunity to adjust the fore legs, if possible. The object must now be to save the life of the cow. But the cases of false presentation, though compara- tively rare, are so varied that no directions could be given which would be applicable in all cases. After calving the cow will require but little care, if she is in the barn, and protected from changes of weather. A warm bran mash is usually given, and the state of the udder examined. Puerperal or Milk Fever. — Calving is often at- tended with feverish excitement. The change of power- ful action from the womb to the udder causes much constitutional disturbance and local inflammation. A cow is subject to nervousness in such circumstances, which sometimes extends to the whole system, and causes puerperal fever. This complaint is called dropping after calving, because it succeeds that process. The prominent symptom is a loss of power over the motion of the hind extremities, and inability to stand ; some- times loss of sensibility in these parts, so that a deep puncture with a pin, or other sharp instrument, is unfelt. This disease is much to be dreaded by the farmer, on account of the high state of excitement and the local inflammation. Either from neglect or ignorance, the mal- ady is not discovered until the manageable symptoms have passed, and extreme debility has appeared. The 276 MILK FEVER. — SYMPTOMS. animal is often first seen lying down, unable to rise ; prostration of strength and violent fever are brought on by inflammation of the womb. But soon a general inflammatory action succeeds, rapid and violent, with complete prostration of all the vital forces, bidding defiance to the best-selected remedies. Cows in very high condition, and cattle removed from low keeping to high feeding, are the most liable to puerperal fever. It occurs most frequently during the hot weather of summer, and then it is most dangerous. When it occurs in winter, cows sometimes recover. In hot weather they usually die. Milk fever may be induced by the hot drinks often given after calving. A young cow at her first calving is rarely attacked with it. Great milkers are most com- monly subject to it; but all cows have generally more or less fever at calving. A little addition to it, by im- proper treatment or neglect, will prevent the secretion of milk ; and thus the milk, being thrown back into the system, will increase the inflammation. This disease sometimes shows itself in the short space of two or three hours after calving, but often not under two or three days. If four or five days have passed, the cow may generally be considered safe. . The earliest symptoms of this disease are as follows : The animal is restless, frequently shifting her posi- tion ; occasionally pawing and heaving at the flanks. Muzzle hot and dry, the mouth open, and tongue out at one side ; countenance wild ; eyes staring. She moans often, and soon becomes very irritable. Delirium follows; she grates her teeth, foams at the mouth, tosses her head about, and frequently injures herself. From the first, the udder is hot, enlarged, and tender ; and if this swelling is attended by a suspension of milk, the cause is clear. As the case is inflammatory, its BLEEDING RARELY NECESSARY. 277 treatment must be in accordance ; and it is usually subdued without much difficulty. Mr. Youatt says, " The animal should be bled, and the quantity regulated by the impression made upon the circulation, — from six to ten quarts often before the desired effect is pro- duced." He wrote at a time when bleeding was adopted as the universal cure, and before the general reasoning and treatment of diseases of the human sys- tem was applied to similar diseases of animals. The cases are very rare, indeed, where the physician of the present day finds it necessary to bleed in diseases of the human subject ; and they are equally rare, I appre- hend, where it is really necessary or judicious to bleed for the diseases of animals. A more humane and equally effectual course will be the following : A pound to one and a half pounds of Epsom or Glau- ber's salts, according to the size and condition of the animal, should be given, dissolved in a quart, of boiling water ; and, when dissolved, add pulv. red pepper a quarter of an ounce, caraway do. do., ginger do. do. ; mix, and add a gill of molasses, and give lukewarm. If this medicine does not act on the bowels, the quantity of ginger, capsicum, and caraway, must be doubled. The insensible stomach must be roused. When purg- ing in an early stage is begun, the fever will more readily subside. After the operation of the medicine, sedatives may be given, if necessary. The digestive function first fails, when the secondary or low state of fever comes on. The food undis- charged ferments ; the stomach and intestines are inflated with gas, and swell rapidly. The nervous system is also attacked, and the poor beast staggers. The hind extremities show the weakness ; the cow falls, and cannot rise ; her head is turned on one side, where it rests ; her limbs are palsied. The treatment 24 278 THE PULSE. — PKESCBIPTION. in this stage must depend on the existence and degree of fever. The pulse will be the only true guide. If it is weak, wavering, and irregular, we must avoid deplet- ing, purgative agents. The blood flows through the arteries, impelled by the action of the heart, and its pulsations can be very distinctly felt by pressing the finger upon almost any of these arteries that is not too thickly covered by fat or the cellular tissues of the skin, especially where it can be pressed upon some hard or bony substance beneath it. The most conve- nient place is directly at the back part of the lower jaw, where a large artery passes over the edge of the jaw- bone to ramify on the face. The natural pulse of a full- grown ox will vary from about forty-eight to fifty-five beats a minute ; that of a cow is rather quicker, especially near the time of calving ; and that of a calf is quicker than that of a cow. But a very much quicker rate than that indicated will show a feverish state, or inflammation ; and a much slower pulsation indicates debility of some kind. Next in importance, as we have already stated, is the physic. The bowels must be opened, or the ani- mal will fall a victim to the disease. All medicines should be of an active character, and in sufficient quantity ; and stimulants should always be added to the purgative medicines, to insure their operation. Ginger, gentian, caraway, or red pepper in powder, may be given with each dose of physic. Some give a power- ful purgative, by means of Epsom salts one pound, flour of sulphur four ounces, powdered ginger a quarter of an ounce, all dissolved in a quart of cold water, and one half given twice a day till the bowels are opened. The digestive organs are deranged in most forms of milk fever, and the third stomach is loaded with hard, indigestible food. When the medicine has operated, PEOPER NURSING. — SIMPLE FEVER. 279 and the fever is subdued, little is required but good nursing to restore the patient. No powerful medicines should be used without dis- cretion ; for in the milder forms of the disease, as the simple palsy of the hind extremities, the treatment, though of a similar character, should be less powerful, and every effort should be made for the comfort of the cow, by providing a thick bed of straw, and raising the fore quarters to assist the efforts of nature, while all filth should be promptly and carefully removed. She may be covered with a warm cloth, and warm gruel should be frequently offered to her, and light mashes. An attempt should be made several times a day to bring milk from the teats. The return of milk is an indication of speedy recovery. Milch cows in too high condition appear to have a constitutional tendency to this complaint, and one attack of it predisposes them to another. Simple Fever. — This may be considered as increased arterial action, with or without any local affection ; or it may be the consequence of the sympathy of the sys- tem with the morbid condition of some particular part. The first is pure or idiopathic fever ; the other, symptom- atic fever. Pure fever is of frequent occurrence in cattle. Symptoms as follows : muzzle dry ; rumination slow or entirely suspended ; respiration slightly accelerated ; the horn at the root hot, and its other extremity fre- quently cold ; pulse quick ; bowels constipated ; coat staring, and the cow is usually seen separated from the rest of the herd. In slight attacks, a cathartic of salts, sulphur, and ginger, is sufficient. But, if the common fever is neglected, or improperly treated, it may assume, after a time, a local determination, as pleurisy, or inflammation of the lungs or bowels. In such cases the above remedy would be insufficient, and a veterinary 280 SYMPTOMATIC FEVER. surgeon, to manage the case, would be necessary. Symptomatic fever is more dangerous, and is commonly the result of injury, the neighboring parts sympathizing with the injured part. Cattle become unwell, are stinted in their feed, have a dose of physic, and in a few days are well ; still, a fever may terminate in some local affection. But in both cases pure fever is the primary disease. A more dangerous form of fever is that known as symptomatic. As we have said, cattle are not only subject to fever of common intensity, but to symp- tomatic fever, and thousands die annually from its effects. But the young and the most thriving are its victims. There are few premonitory symptoms of symp- tomatic fever. It often appears without any previous indications of illness. The animal stands with her neck extended, her eyes protruding and red, muzzle dry, nostrils expanded, breath hot, base of the horn hot, mouth open, pulse full, breathing quick. She is often moaning ; rumination and appetite are suspended ; she soon becomes more uneasy; changes her position often. Unless these symptoms are speedily removed, she dies in a few hours. The name of the ailment, inflam- matory or symptomatic fever, shows the treatment necessary, which must commence with purging. Salts here, as in most inflammatory diseases, are the most reliable. From a pound to a pound and a half, with ginger and sulphur, is a dose, dissolved in warm water or thin gruel. If this does not operate in twelve hours, give half the dose, and repeat once in twelve hours, until the bowels are freed. After the operation of the medicine the animal is relieved. Then sedative medi- cines may be given. Sal ammoniac one drachm, pow- dered nitre two drachms, should be administered in thin gruel, two or three times a day, if required. ASSISTING NATURE. — PURGATIVES. 281 Typhus fever, common in some countries, is little known here among cattle. Typhoid Fever sometimes follows intense inflamma- tory action, and is considered the second stage of it. This form of fever is usually attended with diarrhoea. It is a debilitating complaint, and is sometimes followed by diseases known as black tongue, black leg, or quarter evil. The cause of typhoid fever is involved in obscur- ity. It may be proper to say that copious drinks of oat-meal gruel, with tincture of red pepper, a diet of bran, warmth to the body, and pure air, are great essentials in the treatment of this disease. The barbarous practices of boring the horns, cutting the tail, and others equally absurd, should at once and forever be discarded by every farmer and dairyman. Alternate heat or coldness of the horn is only a symptom of this and other fevers, and has nothing to do with their cause. The horns are not diseased any further than a determination of blood to the head causes a sympathetic heat, while an unnatural distribution of blood, from exposure or other cause, may make them cold. In all cases of this kind, if anything is done, it should be an effort to assist nature to regulate the animal sys- tem, by rousing the digestive organs to their natural action, by a light food, or, if necessary, a mild purga- tive medicine, followed by light stimulants. The principal purgative medicines in use for neat cattle are Epsom salts, linseed-oil, and sulphur. A pound of salts will ordinarily be sufficient to purge a full-grown cow. A slight purgative drink is often very useful for cows soon after calving, particularly if feverish, and in cases of over-feeding, when the animal will often appear dull and feverish ; but when the surfeiting is attended 24* 282 THE HOOVES. by loss of appetite, it can generally be cured by with- holding food at first, and then feeding but slightly till the system is renovated by dieting. Purgative drinks will often cure cases of red water, if taken in season. A purgative is often necessary for cows after being- turned into a fresh and luxuriant pasture, when they are apt to become bound from over-feeding ; but con- stipation does not so often follow a change from dry to green food in spring, as from a poor pasture in summer to one where they obtain much better feed. The Hoove or Hoven is brought on by a derange- ment of the digestive organs, occasioned by over-feed- ing on green and luxuriant clover, or other luxuriant food. It is simply the distension of the first stom- ach by carbonic acid gas. In later stages, . after fer- mentation of the contents of the stomach has com- menced, hydrogen gas is also found. The green food, being gathered very greedily after the animal has been kept on dry and perhaps unpalatable ha} 7- , is not sent forward so rapidly as it is received, and remains to overload and clog the stomach, till this organ ceases or loses the power to act upon it. Here it becomes moist and heated, begins to ferment, and produces a gas which distends the paunch of the animal, which often swells up enormously. The cow is in great pain, breath- ing with difficulty, as if nearly suffocating. Then the body grows cold, and, unless relief is at hand, the cow dies. Prevention is both cheaper and safer than cure ; but if by neglect, or want of proper precaution, the animal is found in this suffering condition, relief must be afforded as soon as possible, or the result will be fatal. A hollow flexible tube, introduced into the gullet, will sometimes afford a temporary relief till other means can be. had, by allowing a part of the gas to escape ; CHOKING. — REMOVAL. 283 but the cause is not removed either by this means or by puncturing the paunch, which is often dangerous. In the early stage of the disease the gas may be neu- tralized by ammonia, which is usually near at hand. Two ounces of liquid ammonia, in a quart of distilled or rain water, given every quarter of an hour, will prove beneficial. A little tincture of ginger, essence of anise-seed, or some other cordial, may be added, with- out lessening the effect of the ammonia, If the case has assumed an alarming character, the flexible tube, or probang, may be introduced, and after- wards take three drachms either of the chloride of lime or the chloride of soda, dissolve in a pint of water, and pour it down the throat. Lime-water, pot- ash, and sulphuric ether, are often used with effect. In desperate cases it may be found necessary to make an incision through the paunch ; but the chloride of lime will, in most cases, give relief at once, by neutralizing the gas. Chokixg is often produced by feeding on roots, par- ticularly round and uncut roots, like the potato. The animal slavers at the mouth, tries to raise the obstruction from the throat, often groans, and appears to be in great pain. Then the belly begins to swell, from the amount of gases in the paunch. The obstruction, if not too large, can sometimes be thrust forward by introducing a flexible rod, or tube, into the throat. This method, if adopted, should be attended with great care and patience, or the tender parts will be injured. If the obstruction is low down, and a tube is to be inserted, a pint of olive or linseed oil first turned down will so lubricate the parts as to aid the operation, and the power applied must be stead}-. If the gullet is torn by the carelessness of the operator, or the roughness of the instrument, a rupture gcnei ally 284 FOUL IN THE FOOT. — CUEE. results in serious consequences. A hollow tube is best, and if the object is passed on into the paunch, the tube should remain a short time, to permit the gas to escape. In case the animal is very badly swelled, the dose of chloride of lime, or ammonia, should be given, as for the hoove, after the obstruction is removed. Care should be taken, after the obstruction is removed, to allow no solid food for some days. Foul in the Foot. — Cows and other stock, when fed in low, wet pastures, will often suffer from ulcers or sores, generally appearing first between the claws. This is commonly called foul in the foot, and is analo- gous to foot-rot in sheep. It is often very painful, causing severe lameness and loss of flesh, and dis- charges a putrid matter, or pus. Sometimes it first appears in the form of a swelling near the top of the hoof, which breaks and discharges foul matter. The rough and common practice among farmers is to fasten the foot in the same manner as the foot of an ox is fastened in shoeing, and draw a rough rope back and forth over the ulcerated parts, so as to produce a clean, fresh wound, and then dress it with tar or other similar substance. This is often an unnecessarily cruel operation. «The loose matter may easily be removed by a knife, and then carefully wiped off with with a moist sponge. The ani- mal should then be removed at once to a warm, dry pasture, or kept in the barn. If the case has been neglected till the pasterns become swollen and tender, the sore may be thoroughly cleansed out, and dressed with an ointment of sul- phate of iron one ounce, molasses four ounces, sim- mered over a slow fire till well mixed. Apply on a piece of cotton batting, and secure upon the parts. If any morbid growth or fungus appear, use equal parts RED WATER. — TREATMENT. 285 of powdered blood-root and alum sprinkled on the sore, and this will usually effect a cure. Some also give a dose of flour of sulphur half an ounce, powdered sassafras-bark one ounce, and bur- dock two ounces, the whole steeped in a quart of boil- ing water, and strained when cool ; and, if the matter still continues to flow from the sore, wash it morning and night with chloride of soda one ounce, or a table- spoonful of common salt dissolved in a pint of water. Foul in the foot causes very serious trouble, if not taken in season. The health of cows is injured to a great extent. I have seen, during the present season, many instances of foul in the foot in dairy stock arising from the wetness of the pastures. No lameness in cattle should be neglected. Red Water is so called from the high color of the urine. It is rather a symptom of some derangement of the digestive organs than a disease of itself, and the cause is most frequently to be found in the quality of the food. It is peculiar to certain localities, and is of very rare occurrence in New England. In the early stage of the difficulty the bowels are loose, but soon constipation ensues, and the appetite is affected, the milk decreases, and the urine becomes either very red or sometimes black. The case demands treatment, for it is apt to prey upon the health of the cow. Purgatives are usually employed with most success. Take a pound of Epsom salts, half an ounce of ginger, and half an ounce of car- bonate of ammonia. Pour a quart of boiling water on the salts and ginger, stir thoroughly, and, when cold, acid the ammonia. If this fails to act on the bowels, repeat a quarter part of it every six or eight hours till it succeeds. Then a nutritious diet should be used till the appetite is fully restored. 286 HOOSE. INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS. If a cow is once affected in this way, the difficulty will be liable to return, and she had better be dis- posed of. Hoose is a cold or cough to which stock are subject when exposed to wet weather and damp pastures. The cold may not be bad at first, or may be so slight as not to attract attention ; but it often leads to worse complaints, and ought, when observed, to be attended to at once, by keeping the animal in a dry and warm barn a few days, and feeding with mashes, and, if it continues, take an ounce of sweet spirits of nitre in a pint of ginger tea ; mix, and give in a quart of thick gruel. No prudent farmer will neglect to observe approach- ing symptoms of disease in his stock. The cheapest way to keep animals healthy is to treat them properly in time, and before disease is seated upon them. Hoose often ends in consumption and death. Inflammation of the Glands often occurs in hoose, catarrh, etc., but they resume their natural state when these complaints are removed. The animal cannot swal- low without pain sometimes, and soft food should be given. Remove the cause, and the inflammation ceases. Some make a relaxing poultice of marsh-mallows, or similar substances ; and rub the throat with a mixture of olive or goose oil one gill, spirit of camphor one ounce, oil of cedar one ounce, and half a gill of vinegar. Inflammation of the Lungs. — Common catarrh or hoose sometimes leads to inflammation of the lungs, which is indicated by dulness .and sore cough. The ears, the roots of the horns, and legs, are sometimes cold. The breath is hot, as well as the mouth ; and the animal rarely lies down, and is reluctant to move, or change its position. Warm water and mashes, or gruel, may be given, and the animal kept in a dry DIARRHOEA. — TREATMENT. 287 place. The cause of the complaint should be removed, and the trouble will generally soon cease. The treat- ment is much the same as for fever; but where the surface of the body is cold 7 as is generally the case, give sweet spirits of nitre two ounces, liquor acetate of ammonia four ounces, in a pint of water, two or three times a day. Diarrhcea is brought on by too sudden change of food, especially from dry to green and succulent food ; sometimes by poisonous plants or bad water. If slight, the farmer may not be anxious to check it. It may show simply an effort of nature to throw off some injurious substances from the body, and so it may exist when the animal is quite healthy. But, if it continues too long, and is likely to debilitate the system, a mild purgative may be given to assist rather than check the operation of nature. Half a pound of Epsom salts, with a little ginger and gentian, will do for a medium-sized animal in this case ; but a purgative may be followed in a day or two by an astringent medicine. Take prepared chalk two ounces, powdered oak-bark one ounce, powdered catechu two drachms, powdered opium one drachm, and four drachms powdered ginger. Mix these together, and give in a quart of warm gruel. Sometimes a few ounces of pulverized charcoal will arrest the diarrhoea. Common diarrhoea may be distinguished from dysentery by a too abundant discharge of clung in too fluid a form, or in a full, almost liquid stream, sometimes very offen- sive to the smell, and now and then bloody. In dysen- tery, the dung is often mixed with mucus and blood, and is not unfrequently attended by a hard straining. The quantity of dung is less than in diarrhoea, but more offensive. Diarrhoea may occur at any season of the year, and sometimes leads to dysentery, which more frequently appears in the spring and fall. 288 DYSENTERY. — MANGE. — SYMPTOMS. Dysentery, or scouring rot, is a dangerous and trouble- some malady when it becomes seated.- The cow suffers from painful efforts to pass the dung, which is thin, slimy, olive-colored, and offensive, and after it falls rises up in little bubbles, with a slimy sub- stance upon it. She is restless, lying down and soon rising again, and appears to be in great °distress. The hair seems, to stand out stiff from the body, and this stage of the malady indicates an obstinate and fatal disease. It is often brought on by a simple cold at the time of calving, exposure to sudden changes, and by poor keep- ing, which exhausts the system, especially in winter. A dry, warm barn, and careful nursing, will do much ; and dry, sweet food, as hay, oat-meal, boiled potatoes, gruel, &c. Some linseed-meal is also very good for cows with this complaint. A little gum-arabic or starch may be mixed with the medicine. The treatment is much the same as for diarrhoea. The Mange is commonly brought on by half starving in winter, and by keeping the cow in a filthy, ill-ven- tilated place. It is contagious, and if one cow of a herd has it, the rest will be apt to get it also. Blaine says, " Mange has three origins, — filth, debility, and contagion." It is a disgrace to the farmer to suffer it to enter his herd from either of these causes, since it shows a culpable neglect of his stock. I am sorry to say it is too common in this country, especially in filthy barns. The cow afflicted with the mange is hide-bound ; the hair is dry and stiff, and comes off. She is constantly rubbing, and a kind of white scurfiness appears on the skin. It is most perceptible towards the latter part of winter and in spring, and thus too plainly tells the story of the winter's neglect. LICE. — HOW TO DESTEOY THEM. 289 An ointment composed chiefly of sulphur has been found most effectual. Some mercurial ointment may be added, if the cows are kept housed ; but, if let out during the day, the quantity must be very small, else salivation is produced by their licking themselves. The ointment may be made of flour of sulphur one pound, strong mercurial ointment two ounces, common turpentine one half-pound, lard one and a quarter pounds. Melt the turpentine and lard together, and stir in the sulphur as they begin to cool off; then rub down the mercurial ointment on some hard substance with the other ingredients. Rub the whole in with the hand, and take care to leave no places untouched, once a day, for three days ; and after this, if any places are left un- cured, rub it in over them. There is no danger in this application, if the animal is not exposed to severe cold. This will be pretty sure to effect a speedy cure, if aided by cleanliness, pure air, and a nutritious diet. Another wash for mange is the following: Pyrolig- neous acid four ounces, water a pint ; mix and apply. Lice show unpardonable neglect of duty wherever they are suffered to exist. They crawl all over the stable-floor and the stalls, on the pastures, and a touch is sufficient to give them to other animals. They worry and trouble the poor animal constantly ; and no thriftiness can be expected where they are found. If the mange ointment does not completely destroy them, as it often will, take bees-wax, tallow, and lard, in equal parts, and rub it into the hide in the most thorough man- ner, with the hand or a brush, two and a half pounds for a small cow, three pounds for a large one. The next day it may be washed off in soft soap, and the lice will have disappeared from the animal, but not always from the barn. Some use a wash of powdered lobelia-seeds two ounces, steeped in boiling water, and 25 19 290 WAEBLES. — LOSS OF CUD. applied with a sponge. Others hang up tobacco-leaves over the stalls. This may do to keep them away ; but, after the animal is covered with them, they are not so easily scared. Warbles. — The gad-fly is very troublesome to cattle towards the end of summer. The fly alights on the back of the cow, punctures the skin, and lays her eggs under it. A tumor is now formed, varying in size, which soon bursts and leaves a small hole for the grub already hatched to breathe through. Here the insect feeds on its surroundings, and grows up to considerable size. All this time the animal is probably suffering more or less pain, and often tries to lick or rub the part affected, if possible. Farmers often press them out with the fin- ger and thumb. The best way is to puncture the skin with a common pen-knife, and then press out the grub. They injure the hide more than most people are aware of. Loss of Cud is a consequence of indigestion, and is often brought on by eating too greedily of food which the cow is not used to. Loss of cud and loss of appetite are synonymous. Gentle purgatives may be given, with such as salts, ginger, and sulphur. But when a cow is surfeited, as already said, I should prefer to withhold food entirely, or for the most part, till the system can regulate itself. Diseases of Calves. — The colostrum, or first milk of the *cow after calving, contains medicinal qualities pecu- liarly adapted to cleanse the young calf, and free its bowels from the matter always existing in them at birth. This should, therefore, never be denied it. Bleeding at the navel, with which calves are sometimes seriously troubled, may generally and safely be stopped by tying a string around the cord which hangs suspended from it. DISEASES OF CALVES. — SCOURS. 291 But Diarrhcea, Purging, or Scours, is the most dan- gerous complaint with which calves are afflicted. This is caused often by neglect, or exposure to wet and cold, or insufficiency of food at one time and over-feeding at another. Stinting the calf in food or attention will often involve the loss of considerable profit on the cow for the year. When purging is once fully seated from several days' neglect, it is often difficult to remove it. The acidity on the stomach which always attends it must first be removed. A mild purgative medicine may be given. Rhubarb and magnesia is a very convenient article, and may easily be given in ounce doses along with the milk. Potash is also to be given in quarter- ounce doses in the same way. Two ounces of castor- oil, or two ounces of Epsom salts, might be given with the desired effect. After this, mild astringents may be given. Take prepared chalk two drachms, or magnesia one ounce, powdered opium ten grains, powdered cate- chu half a drachm, tincture of capsicum two drachms, essence of peppermint five drops. Mix together, and give twice a clay in the milk or gruel. After giving the above repeatedly without effect, which will rarely happen, take Dover's powders two scruples, starch or arrow-root powdered one ounce, cinnamon powder one drachm, and powdered kino half a drachm. Boil the starch or arrow-root in water till it thickens, and when cold stir in the other ingre- dients. Give night and morning. This complaint is often attended by inflammation of the bowels and general fever. It is a good plan to keep a lump of chalk constantly before calves after they are two or three weeks old. It corrects acidity on the stomach, and is otherwise useful to them. Constipation or Costiveness sometimes attacks calves 292 COSTIVENESS. — HOOVE. — CANKER. a few days old, that have not been judiciously managed. It may be brought on by putting a calf to a cow whose milk is too old, or from feeding a calf from the milk of several cows mixed. It results from too heavy a mass of coagulated milk in the fourth stomach, which becomes very much swollen with hard curd. It is difficult to remedy. The best way is to pour down some Epsom salts, two ounces, dissolved in two quarts of warm water, by means of a horn or bottle, and follow this by half the dose every six hours. Constipation sometimes appears in calves from two to four months old, when their food is too suddenly changed. The bowels must be opened and the hardened mass in the stomach softened very soon, or it will lead to fatal consequences. Farmers are generally very careless about observing these things till it is too late. As already said, preven- tion is cheaper than cure ; but, if the complaint once appears, no time should be lost to administer a purge of salts in proportion to the size of the animal or the severity of the attack. Many a valuable animal will be saved by it. The Hoove often appears among calves after being- turned out to pasture. The young animal coughs vio- lently, and appears in pain. It should be removed at once to a dry place, and physicked. If taken in season, it is easily cured. If neglected, it will often prove fatal. This complaint assumes the form of an epidemic at times, and becomes very prevalent and troublesome. Calves sometimes suffer from Canker in the Mouth, especially at the time of teething. The gums swell, and fever sets in. Common alum or borax, dissolved in water, may be applied, and a mild purgative admin- istered, in the shape of one or two ounce doses of Epsom salts. THE MEDICINES AT HAND. 293 The diseases and complaints mentioned above are nearly all that afflict our dairy stock ; and the list at least includes all the common diseases and their treat- ment. Some of the diseases and epidemics from which the cattle of Great Britain and other countries suffer are not known at all here, or are of so very rare occur- rence as not to have attracted attention ; and among these may be named pleuro-pneuinonia, typhus fever, cow-pox, and various epidemics which have from time to time decimated the cattle of all Europe. To accidents of various kinds, to wounds, trouble with the eyes, and to lameness from other causes than those named, they are, indeed, more or less subject ; but no work could anticipate or cover the treatment best in every case, and much must be left to the judgment of the owner. I have tried to make this chapter, which I consider one of the most important of any to the dairy farmer, of practical value to every one who owns or has the care of a cow. But, lest a want of familiarity with some of the medicines recommended for particular diseases, or the fear of the expense of procuring and keeping them on hand, should deter some one from providing himself with a good medicine-chest, I wish to remind the reader that no small portion of them are always to be found in every well-regulated household, and that the others are obtained at so little expense that no one need be with- out them for a single day. Let us see, for instance, how many of them are at hand. But few families are destitute of a supply of ginger, camphor, red pepper, lard, molasses, cinnamon, peppermint, starch, turpentine, tallow, bees-wax, bur- dock, and caraway-seed. The farmer's wife or daughter will generally have a supply of ammonia or hartshorn. Now, I wish to suggest to the farmer or dairyman who happens to live at a distance from the apothecary 25* 294 COST OF MEDICINE-CHEST. to provide himself with a convenient little medicine- chest, and put into it say four times the quantities of the various medicines which are mentioned in the pre- ceding pages, carefully bottled and labelled for use. To aid in this simple plan, which might be the means of saving an animal worth twenty times its cost, I have obtained, from a ivJiolesale druggist, about the average cost of the following quantities and kinds of medicines, which include all, or nearly all, that would be likely to be needed : Five pounds of Epsom salts, .18; one pint of castor-oil, .25 ; one pint of sweet spirits of nitre, .19 ; one pound of powdered nitrate of potash, .20 ; one pound carbonate of ammonia, .23 ; one half-pound sal ammoniac, .08 ; one pint of tincture of red pepper (hot drops), .37 ; one ounce of hydriodate of potash, .30 ; one pound chloride of lime, .10: one pound sulphate of iron, .10 ; 2 pounds powdered sulphur, .16; one pint of tincture of ginger, 37 ; one quart of essence of anise- seed, .50 ; one half-pound sulphuric ether, .20 ; one half-pound powdered sassafras-bark, .20 ; one quarter- pound magnesia, .06 ; one quarter-pound rhubarb, 30 (the common will answer instead of prepared) ; one ounce powdered opium, .43; one quarter-pound catechu, .06 ; one ounce Dover's powders, .25 ; 2 ounces gum kino, .05 ; one half-pound mercurial ointment, .37! '■> an d one- pound aloes, .25. Then keep in the chest a good pro- bang, which is a flexible tube made for the purpose, and is much safer and better for introducing into the throat or gullet of an animal than a common whip-stick, which some use. This costs about $3.50, and can be pro- cured at almost any veterinary surgeon's. This whole chest and contents will cost less than ten dollars. Let the farmer also become familiar with the structure and anatomy of his animals. It will open a wide field of useful and interesting investigation. CHAPTER X. THE DAIEY HUSBANDRY OP HOLLAND. This chapter I translate from an admirable little work in German, " Die Holldndische Rindviehzucht und Milchwirthschqft in Konigreich Holland," by Ellerbrock, a distinguished veterinary surgeon, pro- fessor of cattle pathology and cattle-breeding in the Agricultural Institute at Zeyst, in Holland. Milking and Treatment of Milk. — The cows are turned to pasture early in spring, and stay there day and night throughout the pasture-season. They are milked daily in a particular part of the lot called the milk-yard. This is kept in some instances permanently in the same place ; in others, it is changed about at pleasure. A shady part of the pasture is generally selected, and it is commonly enclosed with a board fence. The cows are driven into this yard to be milked, when not already there at the usual time. The milking is done by male and female do- mestics, who carry their pails, cans, and dishes, hung on a kind of wooden yoke, Fig. 84, neatly cut out, painted, and set with copper nails. This is swung over the shoulders, or else the dairy utensils are carried on donkeys, ponies, or hand-carts ; or, where there is water communication, in boats, twice a day, to the yard. 296 THE DUTCH DAIEY. In the larger dairies the utensils in common use are small wooden pails, Fig. 85 ; painted in variegated colors, with bright brazen or iron hoops, and neatly washed ; a strainer, Fig. 86, made of horse-hair ; a large wooden Fig. 85. tunnel, Fig. 87, for pouring the milk into the cans and casks ; one or more buckets, Fig. 88, usually of brass, lined with tin, large enough to hold the milk of several cows together, or from twelve to eighteen quarts. In many dairies they have wooden buckets, Fig. 89, painted green or blue outside, with black stripes, and with iron or brass handles, kept very bright. Here the buckets are coated over inside with white oil-colors. These are borne by the yoke (Fig. 84), or in some of the ways indicated above. In many places, instead of buckets for keeping the milk together, they use copper or brass cans lined inside with tin, and in the form of antique vases or large beer-jugs, Figs. 90 and 91, which are constantly kept brightly polished. In other places, they use for hold- ing the milk smaller or larger barrels, Fig. 92, with broad hoops also kept constantly polished. THE DAIET UTENSILS. 297 Instead of the yoke a soft cushion is also used, which the dairymaids strap over their backs, so that they hang Tig. 90. Fig. 91. Tig. 92 down and rest over the hips and thighs. On this cush- ion the cans are laid, and fastened with broad hempen straps, that they may not press too heavily upon the body. This band is called the milk-strap. Where the milk is carried home on a hand-cart, neatly-woven baskets are fastened upon little wagons in which the cans are placed. If it is to be carried in casks, the same arrangement is fixed upon a hand-cart. Two wooden floats are laid upon the milk in the buckets, in order to protect it from slopping over. One or more large milk- casks or tubs, in which it may cool off properly, are also used. The size of these tubs is different, as well as the materials of which they are made. Where the cooling- is not left to the air alone, but is sought to be effected by hanging the milk-tub into cold water, the vessels are made of metal. The large vase-like jars are also used for this purpose. These hold about thirty cans, or twenty-six quarts. Wooden bowls are used, of different sizes and forms, and earthen pans, rather deeper than broad, Figs. 93 and 94, in which the milk as it cools is 298 THE MILKING. set for the cream to rise. A large pot for collecting the cream until there is enough to churn, and wooden skim- mers for taking off the cream, are also used. The milker sits upon a common four-legged, and sometimes one- legged milkirig-stool, and milks either the teats on one side, or one hind and one front teat, the pail being held between the knees. The cows are milked regu- larly at four or five o'clock in the morning, and at five or six in the afternoon. In West Friesland, North and South Holland, Utrecht, and other places, it is customary to tie the tail to the leg of the cow, that she may not annoy the milker. Most cows do not resist this, being accustomed to it from the beginning. They also pass a cord around the "71 -^=&^SS>» horns and tie her to a post stuck in the ground during the milking, as in Fig. 95. In many provinces only the unruly cows are tied in this way. The milking takes place on the right side of the cow, THE PEACTICE IN WINTEE. 299 so that the milker sits on this side. In West Friesland and North Holland there is an exception to this rule. The cows are tied in pairs in the stalls, and one is milked on one side and the other on the other, the milker sitting with his back to the board partition, to avoid annoyance from either animal. When the milking is ended the milk is poured through the hair strainer into the bucket, or through a strainer or tunnel in the cans or casks, whichever are used. The milk is taken to the dairy-house, without delay, in some of the ways already mentioned. When the yoke is used, one bucket is hung on the right side and another on the left, each with a float on the top of the milk to keep it from slopping over. The large metallic milk-cans, with wooden stoppers, are borne home on the cushions already described as being held by shoulder-knots strapped round the waist. The mode of transportation depends much on the distance from the dairy-house and the quantity to be carried. In winter, when the cows are in the barn, they are likewise milked twice a day, and the milk is at once strained through the hair strainer into casks made for the purpose. These implements differ according to the object pursued in the dairy; yet pans and pots are mostly used for raising the cream to be made into butter, since but few dairymen make cheese in winter. All utensils necessary for milking, the preservation of milk, and the making of butter and cheese, are kept with the utmost neatness. Where a stream of running- water flows through the yard, the implements are gene- rally washed in that, and flowing water is preferred for the purpose. But where the farm or dairy-house stands at a distance from a stream, a shallow fountain, or basin, is dug out in the earth, walled up, and so arranged that the water can be taken from it and fresh 300 CLEANLINESS EXEMPLIFIED. water substituted when it gets impure. In such a basin, or in flowing water, all new wooden dairy uten- sils are soaked for a long time before being used ; but those in daily use are washed, rinsed, and scoured out with ashes, with the greatest care. None but cold, clear, fresh fountain or flowing water is taken for cleans- ing dairy implements. It is to be observed that, in large dairies, the use of water which is covered with newly-fallen honey-dew, for washing the dairy utensils, is carefully avoided. When the milk-vessels have been perfectly rinsed out in fresh water, they are, in many dairies, put into a large kettle of water over the fire, and properly scalded ; after which they are again cleanly washed with cold water, so that not the least particle of milk or impurity is to be seen, nor the least smell of it to be observed. The metallic milk-vessels and the metal parts of the wooden ones are cleansed with equal care and exactness, and kept polished. Dairymaids feel a pride in always having the brightest, most polished, and cleanest utensils, and each strives earnestly to excel the others in this respect. When the milk-vessels are scoured, scalded, and rinsed perfectly clean, they are hung on a stand of laths and poles, made for the purpose, to be properly dried. The round wooden milk-bowls, being made of one piece, are very easily broken or split, and must be handled with very great care in cleaning. To avoid breaking, a peculiar table is used for scouring them. The Dutch dairyman knows perfectly well that his dairy can secure him the highest profit only when the utmost cleanliness is the basis and groundwork of his whole business ; and so he keeps, with the most extraor- dinary carefulness, and even with anxiety, the great- est possible neatness in all parts of the dairy establish- ment. the yield of dutch cows. 301 Determination of the Milking Qualities of the Cows. — The Dutch cattle are, in general, renowned for their dairy qualities ; but especially so are the cows of North Holland, which not only give a large quantity, but also a very good quality, so that a yield of sixteen to twenty-five cans * at every milking is not rare. Next to these come the West Friesland and South Dutch cows, from which from twenty to twenty-four cans of milk may be calculated on. Though one could not take a certain number and calculate surely what the yield of each cow would be, yet he could come very near the truth if he reckoned that a cow, in three hun- dred days, or as long as she is milked, gives, on an average, daily, from six to eight cans of milk, from which the whole annual yield would be from one thousand eight hundred to two thousand four hundred cans. Of this the cow gives one half in the first four months, one third in the next three, and in the remainder one sixth. These superficial results cannot be taken, however, as the fixed rule. Professor Wilkins, in his Handbook of Agriculture, gives the following estimates of the yield of milk : A good West Friesland or G-roningen cow will, after calv- ing, give daily fourteen quarts of milk. This will, after a while, be reduced to eight quarts. She may be milked three hundred and twenty-three days in the year, and her product in butter and cheese will amount to one hundred guldens. In Prof. Kop's Magazine it is stated that a medium- sized Friesland cow, which had had several calves, was giving daily, on good feed, five and a half to six buckets, or from twenty to twenty-two cans, and over. In South Holland, also, this quantity is considered a good yield * A Dutch can is a little less than our -wine quart. 26 302 TEEATMENT OF MILK. of a cow. Of the cows of Gelderland, Overyssel, and Utrecht, the yield cannot be reckoned higher than six- teen cans daily, and that only during the first half of their milking season. Treatment of Milk for Butter. — To get good butter it is quite necessary that the fresh milk be properly cooled before it is set for cream. In the great dairies of North and South Holland, which not only possess the best cattle, but may be given as models in dairy husbandry, they manage as follows : The milk, as it is brought from the pasture, is poured from the buckets, cans, and casks, through a hair strainer, into one vessel, the milk-kettle. These milk- kettles are not everywhere of the same size, or of simi- lar form, but are always riveted together with strong brass or copper bands, and lined with tin inside. The most common milk-kettles hold sixteen cans ; yet they are found so large as to hold three barrels, or about six hundred quarts. The peculiar kettle form is very rarely found, but more frequently the cylindrical, or vase- shaped. They are held either by two handles or one. The number required depends on the number of cows and the quantity of milk expected. The milk-kettles, when filled, are set into a basin with cold water, called the cool-bath, for the purpose of cooling the milk. The cool-bath is frequently in the kitchen, sometimes in the bauer-house, so called, or directly before the cow-room, near the spring. The latter is the most common and the most convenient place. The water reservoir is dug in the ground, and. an oblong four-cornered form is preferred for it ; the sides of the excavation being walled up with hard-burnt building-stones and cement, but the bottom is laid in tiles, either red, hard-burnt, or white glazed. Richer dairymen take finely-hewn blue stone or white marble THE COOL-BATH. 303 for it. The size of the reservoir is governed by the number of milk-kettles to be put into it, and so is its depth by their height, so that the rim of the kettle is on a level with the top of the cool-bath, Fig. 96. The sides of the cool-bath in the kitchen project some feet over the floor, yet are not so high that the setting in and taking out the milk-kettle will be at- Fig. 96. Cool-bath. tended with great inconvenience and trouble. Where it is desired to make the work of setting in or raising up the milk-kettles from the cool-bath as easy as pos- sible, a beam is fixed along the side of the trough, and iron props are firmly fixed, which extend out a Hi lie over the edge of the trough, half-way down from the beam. On these the operator can support himself in lowering or raising heavy vessels. These stays, or props, are sometimes fixed directly into the wall, along 304 THE BATH IN THE BAKN. which the cool-bath stands. Under the bottom of the reservoir, on the other side from where the water comes in, is an outlet, stopped with a tap or faucet, to let off the water. The cool-baths in the kitchen are, for the most part, on the floor, and extend up a convenient height ; whilst those in the cow-barns, as a general rule, are dug down and walled up, and their top is fastened to the floor of the barn. They are deep enough to allow the water for cooling the milk to come up to the rim of the milk- rig. 97. Cool-bath kettle ; but, in order to prevent men and cattle from falling in, it is covered with a strong wooden lid to shut down, as in Fig. 97. THE TIME OP COOLING. 305 Such a cool-bath is used in the cow-room only in summer, when the heat is so great that it is difficult to keep the milk cool in the kitchen. The cool-bath in the cow-room is considered as only an auxiliary to that in the kitchen, and to be used only in case of necessity. The milk-kettles are hung by their handles, and let down by means of a crank. When the platform is not in use it is taken away from the cool-bath, and the cover is let down and kept closed. The milk is allowed to remain in the cool-bath until the froth has disappeared, and there is no difference in temperature between the water and the milk. The milk of one milking must give place for the next, so that it will be changed twice daily, morning and even- ing. A very great importance is, everywhere in the Dutch dairies, attached to this rapid cooling of the milk, because it is known by experience that it is thus greatly protected from turning sour.* The milk, when properly cooled, is brought to the milk-cellar, where it is immediately poured out of the milk-kettles into vessels designed to receive it. "Wooden bowls or pans, or high earthen pots, are used for holding it. The pans and pots are set on the table, and a small ladder, or hand-barrow, is laid on them, on which is placed the strainer, when the milk is poured from the kettles. The wooden milk-pans are of several forms, generally made of ash or of linden, and oval. They are, on an average, three and a half feet long, and half a foot broad, more or less ; but their dimensions vary. * It will be perceived that the arrangement for cooling the milk before setting in the pans, in the Dutch dairies, is very elaborate. I have fol- lowed the original in translating the above, though the practice in Hol- land differs widely from our own in this respect, and from that recom- mended in the preceding pages. The point may be worthy of careful experiment. — Translator. 26* 20 306 DEPTH IN THE PANS. It lias been found, by experience, that the flatter and shallower the pans, the quicker and better the cream rises. The milk-pots are pretty large, but are rather shallow than deep, glazed inside, of different forms, and different capacities ; but they are always broader on the top than at the bottom, though they stand firmly on a round, broad foot-piece. Milk pans and pots are rinsed with cold water before the milk is poured into them. When properly cleaned and filled, they are placed on shelves made for the purpose, in regular rows. These shelves are only a few feet high above the floor of the cellar, and of suitable width ; but, if there is not space enough for the milk, the pans are placed on the bottom of the cellar. The pots are also set along the walls, on firm board shelves. The milk-cellar, or rather the milk-room, Fig. 98, in the North and South Dutch dairies, is placed on the north side of the house, next to the kitchen, but a little lower than the latter, so that there are usually three steps down. The longer side, facing towards the north, has one window, whilst the gable end, with its two windows, faces towards the west. The windows are generally kept shut, and are open only nights in summer. The cellar is either arched or covered with strongly-boarded rafters, over which the so-called cellar-chamber is situated. The floor of this room is laid in lime or cement, with red or blue burnt tiles, so that nothing can pass doAvn through into the milk-cellar. In the cellar itself are the above-mentioned shelves and platforms for the milk-vessels along the walls, while outside, in front of the cellar, linden and juniper trees are planted, to prevent as much as possible the heat of the sun from striking upon the walls. Cleanliness, the fundamental principle of Dutch dairy husbandry, is carried to its utmost extent in the cellar. Barrels of DUTCH DAIRY-BOOM. 307 308 TIME FOR THE CREAM TO RISE. meat, bacon, vegetables of every kind, and everything which could possibly create a strong odor and infect the air, or impart a flavor to the milk, butter, or cheese, are carefully excluded. The vessels in which the milk is set remain standing undisturbed in their places, that the formation of cream may go on without interruption. Twenty-four hours, on an average, are thought to be necessary for the milk to stand, during which time the cream is twice taken off, once at the end of each twelve hours. The morn- ing's milk is skimmed in the evening, and the evening's on the next morning. But the milk always remains quite still till the dairymaid thinks it time to skim, which she decides by the taste. Long practice enables her to judge with great certainty by this mode of trial. When the cream is ripe it is taken off by the dairymaid with a shallow wooden skimmer, Fig. 99, in the form of a deep p plate, and carefully placed in a particular m0 " bulk of, 144, 38] " variety of required, 121, 143, 144 " steaming the, 387, 396 Foul in the foot, treatment of, 28 I Garget, symptoms and treatment, 271,272 Gentleness in the care of stock, 147,148,104 35* 414 INDEX. Gloucester cheese, mode of making, 260, 261 " " analysis of, 269 Grade and native cattle, 49, 54, 55, 60, 74 Grasses, culture of the, 169,170,172,176,180 varieties of pasture, 169,170,184,185 •' cutting and curing of, 186, 187 Grass-fed cows, 123, 124, 133, 137 Great milkers, form of, 28, 72, 104 Guenon's method of judging cows, 24,64,90,91,92,109 " " explanation of, • . . 65, 91 Hafting and its results, 2] Harley's experience, 20, 137 Hay cut and moistened, value of, 117,122,127 Hereditary qualities, 24, 63 Herefords, origin and characteristics of, 38, 40, 43 Hornless cattle, 78 Hoove, cause and cure of, 282, 283, 292 Hoose, treatment of, 286 Horsfall's system of feeding 138,365,370,380,383 Hubback, fame of, 32, 33 Hungarian cattle, 78 Ice, use of in the dairy, 236,240,244 Ice-creams, modes of making, . 214,215 Inflammation of the glands, treatment of, 286 " " " lungs, " " 286 Indian corn, culture and curing for fodder, 188, 189 Jersey cattle, m-igin and characteristics of, 26, 27, 29, 30 " " Haxton's opinion of, 27 " cows, milk of, 30, 76, 391 Lactometer, use of, 149, 210, 211 Letter to a dairy-woman, 355 Lice on cows, how to get rid of, 289 Linseed-meal, value and use of, 128, 197, 381 London dairies, 35, 74, 136 Loss of cud, cure for, 290 Male, selection of the, 62,66,75,77,362 Mange, synrptoms and cure of, 288 Manures, economy and use of, 154, 198, 400, 401 Medicine chest, importance of, 293, 2^4 " easily procured, 293, 294 Milch cows, yield of, IS, 20, 25, 116, 133, 301, 372 " selection of, 10, 61, 64, 67, 71, 79, 80, 86 " " teeth of, 81,83,85,86 Milk, nature and composition of, 199, 200, 201, 203, 216, 369 " oily parts of, 200,204,216,217,218,239,389 " cheesy parts of, 200,204,216,241,369,380,400 " temperature for raising cream, . . .200,201,205,212,228,233 « curdling, 244, 245, 246, 253, 267 " intoxicating liquor from, 201, 202 " difference in quality, 203, 207, 209, 219, 875, 383 INDEX. 415 Milk, specific gravity of, 203, 209, 210 " setting for cream, . . 205, 207, 222, 223, 225, 228, 232, 234, 308 " effect of climate on the quantity, 207 " treatment of, .... 207,208,212,219,221,223,295,302,308 " adulterating, 208, 209 " ice-creams from, 214 " of spayed cows, 215 " measures for, 216, 296 " room, 221,222,231,383 " testing the quality of, 149,209,211,376,397 " feeding for, 56, 114, 115, 117, 123, 127, 129, 131, 132 " greatest yield of on grass, 123, 124, 132, 137 Milk-fever, symptoms and treatment of, 275, 276, 277, 278 Milking, manner of affects the yield, 145, 146, 147 " •women best adapted for, 149, 295 " in the Dutch dairies, 295 qualities, artificial, 9,68,136,148 MLlk-mirror, transmission of the, 66, 67, 68, 70 form of the, . 24, 65, 66, 67, 69, 90, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 101 " explanation of the, 65 Milk-pans, forms of, 223, 224, 296, 306 Milk-yoke, use of the, 295,296 Milk-veins, size of the, 88,104,106,110 Millet, culture and value of, 189 Mixed food, conducive to health, 121, 143 Moist and succulent food, .... 117, 122, 127, 133, 136, 139, 144, 387 Native or grade cattle, 14, 49, 50, 54, 56, 60, 61 Nitrogenous substances, value of, 122, 128, 381 North Devons, origin and qualities of, 44, 45, 47, 76 Nutritive value of articles of food, 125,126 Oakes cow, yield of, 72, 73 Oil-cake, value of, 127, 129, 381 Origin of breeds and races, 9 Parmesan cheese, mode of making, 266,360 Parturition, treatment at, 131, 273, 274 Pastures, different qualities of, 391 Patton stock, 35 Philadelphia butter, quality of, 230, 234 Points of a dairy cow, 21, 22, 47, 51, 64, 73, 80, 86, 88, 110 Pork, best quality of, 362 Practice in judging stock, 80 Principles of breeding 23, 32, 58, 61, 62, 69, 71, 74 Puerperal fever, treatment of, 275, 276 Purgatives in use for cattle, 281 Rape-cake, value of as food, 381,391 Red water, treatment of, 285 Regularity, importance of, 117,119,133,137,143 Relative size of male and female, 16,(52,70,71,362 Rennet, how prepared, 247, 248, 249, 259, 332, 349 use of, 255, 257, 332 Rings on the horns, 81 416 INDEX. Roots for stock, 118,119,122,127,137,138,396 " culture of, 191,192,193,196 Rye, culture aud use of, 190 Scours in calves, treatment of, 291 Selection of cows, 10,61,71,79,80,86,110,111 Shaving the milk-mirror, 95 Short-horns, origin and characteristics of, 31, 33, 35 " influence on American cattle, 34, 35, 74 beef of the, . . 36, 42, 43 Simple fever, symptoms and treatment, 279, 280 Size of animals, relative, 10, 70, 111 Skim-milk cheese, 243, 266, 331, 360 Slinking the calf. . . 274 Soiling, plants for, . 132, 135, 142, 143, 144 " advantages of, 141, 142, 143 Sponge and cloth, use of the, 231,232,234,358 Spring, treatment of cows in, 131, 133, 137 Square box the best churn, 228 Stamping of butter, 323, 359 Stilton cheese, mode of making, 259, 260 Stock, improvement of, 57,58,60,63,71,168 " selection of, 10,58,60,64,66,71,86 " age of, 80, 81 Suffolk swine, crosses with, 362, 363 Surfeited cows, treatment of, 138, 290 Swill-milk, how produced, 144, 208, 209, 216 Swine, the kind of wanted, 362,363 " treatment of, 364 Symptomatic fever, treatment of, 280 Teeth, indicative of aae, 81,83,85,86 The piggery, . . ." 361,364 Time a cow should run dry, 130, 131, 273 " of calving, 131,272,273 Treatment of dairy stock, 56, 130, 131, 133, 134, 136, 138, 140, 148, 168 Typhoid fever, treatment of, 281 Udder, attention to the, 43, 88, 89, 104, 108, 272 " structure of the, 145, 146, 202 Vegetable oils, 379, 389, 409 Virginia, importation of cattle to, 35, 50 Warbles, injure the hide, 290 Warmth and ventilation requisite, 136, 149 Whey, use of the, 344, 354 Willowbank dairy, 20, 137 Winter food for cows, 127,131,134,136,139 Wood for butter casks and firkins, 324 Yorkshire cattle, notice of, . . * 30, 32, 35, 74 Youatt's opinion, 18, 47, 272, 277 "', r = -w : m^ 'v<# ^> ^ .#■% ' - .'-iK : ^ ^ A* "7 0' < .-is 6 V- V 'OCT %■ #' O ,V> % A o ^ -% 'A V A- ck <■• A' ■^•^ ■^0^ ^ c^ x oc> cT' ■^ v V %rf A V A\ y ^. y - V ■* v W h -7*-; .vV ^ \ iV •/ ■'- v5 -n*.