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  Transcriber’s Notes

  Text ~between tildes~ represents text printed in blackletter, text
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  More Transcriber’s Notes may be found at the end of this text.


[Illustration]




  MILCH COWS
  AND
  DAIRY FARMING;

  COMPRISING

  THE BREEDS, BREEDING, AND MANAGEMENT, IN HEALTH AND DISEASE,
  OF DAIRY AND OTHER STOCK, 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, AND ADAPTED TO
  FARMING IN THE UNITED STATES AND BRITISH PROVINCES.

  WITH A TREATISE UPON THE
  DAIRY HUSBANDRY OF HOLLAND;

  TO WHICH IS ADDED
  HORSFALL’S SYSTEM OF DAIRY MANAGEMENT.

  BY CHARLES L. FLINT,
  SECRETARY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE; AUTHOR OF
  “A TREATISE ON GRASSES AND FORAGE PLANTS,” ETC.

  LIBERALLY ILLUSTRATED.

  BOSTON:
  PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY,
  13 WINTER STREET.
  1859.




  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by
  CHARLES L. FLINT,
  In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of
  Massachusetts.

  Stereotyped by
  HOBART A ROBBINS,
  New England Type and Stereotype Foundery,
  BOSTON.

  PRINTED BY R. M. EDWARDS.




  ~TO~
  THE MASS. STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE,
  THE
  MASS. SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF AGRICULTURE,
  AND THE VARIOUS
  AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES OF THE UNITED STATES,
  WHOSE EFFORTS HAVE CONTRIBUTED SO LARGELY TO IMPROVE THE
  DAIRY STOCK OF OUR COUNTRY
  ~This Treatise,~
  DESIGNED TO ADVANCE THAT HIGHLY IMPORTANT INTEREST,
  IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
  BY
  THE AUTHOR.




  CONTENTS.


  PREFACE.                                                           vii


  CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY.--THE VARIOUS RACES OF PURE-BRED CATTLE
  IN THE UNITED STATES.                                                9

  The Ayrshires -- The Jersey -- The Short-horns -- The Dutch --
  Herefords -- The North Devons


  CHAPTER II. AMERICAN GRADE OF NATIVE CATTLE.--THE PRINCIPLES OF
  BREEDING.                                                           49


  CHAPTER III. THE SELECTION OF MILCH COWS.                           79


  CHAPTER IV. FEEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY COWS.                  113

  Soiling -- Milking -- The Barn


  CHAPTER V. THE RAISING OF CALVES.                                  155


  CHAPTER VI. CULTURE OF GRASSES AND OTHER PLANTS RECOMMENDED FOR
  FODDER.                                                            169

  Timothy grass -- June grass -- Meadow Foxtail -- Orchard grass, or
  Rough Cocksfoot -- Rough-stalked Meadow grass -- Fowl Meadow grass
  -- Rye grass -- Italian Rye grass -- Redtop -- English Bent -- Meadow
  Fescue -- Tall Oat grass -- Sweet-scented Vernal grass -- Hungarian
  grass, or Millet -- Red Clover -- White Clover -- Indian Corn --
  Common Millet (Panicum miliaceum) -- Rye -- Oats -- Chinese Sugar-Cane
  -- The Potato (Solanum tuberosum) -- The Carrot (Daucus carota) --
  Turnip (Brassica rapa) -- Mangold Wurzel -- Parsnip (Pastinaca sativa)
  -- Kohl Rabi (Brassica oleracea, var. caulorapa)--Linseed Meal--
  Rape-Cake -- Cotton-seed Meal -- Manures


  CHAPTER VII. MILK.                                                 199


  CHAPTER VIII. BUTTER AND THE BUTTER-DAIRY.                         217


  CHAPTER IX. THE CHEESE-DAIRY.                                      241

  Cheshire Cheese -- Stilton Cheese -- Gloucester Cheese -- Cheddar
  Cheese -- Dunlop Cheese -- Dutch Cheese -- Parmesan -- American Cheese


  CHAPTER X. THE DISEASES OF DAIRY STOCK.                            271

  Garget -- Puerperal or Milk Fever -- Simple Fever -- Typhoid Fever --
  Hoove or Hoven -- Choking -- Foul in the Foot -- Red Water -- Hoose --
  Inflammation of the Glands -- Inflammation of the Lungs -- Diarrhœa --
  Dysentery -- Mange -- Lice -- Warbles -- Loss of Cud -- Diseases of
  Calves -- Diarrhœa, Purging, or Scours -- Constipation or Costiveness
  -- Hoove -- Canker in the Mouth


  CHAPTER XI. THE DAIRY HUSBANDRY OF HOLLAND.                        295

  Milking and Treatment of Milk. -- Determination of the Milking
  Qualities of the Cows -- Treatment of Milk for Butter -- Methods of
  Churning -- Churning in the Common Churn -- The Lever Churn --
  Churning with an Elastic Rod -- Churning with the Treadle Lever --
  Churning by Horse-power -- Duration of the Churning -- Working and
  Treatment of Butter -- The Form of Fresh Butter -- The Packing of
  Butter in Firkins and Barrels -- Coloring of Butter -- Use of the
  Butter-milk -- The Manufacture of the different kinds of Dutch Cheese
  -- Cheese-making in South Holland -- Manufacture of Sweet Milk Cheese
  in South Holland -- The Use of the Whey of Sweet Milk Cheese -- May
  Cheese -- Jews’ Cheese -- Council’s Cheese -- New Milk’s Cheese --
  Cheese-making in North Holland -- The Utensils used in Cheese-making
  in North Holland -- Variety of North Dutch Cheeses, and the Trade in
  them -- Making of Edam Cheese -- The Red Color of Edam Cheese -- Use
  of the Whey of the North Dutch Sweet Milk Cheese


  CHAPTER XII. LETTER TO A DAIRY-WOMAN.                              355


  CHAPTER XIII. THE PIGGERY AS A PART OF THE DAIRY ESTABLISHMENT.    361


  APPENDIX.                                                          365

  Gain or Loss of Condition ascertained by weighing Cattle Periodically
  -- Richness of Milk and Cream -- Comparison of different methods of
  Feeding Dairy Cows -- Quality of Butter


  INDEX.                                                             411




PREFACE.


This work is designed to embody the most recent information on the
subject of dairy farming. My aim has been to make a practically useful
book. With this view, I have treated of the several breeds of stock, the
diseases to which they are subject, the established principles of
breeding, the feeding and management of milch cows, the raising of
calves intended for the dairy, and the culture of grasses and plants to
be used as fodder.

For the chapter on the diseases of stock, I am largely indebted to Dr.
C. M. Wood, Professor of the Theory and Practice of Veterinary Medicine,
and to Dr. Geo. H. Dadd, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, both of
the Boston Veterinary Institute. If this chapter contributes anything to
promote a more humane and judicious treatment of cattle when suffering
from disease, I shall feel amply repaid for the labor bestowed upon the
whole work.

The chapter on the Dutch dairy, which I have translated from the German,
will be found to be of great practical value, as suggesting much that is
applicable to our American dairies. This chapter has never before, to my
knowledge, appeared in English.

The full and complete explanation of Guénon’s method of judging and
selecting milch cows,--a method originally regarded as theoretical, but
now generally admitted to be very useful in practice,--I have translated
from the last edition of the treatise of M. Magne, a very sensible
French writer, who has done good service to the agricultural public by
the clearness and simplicity with which he has freed that system from
its complicated details.

The work will be found to contain an account of the most enlightened
practice in this country, in the statements those actually engaged in
dairy farming; the details of the dairy husbandry of Holland, where this
branch of industry is made a specialty to greater extent, and is
consequently carried to a higher degree of perfection, than in any other
part of the world; and the most recent and productive modes of
management in English dairy farming, embracing a large amount of
practical and scientific information, not hitherto presented to the
American public in an available form.

Nothing need be said of the usefulness of a treatise on the dairy. The
number of milch cows in the country, forming so large a part of our
material wealth, and serving as a basis for the future increase and
improvement of every class of neat stock, on which the prosperity of our
agriculture mainly depends; the intrinsic value of milk as an article of
internal commerce, and as a most healthy and nutritious food; the vast
quantity of it made into butter and cheese, and used in every family;
the endless details of the management, feeding, and treatment, of dairy
stock, and the care and attention requisite to obtain from this branch
of farming the highest profit, all concur to make the want of such a
treatise, adapted to our climate and circumstances, felt not only by
practical farmers, but by a large class of consumers, who can appreciate
every improvement which may be made in preparing the products of the
dairy for their use.

The writer has had some years of practical experience in the care of a
cheese and butter dairy, to which has been added a wide range of
observation in some of the best dairy districts of the country; and it
is hoped that the work now submitted to the public will meet that degree
of favor usually accorded to an earnest effort to do something to
advance the cause of agriculture.




DAIRY FARMING




CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.--THE VARIOUS RACES OF PURE-BRED CATTLE IN THE UNITED
STATES.


The milking qualities of our domestic cows are, to some extent,
artificial, the result of care and breeding. In the natural or wild
state, the cow yields only enough to nourish her offspring for a few
weeks, and then goes dry for several months, or during the greater part
of the year. There is, therefore, a constant tendency to revert to that
condition, which is prevented only by judicious treatment, designed to
develop and increase the milking qualities so valuable to the human
race. If this judicious treatment is continued through several
generations of the same family or race of animals, the qualities which
it is calculated to develop become more or less fixed, and capable of
transmission. Instead of being exceptional, or peculiar to an
individual, they become the permanent characteristics of a breed. Hence
the origin of a great variety of breeds or races, the characteristics of
each being due to local circumstances such as climate, soil, and the
special objects of the breeder, which may be the production of milk,
butter and cheese, or the raising of beef or working cattle.

A knowledge of the history of different breeds, and especially of the
dairy breeds, is of manifest importance. Though very excellent milkers
will sometimes be found in all of them, and of a great variety of forms,
the most desirable dairy qualities will generally be found to have
become fixed and permanent characteristics of some to a greater extent
than of others; but it does not follow that a race whose milking
qualities have not been developed is of less value for other purposes,
and for qualities which have been brought out with greater care. A brief
sketch of the principal breeds of American cattle, as well as of the
grades or the common stock of the country, will aid the farmer, perhaps,
in making an intelligent selection with reference to the special object
of pursuit, whether it be the dairy, the production of beef, or the
raising of cattle for work.

In a subsequent chapter on the selections of milch cows, the standard of
perfection will be discussed in detail, and the characteristics of each
of the races will naturally be measured by that. In this connection, and
as preliminary to the following sketches, it may be stated that,
whatever breed may be selected, a full supply of food and proper shelter
are absolutely essential to the maintenance of any milking stock, the
food of which goes to supply not only the ordinary waste of the system
common to all animals, but also the milk secretions, which are greater
in some than in others. A large animal on a poor pasture has to travel
much further to fill itself than a small one. A small or medium-sized
cow would return more milk in proportion to the food consumed, under
such circumstances, than a large one.

In selecting any breed, therefore, regard should be had to the
circumstances of the farmer, and the object to be pursued. The cow most
profitable for the milk-dairy may be very unprofitable in the butter
and cheese dairy, as well as for the production of beef; while for
either of the latter objects the cow which gave the largest quantity of
milk might prove very unprofitable. It is desirable to secure a union
and harmony of all good qualities, so far as possible; and the farmer
wants a cow that will milk well for some years, and then, when dry,
fatten readily, and sell to the butcher for the highest price. These
qualities, though often supposed to be incompatible, will be found to be
united in some breeds to a greater extent than in others; while some
peculiarities of form have been found, by observation, to be better
adapted to the production of milk and beef than others. This will appear
in the following pages.

[Illustration: Fig. 1. Ayrshire Cow, imported and owned by Dr. Geo. B.
Loring, Salem, Mass.]


THE AYRSHIRES are justly celebrated throughout Great Britain and this
country for their excellent dairy qualities. Though the most recent in
their origin, they are pretty distinct from the other Scotch and English
races. In color, the pure Ayrshires are generally red and white,
spotted or mottled, not roan like many of the short-horns, but often
presenting a bright contrast of colors. They are sometimes, though
rarely, nearly or quite all red, and sometimes black and white; but the
favorite color is red and white brightly contrasted, and by some,
strawberry-color is preferred. The head is small, fine, and clean; the
face long, and narrow at the muzzle, with a sprightly yet generally mild
expression; eye small, smart, and lively; the horns short, fine, and
slightly twisted upwards, set wide apart at the roots; the neck thin;
body enlarging from fore to hind quarters; the back straight and narrow,
but broad across the loin; joints rather loose and open; ribs rather
flat; hind quarters rather thin; bone fine; tail long, fine and bushy at
the end; hair generally thin and soft; udder light color and capacious,
extending well forward under the belly; teats of the cow of medium size,
generally set regularly and wide apart; milk-veins prominent and well
developed. The carcass of the pure-bred Ayrshire is light, particularly
the fore quarters, which is considered by good judges as an index of
great milking qualities; but the pelvis is capacious and wide over the
hips.

On the whole, the Ayrshire is good-looking, but wants some of the
symmetry and aptitude to fatten which characterize the short-horn, which
is supposed to have contributed to build up this valuable breed on the
basis of the original stock of the county of Ayr; a county extending
along the eastern shore of the Frith of Clyde, in the south-western part
of Scotland, and divided into three districts, known as Carrick,
Cunningham, and Kyle: the first famous as the lordship of Robert Bruce,
the last for the production of this, one of the most remarkable dairy
breeds of cows in the world. The original stock of this county, which
undoubtedly formed the basis of the present Ayrshire breed, are
described by Aiton, in his _Treatise on the Dairy Breed of Cows_, as of
a diminutive size, ill fed, ill shaped, and yielding but a scanty return
in milk. They were mostly of a black color, with large stripes of white
along the chine and ridge of their backs, about the flanks, and on their
faces. Their horns were high and crooked, having deep ringlets at the
root,--the plainest proof that the cattle were but scantily fed; the
chine of their backs stood up high and narrow; their sides were lank,
short, and thin; their hides thick, and adhering to their bones; their
pile was coarse and open; and few of them yielded more than six or eight
quarts of milk a day when in their best plight, or weighed when fat more
than from twelve to sixteen or twenty stones avoirdupois, at eight
pounds the stone, sinking offal.

“It was impossible,” he continues, “that these cattle, fed as they then
were, could be of great weight, well shaped, or yield much milk. Their
only food in winter and spring was oat-straw, and what they could pick
up in the fields, to which they were turned out almost every day, with a
mash of weak corn and chaff daily for a few days after calving; and
their pasture in summer was of the very worst quality, and eaten so bare
that the cattle were half starved, and had the aspect of starvelings. A
wonderful change has since been made in the condition, aspect, and
qualities, of the Ayrshire dairy stock. They are not now the meagre,
unshapely animals they were about forty years ago; but have completely
changed into something as different from what they were then as any two
breeds in the island can be from each other. They are almost double the
size, and yield about four times the quantity of milk that the Ayrshire
cows then yielded. They were not of any specific breed, nor uniformity
of shapes or color; neither was there any fixed standard by which they
could be judged.”

Aiton wrote in 1815, and even then the Ayrshire cattle had been
completely changed from what they were in 1770, and had, to a
considerable extent, at least, settled down into a breed with fixed
characteristics, distinguished especially for an abundant flow and a
rich quality of milk. A large part of the improvement then manifested
was due to better feeding and care, but much, no doubt, to judicious
crossing. Strange as it may seem, considering the modern origin of this
breed, “all that is certainly known is that a century ago there was no
such breed as Cunningham or Ayrshire in Scotland. Did the Ayrshire
cattle arise entirely from a careful selection of the best native breed?
If they did, it is a circumstance unparalleled in the history of
agriculture. The native breed may be ameliorated by careful selection;
its value may be incalculably increased; some good qualities, some of
its best qualities, may be for the first time developed; but yet there
will be some resemblance to the original stock, and the more we examine
the animal the more clearly we can trace out the characteristic points
of the ancestor, although every one of them is improved.”

Aiton remembered well the time when some short-horn or Dutch cattle, as
they were then called, were procured by some gentlemen in Scotland, and
particularly by one John Dunlop, of Cunningham, who brought some Dutch
cows--doubtless short-horns--to his byres soon after the year 1760. As
they were then provided with the best of pasture, and the dairy was the
chief object of the neighborhood, these cattle soon excited attention,
and the small farmers began to raise up crosses from them. This was in
Cunningham, one of the districts of Ayrshire, and Mr. Dunlop’s were,
without doubt, among the first of the stranger breed that reached that
region. About 1750, a little previous to the above date, the Earl of
Marchmont bought of the Bishop of Durham several cows and a bull of the
Teeswater breed, all of a brown color spotted with white, and kept them
some time at his seat in Berwickshire. His lordship had extensive
estates in Kyle, another district of Ayrshire, and thither his factor,
Bruce Campbell, took some of the Teeswater breed and kept them for some
time, and their progeny spread over various parts of Ayrshire. A bull,
after serving many cows of the estates already mentioned, was sold to a
Mr. Hamilton, in another quarter of Ayrshire, and raised a numerous
offspring.

About the year 1767, also, John Orr sent from Glasgow to his estate in
Ayrshire some fine milch cows, of a much larger size than any then in
that region. One of them cost six pounds, which was more than twice the
price of the best cow in that quarter. These cows were well fed, and of
course yielded a large return of milk; and the farmers, for miles
around, were eager to get their calves to raise.

About the same time, also, a few other noblemen and gentlemen,
stimulated by example, bought cattle of the same appearance, in color
brown spotted with white, all of them larger than the native cattle of
the county, and when well fed yielding much larger quantities of milk,
and their calves were all raised. Bulls of their breed and color were
preferred to all others.

From the description given of these cattle, there is no doubt that they
were the old Teeswater, or Dutch; the foundation, also, according to the
best authorities, of the modern improved short-horns. With them and the
crosses obtained from them the whole county gradually became stocked,
and supplied the neighboring counties, by degrees, till at present the
whole region, comprising the counties of Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark,
Dumbarton, and Stirling, and more than a fourth part of the whole
population of Scotland, a large proportion of which is engaged in
manufactures and commercial or mechanical pursuits, furnishing a ready
market for milk and butter, is almost exclusively stocked with
Ayrshires.

The cross with larger cattle and the natives of Ayrshire produced, for
many years, an ugly-looking beast, and the farmers were long in finding
out that they had violated one of the plain principles of breeding in
coupling a large and small breed so indiscriminately together,
especially in the use of bulls proportionately larger than the cows to
which they were put. They did not then understand that no crosses could
be made in that way to increase the size of a race, without a
corresponding increase in the feed; and many very ill-shaped animals
were the consequence of ignorance of a natural law. They made large
bones, but they were never strong and vigorous in proportion to their
size. Trying to keep large animals on poor pasture produced the same
effect. The results of first crosses were therefore very unsatisfactory;
but gradually better feeding and a reduction in size came to their aid,
while in the course of years more enlightened views of farming led to
higher cultivation, and consequently to higher and better care and
attention to stock. The effect of crosses with the larger Teeswater or
short-horn was not so disastrous in Ayrshire as in some of the mountain
breeds, whose feed was far less, while their exposure on high and short
pastures was greater.

The climate of Ayrshire is moist and mild, and the soil rich, clayey,
and well adapted to pasturage, but difficult to till. The cattle are
naturally hardy and active, and capable of enduring severe winters, and
of easily regaining condition with the return of spring and good feed.
The pasture-land of the county is devoted to dairy stock,--chiefly for
making butter and cheese, a small part only being used for fattening
cows when too old to keep for the dairy. The breed has undergone very
marked improvements since Aiton wrote, in 1815. The local demand for
fresh dairy products has very naturally taxed the skill and judgment of
the farmers and dairy-men to the utmost, through a long course of years;
and thus the remarkable milking qualities of the Ayrshires have been
developed to such a degree that they may be said to produce a larger
quantity of rich milk and butter in proportion to the food consumed, or
the cost of production, than any other of the pure-bred races. The
owners of dairies in the county of Ayr and the neighborhood were
generally small tenants, who took charge of their stock themselves,
saving and breeding from the offspring of good milkers, and drying off
and feeding such as were found to be unprofitable for milk, for the
butcher; and thus the production of milk and butter has for many years
been the leading object with the owners of this breed, and symmetry of
form and perfection of points for any other object have been very much
disregarded, or, if regarded at all, only from this one point of
view--the production of the greatest quantity of rich milk.

The manner in which this result has been brought about may further be
seen in a remark of Aiton, who says that the Ayrshire farmers prefer
their dairy bulls according to the feminine aspect of their heads and
necks, and wish them not round behind, but broad at the hook-bones and
hips, and full in the flanks. This was more than forty years ago, and
under such circumstances, and with such care in the selection of bulls
and cows with reference to one specific object, it is not surprising
that we find a breed now wholly unsurpassed when the quantity and
quality of their produce is considered with reference to their
proportional size and the food they consume. The Ayrshire cow has been
known to produce over ten imperial gallons of good milk a day.

[Illustration: Fig. 2. Ayrshire Bull “ALBERT,”

Imported and owned by the Mass. Soc. for Promoting Agriculture.]

A cow-feeder in Glasgow, selling fresh milk, is said to have realized
two hundred and fifty dollars in seven months from one good cow; and it
is stated, on high authority, that a dollar a day for six months of the
year is no uncommon income from good cows under similar circumstances,
and that seventy-five cents a day is below the average. But this implies
high and judicious feeding, of course: the average yield, on ordinary
feed, would be considerably less.

Youatt estimates the daily yield of an Ayrshire cow, for the first two
or three months after calving, at five gallons a day, on an average; for
the next three months, at three gallons; and for the next four months,
at one gallon and a half. This would be 850 gallons as the annual
average of a cow; but allowing for some unproductive cows, he estimates
the average of a dairy at 600 gallons per annum for each cow. Three
gallons and a half of the Ayrshire cow’s milk will yield one and a half
pounds of butter. He therefore reckons 257 pounds of butter, or 514
pounds of cheese, at the rate of 24 pounds to 28 gallons of milk, as the
yield of every cow, at a fair and perhaps rather low average, in an
Ayrshire dairy, during the year. Aiton sets the yield much higher,
saying that “thousands of the best Ayrshire dairy-cows, when in prime
condition and well fed, produce 1000 gallons of milk per annum; that in
general three and three quarters to four gallons of their milk will
yield a pound and a half of butter; and that 27¹⁄₂ gallons of their milk
will make 21 pounds of full-milk cheese.” Mr. Rankin puts it lower--at
about 650 to 700 gallons to each cow; on his own farm of inferior soil,
his dairy produced an average of 550 gallons only.

One of the four cows originally imported into this country by John P.
Cushing, Esq., of Massachusetts, gave in one year 3864 quarts, beer
measure, or about 966 gallons, at ten pounds to the gallon, being an
average of over ten and a half beer quarts a day for the whole year. It
is asserted, on good authority, that the first Ayrshire cow imported by
the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, in 1837,
yielded sixteen pounds of butter a week, for several weeks in
succession, on grass feed only. These yields are not so large as those
stated by Aiton; but it should, perhaps, be recollected that our climate
is less favorable to the production of milk than that of England and
Scotland, and that no cow imported after arriving at maturity could be
expected to yield as much, under the same circumstances, as one bred on
the spot where the trial is made, and perfectly acclimated.

In a series of experiments on the Earl of Chesterfield’s dairy farm, at
Bradley Ball, interesting as giving positive data on which to form a
judgment as to the yield, it was found that, in the height of the
season, the Holderness cows gave 7 gallons 1 quart per diem; the
long-horns and Alderneys, 4 gallons 3 quarts; the Devons, 4 gallons 1
quart; and that, when made into butter the above quantities gave,
respectively, 38¹⁄₂ ounces, 28 ounces, and 25 ounces.

The Ayrshire, a cow far smaller than the Holderness, at 5 gallons of
milk and 34 ounces of butter per day, gives a fair average as to yield
of milk, and an enormous production of butter, giving within 4¹⁄₂ ounces
as much from her 5 gallons as the Holderness from her 7 gallons 1 quart;
her rate being nearly 7 ounces to the gallon, while that of the
Holderness is considerably under 6 ounces.

The evidence of a large and practical dairyman is certainly of the
highest value; and in this connection it may be stated that Mr. Harley,
the author of the _Harleian Dairy System_, who established the
celebrated Willowbank Dairy, in Glasgow, and who kept, at times, from
two hundred and sixty to three hundred cows, always using the utmost
care in selection, says that he had cows, by way of experiment, from
different parts of the united kingdom. He purchased ten at one Edinburgh
market, of the large short-horned breed, at twenty pounds each, but
these did not give more milk, nor better in quality, than Ayrshire cows
that were bought at the same period for thirteen pounds a head; and, on
comparison, it was found that the latter were much cheaper kept, and
that they improved much more in beef and fat in proportion to their
size, than the high-priced cows. A decided preference was therefore
given to the improved Ayrshire breed, from seven to ten years old, and
from eight to twenty pounds a head. Prime young cows were too
high-priced for stall feeding; old cows were generally the most
profitable in the long run, especially if they were not previously in
good keeping. The cows were generally bought when near calving, which
prevented the barbarous practice called hafting, or allowing the milk to
remain upon the cow for a considerable time before she is brought to the
market. This base and cruel custom is always pernicious to the cow, and
in consequence of it she seldom recovers her milk for the season. The
middling and large sizes of cows were preferred, such as weighed from
thirty-five to fifty stone, or from five hundred to eight hundred
pounds.

According to Mr. Harley, the most approved shape and marks of a good
dairy cow are as follows: Head small, long, and narrow towards the
muzzle; horns small, clear, bent, and placed at considerable distance
from each other; eyes not large, but brisk and lively; neck slender and
long, tapering towards the head, with a little loose skin below;
shoulders and fore quarters light and thin; hind quarters large and
broad; back straight, and joints slack and open; carcass deep in the
rib; tail small and long, reaching to the heels; legs small and short,
with firm joints; udder square, but a little oblong, stretching forward,
thin-skinned and capacious, but not low hung; teats or paps small,
pointing outwards, and at a considerable distance from each other;
milk-veins capacious and prominent; skin loose, thin, and soft like a
glove; hair short, soft, and woolly; general figure, when in flesh,
handsome and well proportioned.

If this description of the Ayrshire cow be correct, it will be seen that
her head and neck are remarkably clean