The second and third years are the most profitable, if both the quantity and quality of the milk be taken into account. Thus, supposing a cow to drop her first calf when she is three years oldthe usual time-she will be in her prime the following two years; and, if she continue to produce her calf in good season, (from February to April,) she is generally retained in the dairy until seven or eight years old, after which it is not considered advisable, for several reasons, to continue her longer in milk; first, because her milk is fast deteriorating in quality; secondly, she is becoming every year of less value to the grazier; and lastly, which is a point too frequently overlooked, it has been satisfactorily proved, that an aged cow consumes much more food than a young one, particularly in winter, when, as in Gloucestershire, her only food being hay, the extra quantity consumed adds very considerably to the cost of maintenance, while, at the same time, it is not accompanied by a proportional increase of produce. In all herds, however, there are favorites, either on account of their breed or milking properties, which are retained until they are ten, and even twelve years old.

As the fattening and milking of cows are incompatible in a country where root crops are rarely cultivated, and as it is inconvenient to have farrow cows fattening on the pastures in summer, the cast-off ones are generally sold to graziers or stall-feeders, in November, or as soon as they cease to give milk for the season. The price usually obtained for farrow cows varies from $40 to $60, according to size, age, and condition. About one-fourth of the cows are discarded annually, and their places taken by a corresponding number of young ones; consequently, it is necessary either to rear a sufficient number of heifer calves for this purpose, or to purchase three-year-old heifers in calf the former being the common practice-as all good dairy farmers prefer rearing a sufficient number of heifer calves from their best cows, to incurring the risk of purchasing heifers in calf.

In the rearing of calves, economy is strictly observed. They are taken from their dams at a week old, at which time two quarts of new milk are given, morning and evening, to each calf, for the first month. After this period, the quantity of milk is reduced to one quart at each time, and half a pound of meal substituted. This diet is continued for a month or six weeks longer, after which, the calves are turned out to the best grass the farm can afford. When calves are fed on milk and meal, it is considered advisable to teach them to eat a little hay as soon as possible, as it is an excellent preparation for grass-feeding, their stomachs not being so delicate as when confined closely to a milk diet. During the first winter, the calves are fed on the best hay, but they are never housed at all, nor even sheltered with any degree of care. After the first winter, the worst grass and fodder on the farm are their only food, until the time of calving, when they have the same fare as the other milch cows. The remainder of the heifer calves, not required to be kept for stock, and all the male calves, are either sold, when ready to wean, to the hill farmers, or, when only a few days old, to butchers. In the former case, the average price realized is about $5 each; and,

in the latter, as low as $2 50, and even $2 each. A three-year-old cow, newly calved, is generally considered to be worth from $70 to $90; and a two-year-old, newly calved, from $50 to $70, which gives an average of $60 and $80, respectively. It is only, however, very large and well-grown heifers that are brought in to calve at two years old the more general age being three years.

Feeding the Cows.-One acre and a half of pasture grass is the usual allowance to each cow, from May 1st to December 1st. During the winter and spring months, hay is almost the only food given; and, as each cow will consume two and a half tons, it requires the same extent of land-one and a half acres-for the winter as for the summer keep. Occasionally, cut barley straw is given to cows for the sake of economy, when they are not in milk, which usually occurs during the months of January and February. The expense of feeding a milch cow for twelve months is calculated at $20 for grass-one and a half acres in summer; and, as the expense of hay-making and attendance falls to be added to a like quantity of land, the cost of the winter keep is not overstated at $25, which amounts to $45 per annum. No extra food, such as oil-cake, or bruised grain, is ever given to cows, not even turnips nor mangoldwurzel; their solid food, grass and hay, being of Nature's providing. To aggravate the evils of this penurious system of treating dairy cows, they are denied the indulgence of shelter at the very seasonthe depth of winter-when it is most required, even in the warmest and mildest districts of South England. It is a well-known fact, so well known as not to demand the slightest argument in its favor, that cattle, but more particularly milch cows, are easily injured by exposure to cold; but in Gloucestershire, this is altogether disregarded; for, in general, no accommodation is provided for housing the animals comfortably in cold weather; the common practice being to keep them in the warmest and most conveniently situated fields throughout the winter, where they are supplied with hay twice a day. In wet or snowy weather, the waste of fodder is very great, and, in consequence of the animals being constantly exposed to the hungering influence of cold, a much greater quantity of food is required to maintain the normal temperature of their bodies, than would be necessary were warm, comfortable housing afforded. As things are at present, the dairy farmer is satisfied if, in winter, he can prevent his stock from falling out of condition to any serious extent; and such is the treatment which cows receive in the vale of Gloucester from Christmas to March.

When the cows are about to calve, they are brought home to the sheds and yards, wherever there is room for them, and there supplied with the best hay the farm can produce, but seldom have they a sufficiency of litter to make a comfortable bed. That portion of the cows, for which there is not accommodation in the yards, is turned into the orchards or nearest fields to the homestead, for the convenience of milking and feeding, and remains there until the grass in the other fields is ready for being pastured.

Summer Treatment.-The cows are turned into the pastures generally about the end of April, or the first week of May. The fields adjacent to the homestead are preferred for grazing milch cows, as the fatigue and annoyance consequent on driving them any considerable distance not only lessens the quantity of milk, but also deteriorates the quality of the cheese made from it. Most dairy farmers endeavor to change their cows from one field to another as regularly as possible, and also to have one or two fields shut up, in order that the grass may grow and get clean, while the others are being eaten down. The cows are thus supplied with fresh, clean pasture every ten days or fortnight, throughout the summer-a point of the utmost importance, both as regards the quantity and the quality of their produce.

Towards the end of summer and in autumn, when the pastures begin to fail, and the grass gets hard with the drought, the cows are allowed access to the meadows, from which hay has been mown, the aftermath of which affords a supply of short but nutritious herbage. If the pastures have not been overstocked, the yield of milk is very uniform for five or six months, and there is also little difference in its quality. Either to overstock or understock pasture is considered an evil; in the former case, the grass will be scanty and foul, and in the latter, coarse and ill-flavored, so much so as greatly to impair the quality of the milk.

A great and serious evil in the vales of the Severn and Avon, where access to these rivers is not attainable, is the want of good, soft, running water. In the heats of summer, the cows are too often forced to drink from dirty ponds, where the water is befouled by the drainings of the dung "courts," or red with the washings of the heavy clay soil, still further aggravated by being constantly trodden and waded through. Artificial shade is also greatly needed, as that which is afforded by the trees is rendered useless to cattle, by the buzzing and bites of insects, which also congregate there for shelter.

Dairy Operations.-The operation of milking the cows commences in the summer at five o'clock in the morning, and again at three in the afternoon, and is completed in about one hour each time-nine cows being alloted to each milker, the dairy-maid usually assisting. soon as the milk is drawn, it is carried to the dairy-house, strained into the cheese-tub, and the rennet and arnotta mixed with it. The rennet is prepared in several different ways. In Gloucestershire, the cleaned stomach of a calf is salted, pickled, and dried; and when at least a year old, it is well sodden in salt water, half a pint of which proves enough to coagulate 50 gallons of milk. In Âyrshire, the contents of the stomach are preserved; they are well salted, both inside and out, and dried for a year or more; and, when needed for use, the whole is chopped up, and placed with salt in a jar, along with water and new whey, which, after two or three days, is strained to remove impurities, and is then ready for use. Cheshire, the skins are cleaned out, and packed away with salt in an

In

earthen-ware jar till the following year. They are then taken out a month before use, and three or four square inches of skin are steeped during the night in half a pint of salt and lukewarm water, for use in the morning, along with 60 gallons of milk.

The scientific principles involved in the important manufacture of cheese are not generally known. Milk contains about 4 per cent. of casein, which is the principal ingredient of cheese. This casein is almost exactly of the same composition as animal flesh. It is held in solution in the milk by means of an alkali. Any acid which removes this alkali, converts the casein into an insoluble curd, which, when collected and dried, forms cheese. Muriatic acid is used for this purpose in some parts of Holland; vinegar, tartaric acid, cream of tartar, and even some of the salts of oxalic acid, such as salt of sorrel, are employed in various countries. The acid formed, when milk becomes sour, also produces the same effect, so that sour milk is used instead of rennet in some parts of Switzerland. All these additions are for the express object of making an insoluble curd, by removing the alkaline solvent of the cheese. This insolubility may also be produced indirectly, as well as directly. Various substances have the property of forming an acid in the milk itself, (lactic acid,) which, removing the solvent of the casein, causes the proper formation of a curd; for most kinds of cheese, this indirect action is preferred. In other countries, the coagulation, or curding, is effected by various means, as by the juice of figs or thistles, or by decoctions of the flowers of the artichoke, of the crow-foot, and of the white and yellow bed-straw. A peculiar stringy curding is obtained by the juice of the butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris.) But, in England, it is usual to depend on the peculiar action of the rennet. The stomach or intestines of young animals, especially of the suckling calf, pig, lamb, or kid, have been found to possess this indirect action. Little is known as to the exact chemical processes which ensue when rennet is added to milk. In fact, all known is, that the stomach, dried and prepared as rennet, must be in a state in which it may decay, but not rapidly enough to run into putrefaction. The active principles of the rennet are certainly substances in the act of decay, and its peculiar value is that it can be preserved without losing this power, which, though in abeyance, may be called into activity when desired. The processes used in preparing the rennet-such as salting, smoking, treatment with salt, lemon-juice, and spices-have for their object the prevention of putrefaction and the repression of decay. A certain amount of decay is necessary; and, for this reason, rennets are preferred in most districts, when they have become somewhat aged by keeping. The active changing principles are soluble, and, therefore, may be extracted by water, and used directly for the curding of the milk; or the rennet itself, being added to the milk, gives out its soluble ingredients to that fluid. A further decay of the exhausted rennet produces more of the transforming materials, and restores it to its active state, so that it may be used over and over again. Chemists, at present, know the fact, without having ascer

tained its cause, that decaying substances, such as putrid flesh and sour milk, produce a change in fresh milk; forming, among other substances, various acids which effect its curding, or coagulation.

Prepared rennet is a means of effecting this change in a regulated manner, and without the production of those offensive substances. formed during the putrefaction of milk. It is by the communication of the decay of the rennet to milk-just as a decayed apple causes decay in a fresh apple in contact with it-that this change is effected, and not by the addition of any peculiar substance; for it has been found by experiment, (Berzelius,) that one part of rennet, which had curded 1,800 times its own weight of milk, had decreased in weight only 0.06. This view is obviously correct, when it is considered that one square inch of good rennet can curdle 80 quarts of milk, or that one spoonful of its infusion produces the same effect on 120 quarts. The action finds its parallel in that of yeast on sugar. In this case, a very small quantity produces the alcoholic fermentation on an immense amount of the saccharine fluid. There can be little doubt that the manner of preserving the rennet produces a very great effect on the qualities of the cheese. It is much more probable that the different kinds of decay, caused by rennets differently prepared, have much more influence on the character of the cheese of a district than any deviations in climate or in pasture. As the cheese of commerce does not consist simply of casein, but also contains butter and other ingredients of the milk, in small proportions, it is obvious that the qualities must depend much on those of the milk itself. The milk of cows, goats, and ewes has very different composition and properties, and cheese made from them differs also very materially. Minor differences in the milk of the same animal also produce notable variations in the cheeses of different districts, even though apparently the same materials are used in their preparation. The differences are, of course, much increased, according to the practices of districts, of adding or subtracting cream from the milk used. The former method gives the rich Stilton cheese, while the removal of all cream yields the poor, horny cheeses of Essex and Sussex. The use of whole milk. produces such cheeses as those of Gloucester, Cheshire, Wiltshire, Cheddar, Dunlop, and the Gouda of Holland. The common Dutch cheeses are usually obtained from once-skimmed milk, so that they still contain butter, but less than the varieties just named.

In the preparation of cheese, the application of heat to the milk is useful, by hastening the chemical action, and by enabling the whey to separate more readily, and yield its butter to the curd. The more or less complete separation from the whey has an influence not only on its taste and power of keeping, but also on the flavor which the cheese acquires by age. The alterations resulting from curing, and from the time required for ripening the cheese, have not yet been sufficiently investigated to be explained on scientific principles, although chemists have recognized various bodies as the result of these changes. The pungent smell and taste are obviously due to the volatile acids in butter, though, doubtless, other unknown