'0\ ^i .6\.f> ^'Z('' V ^ W^fV '1 iwi*. / ,J^/^/rSali8bury, and formerly l"rofessor of Agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College ; who is also responsible for all unsigned articles. H. E. A.— Major IIenkv E. Alvokd, Easthainjitdu, Mass.achu.setts, U.S. America. K. I). ]'. KoDERT Oliphant Pbinole, now flcceased, late Editor of the IrixU Farmen' Ou:cU.c, Author of "The Live Stock of the Farm,"' &c. kz. W. F.— William Fream, B.Sc. L:nd., F.G.S., Professor of Natur.al History at the College of Agricultuic, Downton, near Sali.sbury, and formerly of the Royal Agricultural CoUoge. II. I., de K. — Dr. H. L. DE Klenze, Government Professor of Agriculture, Munich. I'.avaria. .1. O.— .John Oliver, West Harptree, near Bristol. F. D.— FiNI.AY Dl'N, Foimcrly l.octurpr on Materia Medica and Dietetics at the E.liidiurgh Veterinary ( oUege. LIST OF ILLUSTPv ATIONS COLOURED PLATES. A Dairy Show Shorthorn Cattle Ayrshire Cattle Jersey Cattle LoNGHORM Cattle Hereford Cattle Devon and Sussex Cattle Polled Aberdeen Cattle Norfolk and Suffolk Polled Kerry Cattle Welsh Cattle View and Ground Plan of Dairy Homeste (Two Plates) .... Frontispiece Tof „;■ ixt.je U 10 27 29 31 .33 35 Gatt-le " 37 39 41 Geological Hap of the British Isles Forage Plants -and Weeds : — 1. Leguminous Plants 2. Leguminous Plants and Weeds 3. Pasture Grasses 4. Weed Grasses and Parasites Longford Cheese Factory, Derbyshire Map — Dairy-Farming in America Continental Cattle— Plate 1 . Plate 2 . Alpine Dairy Station in Summer Swine .... Poultry .... I'o/acr page 153 157 163 167 259 367 523 527 535 551 559 DIIAAVINGS ON AVOOD. The Escutcheon (Fig. 1) Heads of Shorthorns (Figs. 2-5) . Tether-Pegs (Figs. 6, 7) Heads of Longhorn Cattle (Figs. 8, 9) Milk-Pails (Figs. 10—12) Milk-Syphon (Fig. 13) Cow-JIilker (Figs. 14, 15) . Ivory Cone in Teat (Fig. llj) Tucker's Feeding-Pail (Fig. 17) Anti-Sucking Devices (Figs. 18 2U1 Trochar (Fig. 21) . Ladders (Fig. 221 Tattenhall Hall Farm-Buildings (Figs. 23, 24,1 Lord Tolleniache's Farmstead (Figs. 2.5, 26) American Octagon Barn (Figs. 27 — 29) Formation of Stratified Beds (Fig. 30) Succession of British Strata (Fig. 31) Formation of Soils (Fig. 32) . Drains and Draining Tools (Figs. 33—39) Plans of Drainage Works (Figs. 40, 41) Outlet (Fig. 42) . . . Effect of JNIanures on Plants (Figs. 43, 4 ! American Dairy Barn (Figs. 45 — 48) Fruit of the Gillyflower (Fig. 49) . Leaf of Rose (Fig. 50) The Pea (Figs. 51-54) Umbel of the Chervil (Fig. oo) Chicory (Fig. 56) T!ie Common Comfrey (Figs. 57, 58j Dock (Fig. 59) Buckwheat (Figs. CO, 61) . Culms of Rye (Fig. 62l Ligule of Millet (Fig. 63) ^^'heat (Figs. 64, 65) . Spikelct of Vernal Grass (Fig. 66) . Sedge, with Undergi-ound Stem (Fig. 67) Smut on Maize (Figs. 68, 69) Bunt on Wheat (Figs. 70, 71) Mowing Machine (Fig. 72) . Sharpening Knife (Fig. 73) . 11-18 26 30, 31 57 58 58 59 61 64 71 81 82, 83 86 88-90 94 95 100 114-116 120, 121 123 136, 137 59, 151 1.54 155 33, 156 159 160 160 161 61, 162 162 163 163 163 164 , 173 173 [ 178 179 Hay-Milker (Fig. 74). Horse-Rake (Fig. 75). Hay-Loader (Figs. 76, 77) . Stack and Rick-Cloth (Fig. 78) Iron Hay-Barn (Fig. 79) Horse-Forks (Figs. 80-83) . Aj-tificial Hay-Drier (Fig. 84) Jersey and AjTshire Milk (Figs. 85, 86) Udder of a Cow (Fig. 87) . C'olustrum (Fig. 88) . Watering-Places for Cattle (Figs. 89, 90) Floor- Wiper (Fig. 91) Dairy Thermometer (Fig. 92) Curd-Mill with Knives (Fig. 93) . Portrait of Mr. Joseph Harding Cockey's Cheese-lMb (Fig. 94) Cheese-Press (Fig. 95) Screw-opening Cheese-Vat (Fig. 96) Diagram of Curd-Grain (Fig. 97) Cheddar Curd Cutters and Breakers (Figs. 98- Cluett's Improved Milk- Vat (Figs. 104, 105) Cheshire Curd-Breakers (Figs. 106, 107) Cheshire Curd-Drainer (Figs. 108, 109) Cheshire Curd-Mill (Fig. 110) Vat ivith Cheshire Curd in it (Fig. Ill) Clieshire Cheese-Press (Fig. 112) Cheese-Stand (Fig. 113) Plan of a Cheshire Dau-y (Fig. 114) Old Cheese-Presses (Figs. 115 — 117) Curd-Mill iFig. 118) .... Compound Lever-Press (Fig. 119) . Travis's Cheese-making Apparatus (Fig. 120) Pugh's App.aratus (Fig. 121) Curd-Knife (Fig. 122) Cheese-Room Stove (Fig. 123) Hoop for Stilton Cheese (Fig. 124) . Curd-Mill on Tub (Fig. 125) Revolving Cheese-Rack (Fig. 126) . Interior of Longford Factory (Fig. 127 1 Press-Vivt (Fig. 128) .... PAOE 179 180 180, 181 182 182 183 184 187 188 195 200 202 203 207 217 219 219 219 221 221, 222 220, 227 228 228 229 229 230 230 231 234, 235 235 235 236 233 237 238 241 246 246 239 260 / /.y T 0 F 1 L L US TRA TfOXS. Cream r.auges and Lactometers (Figs. 129-13t> Factory Milk-Can (Fig. 132) AVeigliing-Can (Fig. 133} ... Factory Millt-Vat (Fig. 104) . Curd-Knives (Figs. 135, 136) Stirring-Ralies (Figs. 137, 138) Syphon and Strainer (Fig. 139) Self-turning Cheese-Shelves (Fig. 140) Brailsford Factory (Figs. 141, 142) . Network of Milk-Gland (Fig. 143) . Portion of Udder, showing Lobules and Ducts (Fi| Lobule of JIUk-Gland (Fig. 145) . Milk-Pan for Setting (Fig. 146) Revolving Milk-Shelves (Fig. 147) . The Swartz System of Creaming (Figs. 148 — 152) Centennial Milk-Pan and Cooler (Figs. 153—155) Orange County Milk-Pan (Fig. 156) Cooley's Creamer and Can (Figs. 157, 158) . Bench for Running oft Milk (Fig. 159) Section of Cooley's Creamer (Fig. 160) Hardin's Milk-Cooler (Fig. 161) AVeidon's Creamer (Fig. 162) The Bureau Creamer (Fig. 163) Section of Ice-Hcuse (Fig. 1G4) Centrifugal Cream-Extractor (Fig. 165) Laval's Cream- Separator (Figs. 166, 167) . Cream Dipper (Fig. 168) Skimming-Dishes (Figs. 169 — 171) . Butter-Workers, Hand (Figs. 172—176) . ,, Mechanical (Figs. 177 -l.'^< Chums (Figs. 181—189) Portable Engine and Boiler (Fig. 190) Churning by Horse-Power (Fig. 191) Churning by Dog-Power (Fig. 192) . Butter-Scales (Fig. 193) Butter Packages and Moulds (Figs. 194—199) Brewster Condensed Milk Factory (Fig. 200) Apparatus for Manufacture of Condensed Milk (Fig. 201) Lawrence's Refrigerator (Fig. 202) . Railway Milk-Cau and Lid (Figs. 203, 204 Improved London Cow-Shed (Fig. •20.-)) Holland Park Dairy (Figs. 206, 207) Stall for Two Cows (Fig. 208) American Pumping Windmill (Fig. 209) Kentucky Blue-Grass ( Fig. 210) Buffalo-Grass (Fig. 211) Bermuda-Grass (Fig. 21"2) Cross-bred Buffaloes (Fig. 213) Jamestown Cattle (Fig. 214) Jersey- Ayrshii e Heifer (Fig. 21.1) . The " Oakes Cow " (Fig. 216) "01dCro.an;er" (Fig. 217) . "Jersey Belle " of Scituate (Fig. 2181 Sample Case for Cheese (Fig. 219) . American Milk-Cans (Figs. 220—222"; Milk in Sealed Jars (Figs. 223—225) An American Dairy (Figs. 226 — 229 American Milk Cellar (Fig. 230) . Milk-Strainer (Figs. 231, '232) MUk-Cooler (Fig. 233) Milk Aerator (Fig. 234) Milk-Can H.andles (Fig. 235) Creamery Vat (Figs. 236, 237) Fairlanib Can (Figs. 23?, 2 :!>) Baker's Cream-Strainer (Fig. 240) . American Churns (Figs. 241—253) . American Butter- Workers (Figs. 254 -260) Butter-Moulder (Fig, 261) . American Butter Packages (Figs. 262—264) PAOK 271, 272 274 274 274 275, 276 276 278 279 279, 280 284 285 285 291 291 293, 294 295, 296 296 296, 297 297 298 299 301 301 302 303 305 306 306 310, 311 312, 313 315—317 318 318 318 319 319, 320 335 337 .341 342 3-15 347 3.54 374 385 387 388 397 398 399 405 407 409 416 424, 425 427, 428 439 440 447 447 448 448 449 450 450 151 — 455 4.55—457 457 458, 459 Improved Weighing-Can Gates (Fig. 2*».'.) Factory Scales (Figs. 266, 267) Self-heating Milk- Vat (Fig. 26S) . Curd-Drainer (Fig. 269) American Gang-Presses (Figs. 270, 271) Cheese Hoops and Bandages (Figs. 272—27.5) American Cheese-Box Machine (Fig. 276) . Portrait of Mr. Jesse Williams Plans and Views of American Factories (Fig. 277 — 281) Milk-Vats and Heaters (Figs. 282—28.5) . Boiler and Engine (Fig. 286) Self-fiUing Boiler-Tank (Fig. 287) . Section of Curd-L\inip (Fig. 288) Flat-side Pail (Fig. 2S9| . . ; Cheese-Table (Fig. 290) Cheese-Scales (Fig. 291) G. B. Weeks' Factory (Fig. 292) . Finck's Basin Creamery (Fig. 293) . Wliitman and Bui-rell's Cooler (Fig. 294) . Gaddis, McAdam, & C'o.'s Creamery (Fig. 295) McAdam Cooler (Fig. -296) . Cunningham Butter- Worker (Figs. 297—299) Westcott Butter-Pail and Pounder (Figs. 300, 301 Philadelph-a Butter-Pail (Fig. 302) View of Messrs. Hettle and Inglis's Creamery, (Fig. 303) .... French Milk Jugs, Cans, and Sieves (Figs Cold and Hot Water Baths for Milk (Figi Milk-Mixing Can (Fig. 311) . French Railway MUk-Van (Fig. 312) Ice-Funnel (Fig. 313) Earthenware Milk-Pots (Figs. 314-316) A Norman Dairy (Fig. 317) . Nornjan Barrel Churn (Fig. 31a) . Lump of Butter and Butter-Basket (Fij French Cylindrical Churn (Fig. 321) Wooden Butter-Dish (Fig. 322) Moulds for New Skim Cheese (Fig, .323-325) Cheese-Table (Fig. 32(i) Paris White Cheese (Fig. 3'_'7) Mould for Cream Cheese (Fig. 328) Bondons and Similar Cheese (Figs. 329, .330) Camembert Cheese (Figs. 331-334) Calvados Milk-Setting Dish (Fig. .335) Dairy and Apparatus for Fromaffe de Brie (Figs. 336 Mont d'Or and Gerome Cheese (Figs. 341, 342 Finishing Roquefort Cheese (Fig. 343) Butter-making in Denmark (Figs. 344 — 3461 Danish Butter Packages (Figs. 347-349) . C^heese-making in Denmark (Figs. 350 — .352) Austrian Milk-Cooler (Fig. 3.531 Swiss Curd-Breaker (Fig. 354) Dutch Milk Pails and Vases (Figs. 355, ,356) AVell for Cooling Milk (Fig, 357) Jlilk-Dishes in the Netherlands (Figs. 358, Interior of a Dutch Dairy (Fig. 3(j0) Novel Method of Churning (Fig. 361) Working Butter in Holland (Fig. 362) Dutch Cheese Presses and Fonns (Figs. 363—365) Edam Cheese (Figs. 306-368) Large White Yorkshire Pig (Fig. 3''.:i) Small Yorkshire Pig (Fig. 3701 Berkshire Pig (F'ig. 371) Essex Pig (Fig. 372) Poland-China Pig (Fig. 3731 Pig-Troughs (Figs. 374-376) Iron Piggeries (Figs. 377, 378) Ringing Pigs (Figs. 379-381) Pig-Holder (Fig. 382) .304-308) 309, 310) 319, 320) -340) PilOIl 460 460 460 461 . 461, 462 463 464 467 475-477 478 479 479 483 480 480 481 483 483 483 4»4 484 1*4, 485 485 485 499 , 507, 508 508 509 509 509 509 510 510 511 511 512 512 513 513 513 51.3, 514 .514 514 516, 517 517 519 .522, 523 523 523, 524 532 533 541 541 .553 .554 5.56 5.5(i INTRODUCTION OR generations past, Dairy-farming in these islands has been an impor- tant branch of our national enterprise, and its importance has been steadily increasing, but it has not hitherto received the same relative amount of notice and recognition that other branches of agriculture have enjoyed. Not being the first to feel the effects of foreign competition, it seems to have gone on quietly and uneventfully, attracting but little public notice, minding its own business in its own way, and making no special and comprehensive attempt at improvement until late years, as, indeed, none seemed to be specially needed. A very few years ago no kind of foreign dairy- produce sent to us was admitted to be, in either quality or quantity, sufficiently marked to justify much uneasiness, or to demand any special exertion, on om- part. Some twenty years since, our importa- tions of foreign cheese and butter were but a tithe of what they now are in quantity, whilst their quality, generally speaking, was inferior to our home productions ; their consumption, too, was limited to certain classes and to special districts. But now all this is changed, and at length British dairying seems to be waking up to the demands of the age ; statistics are collected, and reports issued, and various efforts are being made to bring it into system and order, and to develop and improve its resources. About the year 1870 the factory system of cheese-making was introduced into several of our best dairying districts; a few years later the British Dairy Farmers' Association was formed; and, though last not least, the Royal Agricultural Society has now taken the subject warmly in hand, and offers prizes for a variety of new or improved imiilements, utensils, and machines, which the modern jihases of dairy-farming have made a necessity of the day. All these are hopeful signs that at length dairy-farming is beginning to assume that com- parative importance which belongs to it as the cliief home source, in one way or another, of the nation's food-sujjjjly. Breeds of Cattle. It is not alone on account of cheese, butter, and milk — in themselves articles of the first moment — that daiiy-farming is a sujiremely important factor in the sum of our national agriculture. It is also the indirect — in many cases the direct — source from which our home supply of beef is derived ; and the raising of cattle is, consequently, an important branch of it. A comprehensive and painstaking history of the various breeds of cattle which are found in the British Islands yet remains to be written ; and it may well be doubted if such a history will ever be written, since the annals from which the earlier jjortions of it would have to be derived are admitted to be meagre and obscure. Be this as it may, it is not our purpose in this work to attempt any such account — first, because we have not space for it ; and, secondly, we have nut the requisite materials. We shall, however, endeavour to indicate 1 ii DAIRY FARMING. very Lriofly nonic of the outlines, i;'ivinj^ more or less of details wlieu dealing with speeial breeds, which such an account would jircsent. IIow and when the original animals from which our present hrecds of cattle are descended first came to this country, it is now impossible to determine. That they have inhabited these islands for a very long period is proved by those fossiliferous remains of them which have from time to time been discovered in very ancient cave and drift deposits, which, though even ajiproximate dates can hardly be given, were formed many thousands of years ago. More than once during these vast prc-historic periods of time, the bed of the German Ocean has been elevated so that England formed part of the Continent of Europe, and it may well be that the remote ancestors of our herds of cattle, migrating westwards, came to Britain by dry land all the way, in the period preceding the last time when the sea swei^t between this country and the Continent, and England again became an island. It is probable — but this, we susjiect, is a point which, like the preceding one, can never be determined with certainty — that the various types of dairy-cattle, as seen in the distinct breeds of the f)resent day, have all come from one original and individual stock which, before the land was fenced in and cultivated, roamed at large for ages over the face of the countr3^ Even to this day have survived, in the white cattle preserved in the parks at Chillingham, Chartlej'', and Lyme, the lineal descendants of the ancient roaming herds, still retaining, though confined within a limited area, the wild characteristics of their remote ancestors, and but little, if at all, changed by the skill which man has brought to bear on what are properly called the " improved breeds." We may lay it down as a first proposition that Nature, without the interference of man, has from one original stock produced various races, or breeds, or families of animals ; and it is no less true that she does not require man's assistance to preserve these from deterioration, providing only that they are left to themselves. Her great laws of natural selection are the means by which she brings about these results. On the other hand, we also witness around us everywhere the great power which man possesses, by artificial selection and classification, and by rejection of unfit specimens, of moulding and improving the various kinds of animals which he has reduced to domestication. The striking differences which are seen between the Longhorns and the Shorthorns, the Hcrefords and the Devons, the West Highlanders and the Channel Islanders, the Red Polled and the Welsh Cattle, the Galloways and the Kerrys, may have been to some extent produced by the peculiarities of soil and climate to which these breeds have been respectively subject, in the districts in which they settled down, and of which they became a special feature; and the physical development — or deterioration, as the case may be — which has taken place more or less in all of them, is, perhaps, primarily due to those influences of soil, climate, and locality, and to the law of natural selection working through these means. ISfore recently they have been im2:)roved by domestication, and by artificial selection — principles which IMan has formulated into a science during the past hundred years or so. We may here regret that Britain did not share in the genius for arts, sciences, and literature which several thousand yeai-s ago pervaded some of the countries of Southern Europe. Had she done so, we should have had records of the cattle, and of the agriculture generally, which were found in the country at that period. Such records, besides being interesting, would have thrown a flood of light over the dark, early history of our country; and many points in the history of our native breeds of cattle, which rest now, and must ever rest, mainly on conjecture, and on chains of evidence wdiich are more or less imperfect, would have been tolerably clear and trustworthy. Even in later times, when iMiglund began to have a written history, the dignity of our historians was more gi'atilied in writing of wars and Court intrigues than of the arts which tend to peace — of cattle, and (if jiastoral husbandry. Allusion is now and then made to domestic animals, as elements of (rallic and of food, but nuthing is said of the different breeds, or of the excellences of any one breed. Fossil remains, discovered in beds of silt and in cave-deposits, demonstrate the fact that the JJus jirimigcnins, or great o.x — a genus which has been extinct for ages — once existed in this INTRODUCTION. iil country; and tliough it is not aljsolutely pnived whether or not this genns had any eonneetiou with them, it is on collateral evidence supposed that the far-away progenitors of our domesticated breeds of cattle were lai^er-framed animals than those of the present era. Be this as it may, however, our different breeds of cattle of the present day have, in the coui-se of ages, and by the influence of locality, assumed the distinct tyjies and forms that we now see ; and in some of them these specialities of form and colour are so far " fixed ■'•' and permanent that they do not appear to alter much, if at all, wherever the animals are taken. Whether bred in England, America, or Australia, Devons and Herefords remain Devons and Herefords still. This, however, is not always the case with what, for distinction's sake, we may call " composite breeds. '^ Of these the Ayrshires in a limited sense, and the ordinary dairy-stock of the midland counties in a more general one, may be taken as examples. Within comparatively recent times — say in the past two centuries — these breeds have been built up, or, to say the least, very greatly improved, by intercrossing two or more distinct breeds ; and they have been since, and are still being, improved by careful selection and classification. Even the modern Shorthorns — the noblest breed of cattle, so far as we know, that the world has yet produced — cannot well be called a pure breed in the sense that the Devons, the Herefords, or the Channel Islanders can, though they are more excellent than these — just in the same sense that Englishmen cannot be called a pure race, as the Chinese or Japanese can. For some of the early breeders of Shorthorns sought to improve their cattle by "stealth}/ crosses with other breeds," and even the celebrated Charles Colling, of Ketton, is known to have had recourse to Kyloe and Galloway crosses. Whether any solid improvement was obtained from these crosses is and must remain a disputed point ; but the fact of the crosses, not being denied by the best authorities, remains on recoixl. When some kinds of cattle are taken to other districts and countries, their offspring not uncommonly exhibit tendencies to " throw back " more or less to their remote ancestral elements. In order to maintain the excellent quality of the Ayrshires in any other country than their own — in England, even — it is found necessary to repeatedly import fresh blood from the fountain-head. Shorthorns, too, in other climes, while increasing rather than diminishing in constitutional vigour, not infrequently show signs of considerable "rawness," and to check this tendency it is found necessary to use great care in selection and in general treatment. Being in a sense artificial breeds, they require more or less of artificial treatment to maintain them in the high position of purity and excellence which they have attained. In course of time, if the system under which they are bred be persevered in, they may become permanent in those features which at present are more or less fugitive. Those features, however, will be the longer in becoming "fixed," because many of the best animals are continually being transported and re-transiiorted from one district or country to another ; for where there is so much migration of individuals it is difficult for a tribe to secure and to maintain fixed, uniform, and unvarying characteristics — " fixed," that is, in the same sense as those of local and very ancient breeds appear to be. Far moi-e than any other breed, because the grandest and most fashionable. Shorthorns have become cosmopolitan. They ar'e now found in every civilised portion of the world, and in some portions which can hardly be regarded as civilised. The Shorthorn seems to be the Englishman's shadow — it follows him everywhere. In all countries, if properly cared for. Shorthorns are found to do well. Other breeds, notably the Herefords, have been introduced and extensively bred in other countries, and they too are found to prosper, without such minute care, imder the new conditions; while their distinguishing characteristics, being to all intents and purposes stamped with the principle of permanence, so far as such matters can become permanent, do not change in any marked degree. Yet it is probable that foreign soils and climates will modify them somewhat in course of time. Not the least of the merits which English breeds of cattle carry with them to foreign countries is their prepotency — their ability to stamp in a marked manner their own qualities on the offspring of any of the native breeds with which they are intercrossed in such foreign countries ; and in this way they are modifying the cattle of the rest of the world in a degree analogous to that in which Englishmen are modifying its manners and institutions. iv DAIRY FARMING. Tliis proiiorty of pivpoteiicy belongs in ;i niai-ked degvce to tlie Shortliorns, the Herefonls, anil the Devons; and, especially for breeding purposes, these cattle are held in high esteem in various countries of Europe, in America, and in Australia. To the Shorthorns it especially belongs; and, if such an analogy be permitted, we may assume that the physical vigour of Shorthorns, like that of the luiglish nation, is owing in no insignificant measure to the ancient admixture of foreign blood. In order to maintain unimpaired the size and reproductive vigour of a race. Nature occasionally requires, as it would seem, either fresh soil and climate, or fresh blood. Confined exclusively to themselves and to a given district, animals of all kinds, including man himself, appear to deteriorate in size and \ngour, if not in purity of type. It must always be borne in mind, in respect to the breeding of animals, that the power of prepotency— of impressing his characteristics on his offspring, whatever their mothers may be— will depend mainly on a bull's physical vigour and soundness of constitution, and that the offspring will most resemble that parent which possesses these (jualities in the highest degree. There are very few of the breeds or tril)es into which the native cattle of Britain have resolved themselves that have not 1 e^n more or less improved by man's judgment and skill in the art of breeding; and some of them, by careful selection only, and without crossing from other breeds, have been very greatly improved. The improvements consist mainly in a nearer approach to symmetry of form — so far, at all events, as our ideas of symmetry go — in earlier maturity, in aptitude to fatten quickly on a miuimum quantity of food, and in the development of milking properties. Nor can it be doubted that the improvement in each of these points is real and substantial, though they are seldom found combined in a high degree in one animal or family. In the breeding of pedigree Shorthorns, milking properties have only too commonly been sacrificed to symmetry of form, early maturity, and rapidity of fattening — one or all of these. And yet it is admitted to be possible that all these properties should be secured in the breeding of animals, and we actually find certain families of Shorthorns famous alike for milk, symmetry, early maturity, and rapid fattening. Where these aro all attained — and attained they undoubtedly are in some instances — nothing is left to be desired, providing only that physical vigour and fertility are maintained, for if these suffer, the rest are comparatively valueless. The breeding of cattle with a view to symmetry and beauty of form, early maturity, and rapid laying on of flesh, and treating milk as a matter of little importance, has caused many people to entertain the belief that beef and milk in the same breed are somehow incompatible; that only one of these properties can be secured in a high degree in any one animal or family; that the methods employed to produce on the one hand a race of cattle excellently adapted for beef-making, and on the other for the production in an equally high degree of milk and butter, usually result in milk being sacrificed to l)ccf, or beef to milk; and that between these two stools either the breeder will fall to the ground, or will have to be content with sitting on one of them. This belief rests on a fallacy created Ity llie one-sided olijccts aimed at, and methods cmi)l(iye(l, by certain brecder.s of show-cattle. AVc have hitherto failed to be convinced of the soundness of this method of breeding, and wc liuvc equally failed to see that the results of it are by any means deserving of having a hard and fast theory in the art of breeding based upon them. AVe are well aware that high feeding for show purjjoses, coupled with the practice of not allowing the cow to give any milk during the greater part of the year, will soon result in dwarfing the lacteal organs; and that if persevered in lor several generations, quick feeding and deficient milking properties will become marked features in Ilic breed. It is a mere question of imjjerfeet exercise of milking functions. ^ ct we know also lliat a diametrically opposite result may be obtained by similar methods; that beef may be sacrificed to milk just as easily as milk may to beef, by simply breeding in that direction. And it is equally true that a more excellent course than either of these may without great dilfictdty be followed, and cattle may be bred with both milk and beef combined. Tiicse qualities, we believe, are co-ordinate and correlative ; they may and do exist normally in the same animal, and they may be devcl(i]i('d cither separately or jointly according to the direction INTRODUCTION. v in wliicli the Lrocdiug ami treatment of tlic animals are made to tend. Ilig-li milking' as well as quick fattening properties are doubtless to some considerable extent artiiieial jiroductions. Wild cattle are neither good milkers nor good feeders; and we see, in those parts of England where calves are commonly allowed to run with their mothers, that the cattle are not famous as good milkers. Milk much sooner leaves the cow when a calf sucks from her than when she is milked by hand. The Hereford cattle are a marked instance of this; and yet we find the Ilerefords are not by any means inferior milkers when they are treated as other dairy-cattle are — when their calves are taken away at birth, and they are milked by hand instead. In all breeds the milking properties of cows vary more or less; some cows are good, others bad, and others again indifferent milkers; but with care and judgment in selecting animals to breed from, not only may nearly all the animals be bred good milkers, but milking and feeding capacities may he combined in them in a highly satisfactory manner. Milk. Milk, cheese, and butter are the productions, par excellence, with which is associated the salient idea conveyed by the term " dairy-farming " — they are its specialities, its prominent features. But the relative prominence of those features is changing rapidly in these later days. So far as English dairy-farming is concerned, milk — for consumption as milk, and not as cheese and butter — is taking the lead as a special commercial element. The quantity of cheese, if not of butter, made in the British Islands is yearly diminishing ; and it is not improbable that, in course of time, we may depend almost wholly on foreign supplies of cheese, and, to a very great extent, on foreign supplies of butter; our own dairy-farming being devoted chiefly to the milk-trade. Yet dairy- farming will not become any the less important on that account — rather the contrary ; but cheese and butter making will become less important, esj)ecially in districts where railways offer facilities for the conveyance of milk to oin- towns and cities. At present, however, cheese-making is still a highly important branch of dairy-farming, and for some time yet will continue to be so ; but it has, in some districts, already given way before the rush of the milk-trade, which has been greatly stimulated in recent years. Two principal causes have contributed to this. First, the operation of the Adulteration Acts, in the last eight or ten years, has so greatly increased the consumption of milk by all classes of our urban populations, and fast trains on the railways afford such facilities for rapid conveyance of perishable food, that a new and altogether extraordinary opening has been made for country milk in our cities and towns. Secondly, the cattle-plague of ten or twelve years ago destroyed the milch-cows in town cow-houses — particularly in London — in such a wholesale manner that, in the great bulk of cases, they have not been, and in all probaljility never will be, replaced; and the sources of our towns' and cities' milk-supply are now found in country villages scores of miles away. This is a new departure which is changing the whole complexion of English dairy-farming, either directly or indirectly. In most dairying districts through which railways pass, the traveller by the morning and evening trains may see, as he passes along, a number of milk-cans standing on the station jilatforms, awaiting despatch to their destinations. There are but few if any stations, however small, from which no milk is sent, while from some of the larger ones very considerable quantities are sent away night and morning. The aggregate extent of this milk traffic, as will be seen from the statistics and other information relating to it, which will be found in their proper place in the body of this work, is enormous, and is yearly increasing. And when we consider that almost the whole of this vast trade has sprung up within a comparatively few years, the modern change which has come over a large portion of English dairy-farming will be j)lainly seen, and it is no less plain that the new order of things will go on developing. To this great featui-e of dairy-farming we shall devote the amount of space which its importance demands, and we hope to give to our readers an adequate presentation of its various bearings. We think it promises to become, in the not distant future, the sheet-anchor of a large section of our dairy- farmers, while it is also a question of first moment to the public at large. 10,30 13-8 per cent. 85-85 4-82 4-06 4-G2 •65 vi DAIRY FAR.MINC;. We need no support when we say that only a tithe of the milk is consumed l>y our people that ought to be, for the truth of the statement is obvious to every one. Unadulterated, undiluted, unskimmed, and properly-treated milk, taken from a healthy cow in good condition, and produced by the consumption of healthy and nutritious grasses and other kinds of food, contains within itself, in proper proportions, all the elements that are necessary to sustain human life through a considerable period of time. Scarcely any other single article of food will do this. When we eat bread and drink milk, we eat bread, butter, and cheese, and drink water — all of them in the best combination and condition to nourish the human system. All things considered, good milk is the cheapest kind of food that we have, for 3 pints of it, weighing 3} lbs., and costing 4Jd., contain as much nutriment as 1 lb. of beef, which costs 9d. There is no loss in cooking the milk as there is in cooking the beef, and there is no bone in it that cannot be eaten ; it is simple, palatable, nutritious, healthful, cheap, and always ready for use with or without preparation. Few kinds of food are really more nutritious and healthful — none so complete. The National Lire Stock Journal tells us that the average analyses of thirty-four samples of pure milk by S. P. Sharpless, of Boston, gave the following results : — ■ Specific gravity Cream volume AVater Sugar Casein ... Fat Ash According to Dr. Laukostcr, the composition of lean beef is : — "Water 500 per cent. Fat 300 „ Fibrin and albumen 80 ,, Gelatine ... 79 ,, Mineral ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 6'0 „ Wliile Professor Way gives for a particularly lean sample 53-81 per cent, of water, 3-10 per cent, of fat, 21''0G per cent, of albuminous matter, and 19"3 per cent, of other substances. If from these data we construct a table, we find that the chemical substances of 1 lb. of milk and beef have about the following relations : — Water Flesh-forming constituents (nitrogenous) Heat-producing constituents (carbo-hydrates) Mineral matter This is to say that, chemically, 3" 7 lbs. of milk is the equivalent of 1 lb. of beef in flesli- forming or nitrogenous constituents, and 3"17 lbs. of milk is the equivalent of 1 lb. of beef in heat-producing elements, or carbo-hydrates. In a calculation, by Dr. Frankland, of the weight of various articles of diet required to be consume