Dairymaid

“ The cow should not only be a good milker, but give milk suited to the line of dairying pursued. If cheese making is the object, there must be a large flow of milk rich in caseine. In butter making, a large flow of milk is not essential, but there must be a large percentage of fat in it. And the breeding must be such as to keep up the status of the herd. Some depend on purchasing cows, and exercise great care and judgment in so doing. In exceptional cases, a herd may be kept up in this way. But somebody must breed and rear good cows, or soon none can be had at any price. ”

“ I have no doubt from what you say, that your cows are kept in the cow-house during the night, and only turned out during the day, as this would account for the difference in the quantity of milk. But such a mode of management, though it saves trouble to the dairy-maid, who finds it much easier to milk the cows in the cow-house than in the open field, is bad for both the cows and the dairy; as the cows, after feeding on grass all day, cannot of course relish dry food at night, and [Pg 310] whenever they fast unnaturally very little milk is secreted. ”

“ The duties of the dairy-maid differ considerably in different districts. In Scotland, Wales, and some of the northern counties, women milk the cows. On some of the large dairy farms in other parts of England, she takes her share in the milking, but in private families the milking is generally performed by the cowkeeper, and the dairy-maid only receives the milkpails from him morning and night, and empties and cleans them preparatory to the next milking; her duty being to supply the family with milk, cream, and butter, and other luxuries depending on the "milky mothers" of the herd. ”

“ Sometimes I think of the good-natured, pied cow that would let me stroke her while the dairy-maid was milking her. Then I [112] fancy myself running after the dairy-maid into the nice, clean dairy, and see the pans full of milk and cream. Then I remember the wood-house; it had once been a barn, but being grown old, the wood was kept there. I used to peep about among the fagots to find the eggs the hens sometimes left there. A hen, grandmamma said, is a kindly bird, always laying more eggs than she wants on purpose to give them to her mistress for puddings and custards. ”

“ I have frequently visited my aunt’s dairy; and the operations there are so new to one just fresh from a country where cows and dairy are but little attended to, that I take constant interest in them. “And the milkmaid singeth blithe” is now a familiar image to me; formerly it was only from your description I understood it. How is it that such a precious gift as milk can be overlooked in any part of the world, particularly in one that abounds with cattle as Brazil does ”

“ But now a considerable portion of what would otherwise be lost is saved by passing the milk through separators, and churning the cream into butter.
Previously to the enormous development of the urban trade in country milk, dairy farms were in the main self-sustaining in the matter of manures and feeding-stuffs, and the cropping of arable land was governed by routine. To-day, on the contrary, many dairy farms are run at high pressure by the help of purchased materials,—corn, cake, and manure,—and the land is cropped regardless of routine and independent of courses. ”

“ Cows fed on turnips in the stall always produce 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' and distillers' refuse, and the like—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. ”

“ It embraces the feeding and management of milch cows, the supplying of cream and milk, and the making of butter and cheese, etc. The term dairy husbandry is applied to a system of farming under which cows are kept and bred, and the principal crops grown with special reference to the dairy herd. Dairy was formerly used to designate the place or house where the milk was kept, cheese was made, etc. Like almost all other occupations, dairying has become in recent years divided into several distinct and special lines. ”

“ A peculiar feature of the dairy industry is the fact that it is constantly moving. The dairy herds begin to pasture in the lowlands as soon as the snow melts, and as fast as the snow line recedes up the mountains the cattle follow. The milk is converted into butter and cheese wherever the herds may be, and the second crop of grass below them is cut and cured for winter forage. ”

“ The milk of cows fed on distillery wash, turnip, and mangel tops, coarse herbage, and other kinds of inferior food, is always of inferior quality. Hence it is of great importance that dairy stock be kept in good old pastures in summer, and fed on Swedish turnips, mangel-wurtzel, and oil-cake during winter. It is true economy to supply dairy cows with abundance of nutritious food; and it should be constantly borne in mind that the milk from two well-fed cows will give more butter than can be obtained from the produce of three badly-fed animals. ”

“ 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 valuable, 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. ”

“ The farmer and some of his family went home with the dairy-man, and found the milk like it often is in summer when the buck (spittle-fly) is on the grass, that, so it is believed, makes milk curdle then without becoming sour. The farmer and his wife couldn't tell what to think of milk being in that state early in spring; he took home the cow, however, and let the dairy-man have another, and when she was milked by Jemmy her milk 'runned' too, like that of the former one, which was then all right in the master's dairy. ”

“ In winter the best food for cows in milk will be good sweet meadow hay, a part of which should be cut and moistened with water, as all inferior hay or straw should be, with an addition of root-crops, such as turnips, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, mangold wurzel, with shorts, oil-cake, Indian-meal, or bean-meal.
It is the opinion of most successful dairymen that the feeding of moist food cannot be too highly recommended for cows in milk, especially to those who desire to obtain the largest quantity. ”

“ If all the Mamas who don't buy City Dairy Milk would come and see how much care we take in clarifying, pasteurizing, and putting the Milk in "bottles air tight" and then keeping it cold until delivered, we are sure they would want to give their little girls and boys City Dairy Milk, no matter how much it cost.
Another thing Mamas should remember is that Milk contains just the nourishment that "Our Little Patrons" need, in just the proper proportions to "build up, to stay up, both body and brain," and this nourishment in Milk is in a form more readily digestible than in any other food. ”

“ The young which may be destined for maturity, should be supplied with milk from the dam until weaning-time. No food can be substituted for the well-filled udder of the parent, which is so safe, healthful, and nutritious. If from any cause there is deficiency or total privation, it must be made up by that kind of food, meal-gruel, &c., which, in its composition, approaches nearest in quality to the milk. At a more advanced age, or the time for weaning, grass, hay, roots, or grain, may be substituted, in quantities sufficient to maintain a steady but not a forced growth. ”

“ It has always kept an open mind on the subject of dairy methods, especially relating to the handling of milk and cream in large cities, and in practice have kept fully abreast of scientific research.
EVERY housewife should be interested enough in the purity of the milk and cream that she uses in her household to personally inspect the Dairy from which the supply comes. A visit to the City Dairy is a liberal education in all pertaining to methods for clarifying, pasteurizing, and delivering in bottles, "air-tight," safe and wholesome milk. ”

“ With your cows thus fed, kept dry and warm, well cleaned and curried,—for a cow needs that care as much as a horse,—you will have good milk, and from it cream which, with proper care, can be as readily made into good butter in winter as in summer.
Now as to “proper care,” we speak only of private families who have but one or two cows. If your milk-room is in the cellar, it should be entirely separated from the vegetable cellar, and used for nothing that can impart any flavor to the milk, either meats, roots, sauces, or fluids. ”

“ In the eastern part of Europe, milk has always been looked upon as one of the principal kinds of food, but not necessarily the milk of cows, as, from ancient times to the present day, the milk from 2 camels, buffaloes, sheep, and goats has been used indiscriminately throughout the East.
According to Layard,1 "the Bedouins do not make cheese. The milk of their sheep and goats is shaken into butter or turned into curds; it is rarely or never drunk fresh, new milk being thought very unwholesome, as soon by experience I found it to be, in the desert. ”

“ With such treatment, the cow loses in condition during the process of milking, and when no longer profitable is sold to purchasers in farming districts where food is cheaper, to be fattened or otherwise replenished for the use of the dairy keeper. We thus find a disposition in the cow to apply the aliment of her food to her milk, rather than to lay on flesh or fat; for not only are the elements of her food diverted to this purpose, but, to all appearance, her accumulated stores of flesh and fat are drawn upon, and converted into components of milk, cheese, or butter. ”

“ In spring the best feeding for dairy cows will be much the same as that for winter; the roots in store over winter, such as carrots, mangold wurzel, turnips, and parsnips, furnishing very valuable aid in increasing the quantity and improving the quality of milk. Towards [132] the close of this season, and before the grass of the pastures is sufficiently grown to make it judicious to turn out the cows, the best dairymen provide a supply of green fodder in the shape of winter rye, which, if cut while it is tender and succulent, and before it is half grown, will be greatly relished. ”

“ No foddering is done on the ground. Thus a supply of milk is kept up, and the cows get in good flesh, while their blood and bags are left in a healthy condition when dried off.
“This flesh they hold till milk season in spring, without other feed than good hay. They will not get fleshy bags, but come into milk at once. About the first of April they are carded daily, till they are turned to grass. Wheat-bran in milk or whey, slops, or roots, are daily fed, as they are found best adapted to the nature of different cows, and most likely to establish a regular flow of milk till grass comes.” ”

“ Milk, either in its natural state, or in the form of butter and cheese, is an article of diet so useful, wholesome and palatable, that dairy management, which includes all that concerns its production and treatment, constitutes a most important branch of husbandry. The physical conditions of the different countries of the world have determined in each case the most suitable animal for dairy purposes. ”

“ The flavor of some roots, as cabbages and turnips, is more apt to be imparted to the flesh and [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 preferable, 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 feeding. ”

“ Yet, with all the skill of a well-practised taste in the selection of animals, the dairyman will frequently find his theories and results at sad variance. One may sometimes select a fine animal, with every appearance of good milking qualities, which is but a medium cow at the pail; and another, that hardly seems worthy of notice, and which sets at defiance many established milking points, and all preconceived notions of symmetry, may yet prove a good milker. A cow that runs to flesh while in milk, is generally an indifferent animal for the [Pg 61] dairy. ”

“ It is not far underground, as you see, and the windows are large, for the sake of light and air. But it is always cool in summer and sufficiently warm in winter, and dry as well. Here is our dairy. There is the cream separator, of which we are very proud, and there is the churn, of an improved pattern. It is not much work, in these days, to take care of the milk of a dozen cows."
"But where, Jean, are the potatoes, turnips, onions, and all that? ”

“ One thinks underground places the best, another prefers it above ground. One says they should be built of stone or brick, his neighbour will prefer a lattice work building. I may say that I have tried a great many ideas from the most primitive to the most elaborate, and I am inclined to think that everything depends on the climate. I dare say few people have heard of a "portable dairy." The idea was my own I think, at least I never heard of anyone else trying it till after I published mine. It will only answer where there is not very much milk, unless you make a very large one. ”